I'm back!/Seaweed/Clogs/Lake Minnetonka

[whaler7626]

Howdy!!! I'm back! Well not that I went anywhere but I've been off the forum for about a month jetboating, jetboating, and more jetboating!

Sorry for a long post:

Problem is we keep out boat on Lake Minnetonka, and well if you're from around here you know that it's really far above high water (by this lake's standards), and as a result there's no-wake-on-the-lake-- been almost a month, and it's staying on for the fourth

At any rate tho, the seaweed has had no problem growing an extra 2 feet to the surface, and being a combo of milfoil and curlyleaf pondweed it is making jet boating a bit of a bummer (amplified by the nowake situation), requiring constant cleaning of the ports. Well this was ok until it began compounding and I fell behind in clearing it-- it was woven in the intake grate... impossible to clear from above deck.

Well we tried the super full astern/lanyard/full forward maneuver many times and while it may have helped some, it was no use (and the boat always veered off to the left or right after it turned off, we have TVXLs, any ideas?).

We let this persist until the other night when we got the engine overheat warning and super annoying alarm, and a bit of smoke, in the middle of the busy channel :/ I had to get in and go under the boat to clear it.... Not fun. Luckily the nearby boaters were extremely kind and offered all sorts of assistance.

How can this be prevented in the future, and what are your general thoughts??

Oh and one last thing, since it's nowake everywhere, I need as much speed as possible and right now the boat only does just below 4mph at closed throttle, any ideas there??

Even this little bit of speed makes a great difference.

Thank you guys so much, you all have been so helpful always!

 

[davel501]

Keeping the boat light helps too. I always have the most problems when the boat is loaded down with people and the jets are forced a little further down into the weeds. Take everything out you can't use right now like towables.

 

[whaler7626]

@davel501 that's a really good idea, we do currently have it down to the essentials tho-- I think it has been better when everyone is in the front of the boat, but I'm not sure

 

[Julian]

Sorry to say there is no "Silver Bullet" solution to this. Sounds like you have the reverse process down pat. The next best thing is pulling the clean out plugs and letting someone with small hands reach all the way in and clean off the intake grates. I've found that my big hands can't get in there as easily as someone with small hands and shorter arms (doesn't make sense at first, but it is all about the angles you are trying to get around).

I did hear of someone making a pole with a bend in it they used to push in the clean outs to clean/scrape off the intakes....might think about that....

 

[whaler7626]

@Julian that pole thing is a really good idea, cause even our smallest couldn't free the grate, it was so woven it was impossible, like plucking grass out of a lawn, except we weren't making any progress.. Hmm

 

[whaler7626]

@Julian happy 4th too!

 

[motorboater]

I was wondering if that would be a problem this year on Tonka. We havent been down there since May and likely wont unless the wake restrictions are lifted. There is so much milfoil floating around that lake, not sure you can do anything about it when you arent on plane. What a bummer for the boating season out there!

 

[Julian]

@whaler7626 Happy 4th to you too! If you make something...post up what works for ya!

 

[RightStuff]

Unfortunatley i dont have much for solutions either...

But I can comisertate because I was out on Tonka today. For my first time ever out there I ran into issues with significant weed build up in the jets. For me it was mostly clogging the intake grates (going from Maxwell to Big Island), but I didn't run into any overheating with our trip today. When we got to the island I just had lots of weeds to pull out, but going back it wasn't as bad...

It sucks not being able to fully enjoy the lake this year, but I have to admit having no wake on a super busy holiday was kind of nice. On days like today I just don't trust the majority of people out there, and when you take speeding out of the equation it just helps a bit... But I still wanted to surf real bad today!

 

[whaler7626]

@Julian will do!! And yea @RightStuff it is too bad not being able to have a wake, but that is true it's less crazy (I must add tho the craziness is part of what makes it fun hahaha)
I felt the 7 or 8 sheriff boats and the 8 fire boats were just having fun showing off that they could violate the no wake and we couldn't (although they did need it sometimes to maintain the pen for the Airshow, mostly it was unnecessary)

I also couldn't figure out why all the sheriffs cleared out before the fireworks-- turned out there was a high speed chase with all the sheriff boats, and cops on the bridges, ending in Maxwell bay.