jdonalds
Jetboaters Commander
- Messages
- 609
- Reaction score
- 375
- Points
- 197
- Location
- Redding, CA
- Boat Make
- Yamaha
- Year
- 2006
- Boat Model
- SX
- Boat Length
- 21
Our local Redding Yamaha/Seadoo dealer put on an event today. They served lunch, had a raffle drawing, provided PWCs for demo rides, and had Seabreacher and Jetovator demonstrations. Here is the day in pictures.
With the lake down 100' the Jones Valley Resort floating store and docks were about a mile from their position when the lake is full. This is where the event was held.
Rental houseboats. All part of the floating dock system that can be relocated as the lake level changes.
Free lunch
I wanted very much to try out a SeaDoo Spark. I spent about 15 minutes on it. I had heard very good things about these small, light, and low priced skis. I know SeaDoo has a winner on it's hands here. However I was generally disappointed. They had the three seater, 90HP model for demo rides.
Pros:
- Good power for the weight. It had a great hole shot, and quickly accelerated to perhaps 40+mph; I didn't pay attention to the speedo.
- I was pleased with how stable it was. It took tight turns without making me feel like I was going to get spilled.
- The ride was dry (my Honda was always a wet ride).
- It has SeaDoos new brake system. I never felt the need for brakes on a ski but I think new riders would be safer with the brakes. But the real bonus is with that new system reverse isn't a handle below the handlebars, it is part of the brake system. You switch to reverse simply by pulling on the left handlebar lever. I really liked that feature.
- I liked that I could spin it and slide the stern around.
Cons:
- Being so short and light it comes out of the water easily and loses contact with the water, losing the jet pump action in the process. If you hold the throttle (thankfully a finger throttle instead of the old SeaDoo thumb throttle) it would porpoise until I backed off on the throttle.
- I thought it was under powered. I think it needs another 30 or so HP.
- The three cylinder Rotax engine vibrated the whole ski all the time.
This was the ski I rode.
I'm sure many of you have seen these Jetovators before. The guy doing the demo was quite experienced at driving this thing. He even did some 360 vertical flips on it.
Here is the Jetovator. It is dependent on a modified jet ski to provide the jet power.
We've seen the Seabreacher on Shasta Lake a number of times as it is manufactured here in Redding. It's an interesting boat. There's a video on the web page linked above.
It turns out we won one of the prizes with the raffle. I picked this single tube.
We tried towing two tubes for the first time. If we do this again we learned that it is necessary for both rope lengths to be the same. That would allow the tubes to play "bumper cars" with each other. But the single tube rope was too long and the interactions weren't pleasant.
My 4-year-old son Cameron (was grandson until the adoption completed in April) was game for high speed tubing and had a blast.
Brother Keith having some fun with Cameron
Captain Cameron
With the lake down 100' the Jones Valley Resort floating store and docks were about a mile from their position when the lake is full. This is where the event was held.
Rental houseboats. All part of the floating dock system that can be relocated as the lake level changes.
Free lunch
I wanted very much to try out a SeaDoo Spark. I spent about 15 minutes on it. I had heard very good things about these small, light, and low priced skis. I know SeaDoo has a winner on it's hands here. However I was generally disappointed. They had the three seater, 90HP model for demo rides.
Pros:
- Good power for the weight. It had a great hole shot, and quickly accelerated to perhaps 40+mph; I didn't pay attention to the speedo.
- I was pleased with how stable it was. It took tight turns without making me feel like I was going to get spilled.
- The ride was dry (my Honda was always a wet ride).
- It has SeaDoos new brake system. I never felt the need for brakes on a ski but I think new riders would be safer with the brakes. But the real bonus is with that new system reverse isn't a handle below the handlebars, it is part of the brake system. You switch to reverse simply by pulling on the left handlebar lever. I really liked that feature.
- I liked that I could spin it and slide the stern around.
Cons:
- Being so short and light it comes out of the water easily and loses contact with the water, losing the jet pump action in the process. If you hold the throttle (thankfully a finger throttle instead of the old SeaDoo thumb throttle) it would porpoise until I backed off on the throttle.
- I thought it was under powered. I think it needs another 30 or so HP.
- The three cylinder Rotax engine vibrated the whole ski all the time.
This was the ski I rode.
I'm sure many of you have seen these Jetovators before. The guy doing the demo was quite experienced at driving this thing. He even did some 360 vertical flips on it.
Here is the Jetovator. It is dependent on a modified jet ski to provide the jet power.
We've seen the Seabreacher on Shasta Lake a number of times as it is manufactured here in Redding. It's an interesting boat. There's a video on the web page linked above.
It turns out we won one of the prizes with the raffle. I picked this single tube.
We tried towing two tubes for the first time. If we do this again we learned that it is necessary for both rope lengths to be the same. That would allow the tubes to play "bumper cars" with each other. But the single tube rope was too long and the interactions weren't pleasant.
My 4-year-old son Cameron (was grandson until the adoption completed in April) was game for high speed tubing and had a blast.
Brother Keith having some fun with Cameron
Captain Cameron
