Hello everyone! My first time out on the ocean with my FSH 195 was solid and super fun! I had an amazing time on it and pushed to about 45-47 mph on the water with one more person. Boat seems to hold up well and is highly maneuverable while moving. Docking was a bi*ch….. haha. Let’s just say my friend had to grab the boat and turn it around to help me tie up. So I couldn’t get much practice there. I want to try docking a few more times and learn before I invest in some thrust vectors. Alright so, here are some things I have quesitons about:
1. The throttle seems to drop and the boat does not keep a steady speed unless I have my hand on the throttle. I’m not sure if this is by design, or abnormal. Perhaps I have to activate cruise assist to stay at a consistent speed without having to maintain the throttle? Not sure. I also plan on giving the manual a more thorough read to understand that, but in case anyone knows, that would help!
2. I realized I had left the blower on for some time. Maybe 2-3 hrs accidentally. Everything seems fine… lol. But I wonder if this may be the reason I experienced the throttle dropping?
3. I have an automatic bilge pumps, but not an automatic setting lol. I guess I should keep the bilge pump in off mode, because it automatically drathe water when it gets too high. Does the bilge pump work with the batteries on and the engine off?
4. And finally, is it normal for the jet intake to fill with water?
Thanks so much everyone
Congratulations on the maiden voyage!
1. On the throttle, down low near the base on the side facing the helm seat there is a small rectangular panel with a small indent on each end. Using a flat blade screw driver carefully remove this panel- it comes out easy- As
@Bottom Bracket states there is a flat blade screw in there, tighten counter clockwise to increase tension on the throttle lever. I suggest making an adjustment at home, then just leave that little access panel off (put it someplace safe) and leave a flat blade screwdriver in the open cubby and go out and experiment with different tensions on the throttle lever until you find the desired tension.
Cruise Assist / No Wake Mode.
Cruise Assist;
While underway, get going and get the rpm’s around 6000 or so, then use the cruise assist to adjust engine speed, there are 8 clicks faster or lower and will be shown on the connext screen with either a - number or + positive number, such as -3 or +3. This is by far the smoothest way to make throttle adjustments, I use mine all the time.
Just like a cruise control in a car, you can override the cruise assist throttle settings at any time with the main throttle lever, pulling the throttles back to idle cancels the cruise assist setting all together. At any cruise assist setting you can use the main throttle lever to adjust the center of bandwidth so to speak, so if the cruise assist won’t give you full rpm’s at setting +8, then while at +8, yiu can bump the main throttle up until max rpm’s are achieved, then back the cruise assist down to lower rpm’s. However, at least on my boat, if you push the throttle up to max the cruise assist will not work there. Just go out and experiment with it, it is one of the most underrated features of Yamaha boats.
No wake mode;
If you use the no wake mode while slow speed maneuvering this will give you a lot more control authority at slow speed. Start by putting the throttle in TDE position (thrust directional enhancer) or the first detent forward then push the the cruise assist / no wake button up once you will hear the engine speed increase and no wake mode will appear on the connext screen, there are two more available increases in throttle. It does not say for example no wake mode 1,2, or 3, you just give a push to the button up or down to increase or decrease the engine speed. The TDE position has the reverse bucket still slightly closed forcing thrust down and to the sides, you can feel the stern lift a little as you increase engine speed using the no wake mode button, this dramatically, dramatically increases turning authority. You can also pull the throttle handle back some to slow your speed a touch if need be. I was just playing around with this yesterday day as I was leaving the harbor, and I’m still impressed by the increased turning authority this provides, turning response is instant and makes slow speed maneuvering / cruising / trolling easy and precise. This is standard equipment on your boat, I highly recommend you exploit this feature before moving forward with any kind of fins etc.
2. I do a lot of fishing, trolling mainly, and most of that is done with my electric trolling motor, however on very windy days I use the engines either to assist the the trolling motor going up wind or just the engines by them selves. When I do that I will turn the blowers on either continuously or intermittently to keep the engine bay from building up too much heat. Consequently I have replaced both of my blowers now, the old ones still work, the bushings just got loose and they got very loud. Its also a good idea after you've made a long run or have been “sport” boating and driving the engine hard to let it cool down for 5 mins or so at idle, I think it’s a good idea to run the blowers during this time as well as it helps to remove heat from the engine bay, i think this also helps with the post hard run engine start that can occasionally happen. So don’t worry about using them liberally. You have a warranty, if they go out during the warranty period they will get replaced. This had nothing to do with your throttle speed dropping off.
3. When the bilge rocker switch is in the off position the bilge pump is in the auto mode, and works even if the battery switches are off. Look in your battery compartment and there will be some individual fuse holders mounted to the bulkhead and one will be tagged bilge. This is the automatic power source and is always on. I HIGHLY recommend testing the bilge pump. While at home install the drain plugs and fill the bilge with fresh water, when the bilge pump is almost or just fully submerged it will turn on and run until it deems enough water has been removed. It will not remove all of the water, but most of it. While you are at it, flush out the bilge, with nose of the boat elevated as high as possible, begin in the head compartment flush this area out and all the water will flow out the drain intere to the bilge, and then flush the engine bay, probably should do this first before testing the bilge pump, this will remove the left over manufacturing detritus. Then pull the bilge pump off its base by squeezing the tabs on either side and gently rocking the pump until it comes off the base / screen. Check the screen and the base of the pump for debris and remove it, then reinstall the pump in the base and make sure it’s clipped in. it’s a good idea to test the auto function of the bilge pump periodically as well as checking the manual operation. You’ve only got one pump so it’s important that it works. A lot of folks here have installed a second bilge pump for redundancy and capacity. There’s several threads on this.
4. The jet intake is in the bottom, as
@TimW451 mentions above, the clean out port is known to fill with water. There is a drain in the clean out tray, why they do this on the FSH models is beyond me as there are two massive channels on either side, this drain will become a geyser when you slow down quickly as the water pressure underneath the boat is high as the surge overtakes over the boat. A lot of people have installed a 3/4” check valve here to allow water to drain out but stop the geyser action. The clean out tray is notoriously poorly sealed from the factory and this water in that area will the go past the clean out tray and boat interface and get into the aft bilge, again as
@TimW451 mentions you are in salt water and you should address this sometime soon. There is a DAP product called ”seal and peel” that you can apply to this area to seal it. DO NOT put sealer underneath the clean out tray as you do not want to glue it down. Again, lots of posts here about this and if you need help consult the forum and you’ll get a lot of help.
