Help For Those That May Have Purchased Recently

[GiddYupJoe]

This was given to me by the previous owner of our boat when we bought it. It was very helpful on our first day out and serves as a good reminder every once and a while. I thought I would share over this direction (didn't want it to get lost in the move). Some items are specific to the 242 but still apply to all.

Towing
• If rain is possible, cover boat with large cover. Make sure the anti-pooling poles are not in the up position or tight against the cover. Also use the noodle that has been cut in half down the middle. Place it on the windshield underneath the cover.
• If you are going to travel at high way speeds I recommend taking down the bimini top and stowing it in the boat.
• If you are going to trailer the boat with the cover off, make sure the seats are in position to not fly out. In particular, the seat over the cooler/shower compartment will catch air at high way speeds and fly off. The battery compartment seat can also fly off. To avoid this, place the lounging seat up so that it pressed against the battery compartment seat.
• Tow straps will become loose during travel. When stopping for gas, tighten straps and check wheel hubs for excessive heat.
• The lock out actuator that makes it possible to back the trailer up hill has not worked since we have owned the boat. Use the lock out key instead.


Embarking
• Double check that the clean out pugs are in place and tight, I usually tug on them three times as hard as I can and we have never had a blow out.
• Remove the tie down straps and make sure the plug has been reinserted.
• I spray the bunks of the trailer with “bunk spray” to make the boat slide on and off more easily. Back the boat into the water. The water should be about half an inch above the fenders. You should see the boat start to float on the trailer.
• Be careful unwinding the winch on steep ramps because the bunk spray makes the boat slide off of the trailer very easily. I have seen the winch handle spin wildly as the boat splashes backwards into the water.
• Turn both batteries on
• Turn blower on and wait a few minutes before turning over engines. If the blower sounds really slow, your battery may need a charge.
• You will not be able to see how much fuel you have or any other information on the display read outs unless you turn an engine over. You do not need to start the engine, just pump one over and the info will appear for a few seconds.
• Having people sit in the back of the boat will make it easier to pull the boat off of the trailer(check your state laws).
• If you have forgot the put the clean out plugs in you will realize it very quickly because the engines will rev up faster than they do normally and the boat will not move. Simply turn the engines off and insert the pulgs.


Tubing
• The owners manual states not to tube from the tower. We have tubed from the tower with no adverse consequences. Tubing from the tower gets the rope out of the water and cuts down on spray from the rope. Some people tube from the tower and others do not, it seems everyone is split on the topic 50%/50%.
• Make sure the rope is far enough out to be able to get the tube out of the surf. If the tube is to close to the boat, riders will get splashed in the face with water and will not be able to see while tubing.
• To get the tube to fly from one side of the wake to the other, simply make a modestly sharp turn and hold it until you see the tube starting the follow the boat into the turn. A slight bump in the throttles will send the tube whipping over.
• The boat gets onto plain at about 17-18mph. Usually 20-25mph is plenty fast for kids.
• If someone falls off and you need to turn around, pull the throttles back, turn around slowly and head over the wake you have just made. If there is a lot of boat traffic and you are worried, you can do a power turn to get back to who ever fell off but you will be hitting the wake you just made and everyone will get jarred around a bit.


Wake Boarding
• Best speed is between 18-21mph. Any slower and the riders arms hurt, any faster and you feel like your going to die.
• Take out all of the slack in the rope, making sure not to drag the rider, this took some practice as the boat is always moving forward.
• To pull the rider up, give it lots of throttle. As soon as they pop out of the water, pull back and set your speed with the cruise assist.
• Each bump of the cruise assist increases the RPMs by 200. You can increase/decrease RPM using the cruise assist 8 times. (you can hit it down or up 8 times to adjust RPMs).
• Remember that when going into a turn, the boat will loose speed at the same RPM.


Docking
• As soon as you enter a no wake area start setting up dock lines and buoys. Don’t wait until you are at the dock because it can become to hectic.
• Place the two large buoys towards the back of the boat, We place them on the tower so that they can be lowered or raised as needed.
• Use the long dock lines for the front and back cleats.
• Nose the front of the boat into the dock and have someone hop off and tie the boat to the dock. As soon as the boat is tied off, simply put the boat into reverse and the rear end will slide towards the dock. Kill the engines once the boat is about the hit the dock and hop off. Tie off the back of the boat. This technique seems to work in almost all water and wind conditions.


