Don’t crucify me I’m new...Sea Doo vs Chaparral handling?

[NSAviator]

Hey all,
I recently got into jet boats. Like 5 weeks ago. I bought a small Sea Doo 2000 Speedster. I LOVE it. My issue is it only fits 5 people. I didn’t realize how much I was going to love it haha, so now I’m looking at bigger.

Im primarily looking at 2012 Sea Doo Challenger 210s. But with their price tag of almost 30k, it also got me looking at some other boats of the same range. Specifically the Chaparral 203s. For around the same price or just a little more they seem to offer a lot more and be a little bigger. My biggest concern is handling. I love the way my Sea Doo slides or skids on the water, looking at videos the Chaparral looks a lot more...stable I guess lol. Can anyone confirm? Any other “gotchas” or suggestions are appreciated. I’ll add I looked at Scarabs but they seem insanely priced for all the terrible reviews I’ve seen. Yamahas are a non option for me, its a personal thing lol.

Thank you in advance!

Ryan Kennedy

 

[swatski]

Hey all,
I recently got into jet boats. Like 5 weeks ago. I bought a small Sea Doo 2000 Speedster. I LOVE it. My issue is it only fits 5 people. I didn’t realize how much I was going to love it haha, so now I’m looking at bigger.

Im primarily looking at 2012 Sea Doo Challenger 210s. But with their price tag of almost 30k, it also got me looking at some other boats of the same range. Specifically the Chaparral 203s. For around the same price or just a little more they seem to offer a lot more and be a little bigger. My biggest concern is handling. I love the way my Sea Doo slides or skids on the water, looking at videos the Chaparral looks a lot more...stable I guess lol. Can anyone confirm? Any other “gotchas” or suggestions are appreciated. I’ll add I looked at Scarabs but they seem insanely priced for all the terrible reviews I’ve seen. Yamahas are a non option for me, its a personal thing lol.

Thank you in advance!

Ryan Kennedy

I would probably stay away from first year scarabs and chaparral as far as jet boat, 2014’s had a bazillion problems.

I think a late model year Seadoo would be way better as far as reliability, Scarab kept the same hull from Seadoo, chaparral came with anew one. All new Yamahas starting around 2015 have articulating keels and those boats cannot really be spun, so you want something 2014 or earlier if you want to slip-slide.

I would think a 2012 which was the first year for 190 yamaha, up to 2014 Yamaha would be great and you can probably find one for around 20,000.

The Yamaha 1.8 motors had a timing chain issues, but those are fairly rare and affect supercharged models more, after 2016 they have a new timing chain.

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[Gym]

Welcome aboard @NSAviator Don't worry nobody here will crucify anybody. Pontius Pilate is on the other forum.

You just gave fodder to the old addage...buy your second boat first. I believe you'll find that SeaDoo has gone out of the boat business as they couldn't compete with Yamaha. Yes, there are older SeaDoos available but support may be an issue.

 

[Dean P]

Hey all,
I recently got into jet boats. Like 5 weeks ago. I bought a small Sea Doo 2000 Speedster. I LOVE it. My issue is it only fits 5 people. I didn’t realize how much I was going to love it haha, so now I’m looking at bigger.

Im primarily looking at 2012 Sea Doo Challenger 210s. But with their price tag of almost 30k, it also got me looking at some other boats of the same range. Specifically the Chaparral 203s. For around the same price or just a little more they seem to offer a lot more and be a little bigger. My biggest concern is handling. I love the way my Sea Doo slides or skids on the water, looking at videos the Chaparral looks a lot more...stable I guess lol. Can anyone confirm? Any other “gotchas” or suggestions are appreciated. I’ll add I looked at Scarabs but they seem insanely priced for all the terrible reviews I’ve seen. Yamahas are a non option for me, its a personal thing lol.

Thank you in advance!

Ryan Kennedy

I won't crucify you (nor would anyone from this forum - albeit there are a lot of Yamis here ). My first jet was the SX-192. I was dying to get the 212 but started looking at other jetboats. I did not know a lot about Chaparral but quickly fell in love with the design, detail and overall quality of their boats. I've had Baha, reagal, Searay and yamaha boats and I put the chaparral above them all. I would try to stay a new as you can afford because everything get better in time (actually they work out more bugs/design flaws).

 

[veedubtek]

I had a 2012 210 SE Seadoo (430hp). I don't think a better lake boat exists. I still think it was far more refined than even the newest Yamahas, not to mention considerably faster with better handling. The value holding on like that tells the whole story.