If you could redo your new boat delivery...

[anmut]

Talked to the dealership today, boat will be ready to pickup on this Saturday. I’ve taken delivery on many new cars and trucks, never a new boat. So my question is:

If you could redo your delivery on your boat, what would you do differently?

 

[tdonoughue]

I would have checked more things that I assumed would just have been good (because it was a new boat). For example, loose bolts, doors that don't line up, etc. Not tragic at all (I have a screwdriver). But for a new boat, I wish I would have checked for a bunch of those things and had them fix them all before I took delivery. They would have been extra speedy with my check waiting...

 

[swatski]

We have been very fortunate to have a decent dealer and the prep was great. Check the vinyl cushions, we had some that were stained and those were replaced immediately by the dealer, he actually pointed out the discoloration.

Battery hookup tends to give some folks issues, especially dual, and this is a dealer installed item.
No matter what the dealer does, I would wax the hull before first launch with some good wax, you will be amazed how much wax those yamaha hulls/gel coat will soak/absorb.

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[anmut]

We have been very fortunate to have a decent dealer and the prep was great. Check the vinyl cushions, we had some that were stained and those were replaced immediately by the dealer, he actually pointed out the discoloration.

Battery hookup tends to give some folks issues, especially dual, and this is a dealer installed item.
No matter what the dealer does, I would wax the hull before first launch with some good wax, you will be amazed how much wax those yamaha hulls/gel coat will soak/absorb.

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So you had a new boat with discolored cushions?! That’s crazy.

 

[tdonoughue]

Yeah. That is what I mean. I would have treated it more like a used boat purchase, overall. I had a speaker not working (who checks the bow speakers right before purchase?). Loose screws, etc. You will still miss something, but if you think like you are buying a used boat, you will probably have a better delivery.

 

[swatski]

So you had a new boat with discolored cushions?! That’s crazy.

IIRC we had two rear cushions with yellowish stains, who knows what that was. The dealer attempted a cleanup but it was clear thare was no way to get rid of the stains.
Yamaha jet boats, especially more recent production, are not know for particularly stringent quality control... You may want to brace yourself, lol.
@tdonoughue is not kidding, there will be plenty of loose screws all around the cockpit, some looking like they were mounted by a toddler with a drill, lol. Oh, and don;t forget to clean up/vacuum the bilge through the rear hatch - most find a whole bunch of various post production debris, it can hurt the drain threads which are plastic.

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[anmut]

Yeah. That is what I mean. I would have treated it more like a used boat purchase, overall. I had a speaker not working (who checks the bow speakers right before purchase?). Loose screws, etc. You will still miss something, but if you think like you are buying a used boat, you will probably have a better delivery.

Thanks! I figured it’s going to be raining out and cold still, so there will be very little reason to rush it out the door.

 

[Elliott]

Nothing - everything was fine. My wife and I drove the boat to our marina from the dealer's marina (just a couple of miles) after the on the water shake down with the salesman. I even backed it in for the forklift to pick it up, and then I flushed/washed the boat before it went into its place in the storage rack. My first boat - maiden voyage without incident.

 

[Dave burke]

Like others, I found the QC less than great. But the only real problem I had the first summer was the starting battery went bad in the first month. I also realized when I looked into it that the dealer had messed up and reversed the starting and house batteries.

The only thing I would have done differently when picking the boat up is spend more time with the tech guy who explained everything to me. He did a good job but it was like drinking from a firehose...

 

[swatski]

And one more thing - is to have them show you how to open up and stow the bimini. it can be bewildering at first!

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[steve0617]

And one more thing - is to have them show you how to open up and stow the bimini. it can be bewildering at first!

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This x 1000. Don’t leave until you know how to set it up and then stow it.

 

[robert843]

And one more thing - is to have them show you how to open up and stow the bimini. it can be bewildering at first!

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Yes if you knew how much I struggled with this till I saw someone else do it please have them show you it will save you a ton of headache. It may have even been @swatski who showed me how to do it.

 

[marcham]

Ideally, I'd inspect it 2 weeks prior to delivery so they can repair minor stuff. They are way more motivated when a check is pending!

I wasn't able to do this, dealer is 4 hrs away including a $200 ferry... so I'm fixing minor stuff on my own (missing nuts, minor gelcoat scuffs, missing drink holder ring,..). Just gotta figure out why the ckeanout plug is so hard to install and remove. I did what I could in the pouring rain at 5 deg C.