Recovery
• Make sure the trailer is in the water far enough. On some shallow ramps, the fenders may be covered with water but the rear of the trailer may be to high for the keel to clear. If the trailer is not into the water far enough, the keel can strike the trailer and damage it. Some people install a KeelGuard, I always thought they were to ugly.
• The main purpose for the bunk spray that I use is to help with powering the boat onto the trailer. I usually apply the spray once a season. Again the manual states not to power onto the trailer but everyone does. I have tried to recover the boat with out powering it on (using the winch only) and it was very difficult.
• Once you are in line with the trailer and bunks, power onto the trailer enough to allow the person at the winch to connect the winch strap. The winch has a lever on the right side (when looking at the boat) and I believe that having the lever up will allow the winch to engage and assist in pulling the boat onto the trailer. Make sure the person winding in the winch takes there time and watches the strap so that it does not bind up or fold onto its self. We had to replace a strap, it ripped because the kids at the marina would wind in the winch to fast.
• If the strap does break, it is very easy to replace, simply unwind the strap all the way out and unbolt the strap from the middle of the winch spool.
• Think about where your passengers are seated. When I approach the trailer I usually ask everyone in the bow are to reposition to the back of the boat to allow the bow/keel to float better. Having people sit In the back of the boat makes recovery and embarking easier.
• Continue to power onto the trailer until the person winding the winch tells you to stop. The bow stop should be resting on the white hull of the boat, not the black. The boat is not far enough forward if the bow stop is resting on the black of the hull.
• Connect the safety back up cable incase the winch strap breaks.
• Have the person driving the truck pull forward. On occasion I have had to place my truck in four-wheel drive because the back wheels were slipping on the mossy ramp.
• Remove the drain plug and clean out plugs after every use. Place the clean out plugs back into there holes. On occasion I will lubricate the seals on the clean out plugs to allow them to slide in more easily.
• Flush the engines using the blue adaptor. It is VERY important that the engine being flushed is turned ON before the water. The sequence is, engine on, water on, water off, engine off. If you have the water running with out the engine, water can find its way into the other engine and can contaminate the oil.
• Once both engines have been flushed with fresh water, rev the engines up and down for about 10 seconds. This empties the water boxes of water.


Considerations
• We will often suck up something into the impellers. Once you have sucked something up, the engine will vibrate and you will loose power and slow down. There are a few different ways to clear debris from the impellers.
• Obviously the easiest way is to open the clean out plugs and grab whatever is in there.
• Some times a piece of plastic is not stuck in the impeller but is stuck in the water before the impeller causing cavitation. Before I open the clean out plug I try to clean it out using reverse. Get the boat going in reverse as fast as possible. Then pull the emergency lanyard to kill both engines. Once both engines are dead, quickly put the throttles in the forward position. This should allow a lot of water to flow the opposite way through the pumps.
• If something is stuck in the impeller and refuses to budge, you may need to pull the boat onto the trailer and remove the grate underneath the boat. This is very easy, the grate is held on by three allen bolts. I have only had to do this once. I always keep a full set of metric and standard allen wrenches in the boat.
• Some times the boat will pull really hard to one side while underway. To correct this, make sure your RPM’s are matched on both engines. Then have passengers move around to distribute the weight more evenly.
• If encountering rough water, inflate a ballast bag in the ski locker. When approaching a large wake/wave I always slow down slightly to allow the bow to drop and cut through the wake/wave.
• After setting the cruise assist, and letting go of the throttles, the engines RPM’s will drop because the tension on the throttles has changed. When I activate the cruise assist I will tap it + three times to compensate for the RPM drop.
• Fire extinguisher is hung up in the helm compartment. If you notice black smoke coming from the engine compartment, put the tip of the fire extinguisher into the small round port on the engine compartment lid. Do not open the lid if you suspect a fire. Opening the lid will allow the fire to grow.
• In an emergency, have everyone put on life jackets. If on a large lake, check GPS coordinates on the engine computer read outs and set VHF radio to 16 to declare a mayday. Mayday is declared by stating “mayday, mayday, mayday, this is a 24foot black Yamaha experiencing an engine fire” for example. You can also set the radio to send out a generic mayday by pressing the red emergency button. Pressing this button also increases the wattage of the transmission so that it can be heard further.
• If one engine dies and will not start, turn the tow valve of the off engine to off. The tow valve is an inline valve and is located underneath the engines exhaust on both engines. Remember to turn the valve back on after getting engine running.
• If anything electrical will not work, check the fuses at the helm. Each switch has a separate fuse.


