@gofrogs7
Personal opinion here - You don't need fins/vectors/aides to drive the boat well. What you need is practice. This will be our 9th season with our '17 AR190. It took us about half the first season to "figure it out", but now that we have, I don't want to go back. My wife is good enough now that she will back the boat off the trailer, I go park, and when I get to the courtesy dock she spins 180deg and backs up to the end of it. I literally walk off the dock onto the swim platform like I'm effing Jack Sparrow and we motor away without any muss or fuss. Get a LOT of envious looks when we do that.
So, in that vein, here comes a novel
A jet boat drives differently than an outboard, that drives different than a pontoon, that drives different than an inboard. You wouldn't hop on a motorcycle and say "I really need a steering wheel on this thing" without learning how to operate it would you? Same premise here, the jet isn't bad, it's just different. Once you get used to the differences, you might find that it's better.
Looks like you've been around boats for some time, so there are some things that are much different than a traditional propped boat.
First, you can "shift gears" as often as you like. There is no transmission to be harmed, just a cable and a "bucket" that directs thrust fore and aft. Use this to your advantage around docks. Add or kill momentum with thrust and shifting in/out of forward and reverse. Shift early, shift often, it's easy and doesn't hurt anything.
Second, no revs = no thrust. No thrust = no control. Prop boats can "idle" and maintain control, jets don't. You'll want to learn to either use NoWakeMode to keep the revs up and then shift a lot, OR, get used to short bursts of power/thrust to add/kill momentum. Combine this with direction control and you start to see the premise of controlling a jet as opposed to a prop boat. You can leave it in high revs and shift often, or just let it sit there in "neutral" for as long as you want. These engines don't care a bit to spin high rpms for hours on end, 3k rpm for 15min while docking is NOTHING. Sounds silly, but don't be afraid of it.
Finally, at low speeds you have to change your mindset a little. You don't "steer the front" like a car, or more traditional boat. It's closer to "slide the back". Think of coming into a dock, you come in at a 45deg angle, then when you get close kill momentum with reverse and "slide" the stern over to the dock. Don't try to steer up along side it, get close then slow and slide. Same around other boats, or when trailering. Without a large vertical surface in the water, the boat pivots around the center of mass, not the center of submerged surface area. Keep that in mind and you'll find you can park this boat in places you can only dream of parking an I/O. Tiny little spaces where other boats can maneuver into, you can pull up and slide the boat into place.
Also, I recommend this to any new boaters (or experienced boaters with a new boat). Take a random weekday this spring and go "practice" at the ramp, at the dock, and out in the water. On/Off the trailer 5-10 times until you and your partner have a method and routine down pat. Throw a fender out in the water and practice pulling up to it, practice backing up to it, use it as a marker to pull along side. It's worth the half a tank of fuel, and a day on the water to just practice. Leave the kids, the dog, the office, and spectators behind and have just a day to get to know the machine and how it acts. Figure out where to store things, and how they're easily reachable. All of this practice makes it routine when you're distracted by teenagers with loud music, the dog barking at fish, and the dock hands yelling to you when you try to refuel on a busy weekend afternoon, or load the boat with spectators on a holiday weekend. It's worth it, I promise.
Good luck!