 

[ZGhost]

For brand new cars, you get a full tank of gas. For brand new boats, not sure but my boat (delivered from out of state to me) came with 90% full tank of gas and to be honest, I wasn’t expecting it so I was pleasantly surprised. Maybe others will chime on this so that you know. 50 gallon tank can run you $150 or more ...

 

[drewkaree]

Just gotta figure out why the ckeanout plug is so hard to install and remove. I did what I could in the pouring rain at 5 deg C.

Wholeheartedly agree on the bimini top. If I were to do it all over again, I'd go so far as to take pics of it, step by step, as it's undone (stowing it is the reverse of the pics).
As for your cleanout plug, here's a tip for you (yours will eventually be a PITA like marcham's at some time or another), grease your o-ring immediately after you take it out, and when you go to put it back in, righty-tighty, lefty-loosey, BUT! do this to ensure you don't cross thread the plug - REVERSE it (turn it left) until you feel/hear it "click", THEN tighten it. That click should be the sound/feel of the threads of the plug seating/mating with the threads of the hole. It's no guarantee, but it's something I do on lug nuts, the cleanout plug, spark plugs, ANYTHING that it's super vital that I don't cross thread something.

 

[drewkaree]

For brand new cars, you get a full tank of gas. For brand new boats, not sure but my boat (delivered from out of state to me) came with 90% full tank of gas and to be honest, I wasn’t expecting it so I was pleasantly surprised. Maybe others will chime on this so that you know. 50 gallon tank can run you $150 or more ...

I dunno if you're picking up from Skipper Bud's, or Winnebagoland, but I got mine from Skipper Bud's, and there was no mention of this whatsoever when I picked mine up, and if I hadn't asked this (and pressed them to fill the damn thing up, hey, I just spent $50k, mebbe you throw me a tank of gas, dooshnozzles!) they were willing to send me away with the 20% they put in for the test/shakedown cruise. I can't remember where you're buying from, but thus far, seriously underwhelming experience from Skipper Bud's (Pewaukee and Oshkosh).

 

[anmut]

I dunno if you're picking up from Skipper Bud's, or Winnebagoland, but I got mine from Skipper Bud's, and there was no mention of this whatsoever when I picked mine up, and if I hadn't asked this (and pressed them to fill the damn thing up, hey, I just spent $50k, mebbe you throw me a tank of gas, dooshnozzles!) they were willing to send me away with the 20% they put in for the test/shakedown cruise. I can't remember where you're buying from, but thus far, seriously underwhelming experience from Skipper Bud's (Pewaukee and Oshkosh).

M&J gave me the best deal on my boat after MUCH back and forth. Originally SB's was the winner, but after explaining to M&J that "I could drive to Madison 13x back and forth for service to break even on their price..." they finally conceded. They've been really easy to work with thus far.

Winnebagoland? I was REALLY impressed with them when we first stopped in. However they don't budge on price and were kinda jackasses about me even asking. Then, just recently, they decided to voluntarily close their locations due to covid. No judgement there, but they kept advertising by email and on Facebook. People were replying to their FB posts about how they couldn't get their boats out of storage with Winneabagoland because of their decision. When I politely question that and "why are you still advertising if you're closed" I was direct messaged by salesman Troy and told to "stop being negative." At the moment, I wouldn't recommend that dealership at all. You'd think being in a luxury business during a downturn in the economy, they'd be a little more easier to work with.

RE: the full tank, at these gas prices, I'm not worried about it at all.

 

[anmut]

And one more thing - is to have them show you how to open up and stow the bimini. it can be bewildering at first!

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Good call on the bimini. I've now read the manual front to back a few times and remember that part - looked pretty easy - but an in-person demo wouldn't be bad either.

 

[Julian]

No issues on my turn over.....but I know them from my prior boat and they know about Jetboaters.net. That said, they called me ahead of time to let me know the issues they found and were fixing before pick up. I also paid the dealer set up fee (made sure that was a line item in the sale) as that is what ensures they do all the set up right. If you are a hard bargainer, and have that removed...then they are technically not obligated to do the dealer set up (which on an X model is a lot of work, and includes 2 batteries).

My list I'd be sure to go through:

1. Bimini set up
2. Bilge pump operation (whole connext screen ops)
3. Pump gate disconnects (how to disconnect the reverse gates)
4. Battery wiring set up
5. Fuse locations
6. Engine Flush procedure and adapter use
7. Engine oil and filter locations

 

[props2you]

Here is a good overall checklist I picked up from here some years ago, might be worth a once over, some redundancies but worth a review for the season or delivery.