Maintenance
• Only use Yamaha oil filters. They have fleece inside them that does a much better job catching smaller particles.
• The oil filter magnets are only good for three oil changes per the packaging. Clean them off and reinstall.
• Check oil level before each start up. Oil levels are best read before start up and cold because all of the oil is at the bottom of the pan.
• To winterize, hook up the drill to the pump and pump antifreeze through one engine at a time. Have the engine running while you pump the antifreeze through. I do two gallons on each engine. Most of the antifreeze will fall out of the bottom of the clean out ports onto the ground, this is ok because the antifreeze will also be getting into all of the tiny tubes and tunnels inside the engine.
• To winterize the shower, again pump the antifreeze through the shower intake then run the shower normally with the showerhead to fill the hose with antifreeze. If in the spring the shower will not work but you can hear the pump running, you have an air bubble in the hose. To get the air out of the hose, hook up a garden hose to the shower intake and run the shower with the showerhead while the tank is being filled. This will pressurize the shower water tank and force water out of the showerhead.

 

[Julian]

Great list!

I'm not sold on the need for a fleece filter(for my usage). I can see how some sites are recommending them for cars with long service intervals (10,000 miles), but I'm changing oil and filters every year, and putting 60-100 hours on my boat in a year. And since my hours/RPM numbers from YDS shows I average in the 4000-6000 rpm range, that effectively translated to 25-30MPH....so that is 1500 miles on the low end to 3000 miles on the high end. Now, if you are boating 150 hours a year+ and running high speed all the time....have at it.....but that's not my usage.

 

[jdonalds]

I have a number of suggestions to add to that list. See my comments at JOHN:

This was given to me by the previous owner of our boat when we bought it. It was very helpful on our first day out and serves as a good reminder every once and a while. I thought I would share over this direction (didn't want it to get lost in the move). Some items are specific to the 242 but still apply to all.

Towing
• If rain is possible, cover boat with large cover. Make sure the anti-pooling poles are not in the up position or tight against the cover. Also use the noodle that has been cut in half down the middle. Place it on the windshield underneath the cover.
• If you are going to travel at high way speeds I recommend taking down the bimini top and stowing it in the boat.
JOHN: On our SX210 I leave the Bimini in the down position but put two pool noodles under it to prevent chaffing.
• If you are going to trailer the boat with the cover off, make sure the seats are in position to not fly out. In particular, the seat over the cooler/shower compartment will catch air at high way speeds and fly off. The battery compartment seat can also fly off. To avoid this, place the lounging seat up so that it pressed against the battery compartment seat.
JOHN: Not sure if this works on a 242 but all I have to do is close the windshield and lower door to prevent cushions from blowing out. Not doing this recently cost me about $100
• Tow straps will become loose during travel. When stopping for gas, tighten straps and check wheel hubs for excessive heat.
• The lock out actuator that makes it possible to back the trailer up hill has not worked since we have owned the boat. Use the lock out key instead.
JOHN: Lock out works with a 5th pin on the trailer connector. Check to see if yours is properly wired.


Embarking
JOHN: First of all do several of these steps before proceeding to the launch ramp including lean out plugs, transom plug, tie-down straps, batteries, blower, start the engines for 10 seconds. Finally do the launch.

• Double check that the clean out pugs are in place and tight, I usually tug on them three times as hard as I can and we have never had a blow out.
JOHN: It is wise to purchase EZ-Locks to prevent the plugs from blowing out. Then this step should include a note about putting the EZ-Locks in place and ready for them to lock into place when you install the plugs. The three tugs are always a good idea.
• Remove the tie down straps and make sure the plug has been reinserted.
JOHN: I also remove the safety cable/chain from the bow of the boat, leaving only the winch strap connected. You can stop on the ramp and do this then if you're worried about doing it in the prep area.
• I spray the bunks of the trailer with “bunk spray” to make the boat slide on and off more easily. Back the boat into the water. The water should be about half an inch above the fenders. You should see the boat start to float on the trailer.
JOHN: This is optional. I don't do anything to the bunk carpets and my launch and retrieve (power) are easy and work well without spray or other slip enhancing things.
• Be careful unwinding the winch on steep ramps because the bunk spray makes the boat slide off of the trailer very easily. I have seen the winch handle spin wildly as the boat splashes backwards into the water.
• Turn both batteries on
• Turn blower on and wait a few minutes before turning over engines. If the blower sounds really slow, your battery may need a charge.
JOHN: I always run the blower then start the engines at home. It's too late to find out your battery is low or dead at the ramp.
• You will not be able to see how much fuel you have or any other information on the display read outs unless you turn an engine over. You do not need to start the engine, just pump one over and the info will appear for a few seconds.
JOHN: Again best done at home before departing for a boating trip.
• Having people sit in the back of the boat will make it easier to pull the boat off of the trailer(check your state laws).
• If you have forgot the put the clean out plugs in you will realize it very quickly because the engines will rev up faster than they do normally and the boat will not move. Simply turn the engines off and insert the pulgs.
JOHN: If you are going to tie up to the dock during your launch procedure then attach the fenders and dock lines too at the prep area before going down the launch ramp.


Tubing
• The owners manual states not to tube from the tower. We have tubed from the tower with no adverse consequences. Tubing from the tower gets the rope out of the water and cuts down on spray from the rope. Some people tube from the tower and others do not, it seems everyone is split on the topic 50%/50%.
JOHN: The common wisdom is the tower might create spider cracks on the attach points. Do this at your own discretion.
• Make sure the rope is far enough out to be able to get the tube out of the surf. If the tube is to close to the boat, riders will get splashed in the face with water and will not be able to see while tubing.
• To get the tube to fly from one side of the wake to the other, simply make a modestly sharp turn and hold it until you see the tube starting the follow the boat into the turn. A slight bump in the throttles will send the tube whipping over.
JOHN: Some suggest using an "S" turn is best. That is what works for me. This is the one weakness of my SX210. That "slight bump" just doesn't do it because the reserve power just isn't there.
• The boat gets onto plain at about 17-18mph. Usually 20-25mph is plenty fast for kids.
• If someone falls off and you need to turn around, pull the throttles back, turn around slowly and head over the wake you have just made. If there is a lot of boat traffic and you are worried, you can do a power turn to get back to who ever fell off but you will be hitting the wake you just made and everyone will get jarred around a bit.


Wake Boarding
• Best speed is between 18-21mph. Any slower and the riders arms hurt, any faster and you feel like your going to die.
• Take out all of the slack in the rope, making sure not to drag the rider, this took some practice as the boat is always moving forward.
• To pull the rider up, give it lots of throttle. As soon as they pop out of the water, pull back and set your speed with the cruise assist.
• Each bump of the cruise assist increases the RPMs by 200. You can increase/decrease RPM using the cruise assist 8 times. (you can hit it down or up 8 times to adjust RPMs).
• Remember that when going into a turn, the boat will loose speed at the same RPM.
JOHN: A great application for PerfectPass which will control engine RPMs to hold a constant speed using GPS to measure speed. Well worth the $1,200 cost.


Docking
• As soon as you enter a no wake area start setting up dock lines and buoys. Don’t wait until you are at the dock because it can become to hectic.
• Place the two large buoys towards the back of the boat, We place them on the tower so that they can be lowered or raised as needed.
• Use the long dock lines for the front and back cleats.
JOHN: I also take the Bimini down before reaching the dock. For one thing it is a step completed that will have to be done sooner or later. For another thing it will reduce the tendency for the wind to hinder docking and boat recovery.
• Nose the front of the boat into the dock and have someone hop off and tie the boat to the dock. As soon as the boat is tied off, simply put the boat into reverse and the rear end will slide towards the dock. Kill the engines once the boat is about the hit the dock and hop off. Tie off the back of the boat. This technique seems to work in almost all water and wind conditions.


Recovery
• Make sure the trailer is in the water far enough. On some shallow ramps, the fenders may be covered with water but the rear of the trailer may be to high for the keel to clear. If the trailer is not into the water far enough, the keel can strike the trailer and damage it. Some people install a KeelGuard, I always thought they were to ugly.
JOHN: Also be careful not to have the trailer in too deep either. That will make it much more difficult to line the boat up because the self centering aspect of the trailer won't work.
• The main purpose for the bunk spray that I use is to help with powering the boat onto the trailer. I usually apply the spray once a season. Again the manual states not to power onto the trailer but everyone does. I have tried to recover the boat with out powering it on (using the winch only) and it was very difficult.
JOHN: Again I have not found this necessary. Many others do it though.
• Once you are in line with the trailer and bunks, power onto the trailer enough to allow the person at the winch to connect the winch strap. The winch has a lever on the right side (when looking at the boat) and I believe that having the lever up will allow the winch to engage and assist in pulling the boat onto the trailer. Make sure the person winding in the winch takes there time and watches the strap so that it does not bind up or fold onto its self. We had to replace a strap, it ripped because the kids at the marina would wind in the winch to fast.
JOHN: The winch can be used as an assist to pull the boat into position as the engines do most of the work. But the winch is not to be used to do all of the work. If you don't power load you may want to put the trailer in deeper to allow you to winch the boat all the way up to the bow stop.
• If the strap does break, it is very easy to replace, simply unwind the strap all the way out and unbolt the strap from the middle of the winch spool.
• Think about where your passengers are seated. When I approach the trailer I usually ask everyone in the bow are to reposition to the back of the boat to allow the bow/keel to float better. Having people sit In the back of the boat makes recovery and embarking easier.
• Continue to power onto the trailer until the person winding the winch tells you to stop. The bow stop should be resting on the white hull of the boat, not the black. The boat is not far enough forward if the bow stop is resting on the black of the hull.
• Connect the safety back up cable incase the winch strap breaks.
• Have the person driving the truck pull forward. On occasion I have had to place my truck in four-wheel drive because the back wheels were slipping on the mossy ramp.
• Remove the drain plug and clean out plugs after every use. Place the clean out plugs back into there holes. On occasion I will lubricate the seals on the clean out plugs to allow them to slide in more easily.
JOHN: Attach the rear tie-downs.
• Flush the engines using the blue adaptor. It is VERY important that the engine being flushed is turned ON before the water. The sequence is, engine on, water on, water off, engine off. If you have the water running with out the engine, water can find its way into the other engine and can contaminate the oil.
• Once both engines have been flushed with fresh water, rev the engines up and down for about 10 seconds. This empties the water boxes of water.
JOHN: If you have trailer guides it is wise to remove the boat fenders before putting the boat onto the trailer. The fenders can catch on the guides.


Considerations
• We will often suck up something into the impellers. Once you have sucked something up, the engine will vibrate and you will loose power and slow down. There are a few different ways to clear debris from the impellers.
• Obviously the easiest way is to open the clean out plugs and grab whatever is in there.
• Some times a piece of plastic is not stuck in the impeller but is stuck in the water before the impeller causing cavitation. Before I open the clean out plug I try to clean it out using reverse. Get the boat going in reverse as fast as possible. Then pull the emergency lanyard to kill both engines. Once both engines are dead, quickly put the throttles in the forward position. This should allow a lot of water to flow the opposite way through the pumps.
• If something is stuck in the impeller and refuses to budge, you may need to pull the boat onto the trailer and remove the grate underneath the boat. This is very easy, the grate is held on by three allen bolts. I have only had to do this once. I always keep a full set of metric and standard allen wrenches in the boat.
JOHN: Someone with thin arms can reach in through the intake grate without removing it.
• Some times the boat will pull really hard to one side while underway. To correct this, make sure your RPM’s are matched on both engines. Then have passengers move around to distribute the weight more evenly.
• If encountering rough water, inflate a ballast bag in the ski locker. When approaching a large wake/wave I always slow down slightly to allow the bow to drop and cut through the wake/wave.
• After setting the cruise assist, and letting go of the throttles, the engines RPM’s will drop because the tension on the throttles has changed. When I activate the cruise assist I will tap it + three times to compensate for the RPM drop.
• Fire extinguisher is hung up in the helm compartment. If you notice black smoke coming from the engine compartment, put the tip of the fire extinguisher into the small round port on the engine compartment lid. Do not open the lid if you suspect a fire. Opening the lid will allow the fire to grow.
• In an emergency, have everyone put on life jackets. If on a large lake, check GPS coordinates on the engine computer read outs and set VHF radio to 16 to declare a mayday. Mayday is declared by stating “mayday, mayday, mayday, this is a 24foot black Yamaha experiencing an engine fire” for example. You can also set the radio to send out a generic mayday by pressing the red emergency button. Pressing this button also increases the wattage of the transmission so that it can be heard further.
• If one engine dies and will not start, turn the tow valve of the off engine to off. The tow valve is an inline valve and is located underneath the engines exhaust on both engines. Remember to turn the valve back on after getting engine running.
• If anything electrical will not work, check the fuses at the helm. Each switch has a separate fuse.


Maintenance
• Only use Yamaha oil filters. They have fleece inside them that does a much better job catching smaller particles.
• The oil filter magnets are only good for three oil changes per the packaging. Clean them off and reinstall.
• Check oil level before each start up. Oil levels are best read before start up and cold because all of the oil is at the bottom of the pan.
• To winterize, hook up the drill to the pump and pump antifreeze through one engine at a time. Have the engine running while you pump the antifreeze through. I do two gallons on each engine. Most of the antifreeze will fall out of the bottom of the clean out ports onto the ground, this is ok because the antifreeze will also be getting into all of the tiny tubes and tunnels inside the engine.
• To winterize the shower, again pump the antifreeze through the shower intake then run the shower normally with the showerhead to fill the hose with antifreeze. If in the spring the shower will not work but you can hear the pump running, you have an air bubble in the hose. To get the air out of the hose, hook up a garden hose to the shower intake and run the shower with the showerhead while the tank is being filled. This will pressurize the shower water tank and force water out of the showerhead.

 

[Lawson2479]

Nice list.