Just bought a 1999 Yamaha LS2000. My first jet boat. Thanks for the add.

[marc758]

I used to boat a lot back in the late 80's. My kids are getting older and I wanted to get a boat (on a budget) (I'm sure many laughed when I put boat and budget in a sentence together) to create some good times before they go off to college and such. Found a 1999 LS 2000. Owner said he had just had it serviced. He lived too far from a lake to try out, but did get to hear the motors and give it a look over.
I took it to Lake James in NC where I live for the first time this past Sunday, August 9th. I raced and rode 2 stroke motorcycles most of my life so I am familiar with 2 strokes. I was surprised by how it revved just at idle. I have read some of the suggestions on fixes. At idle it seemed to be going at least 5-10 mph. Both engines were revving high. The previous owner told me the tach and speedometer wasn't working, so I don't have exact numbers. The shifter was very hard to move as well.
My wife scares very easily and immediately was uncomfortable. I knew there would be a learning curve for driving the boat and learning the way the jets operate, but she had a small window of about 5 seconds that she expected me to master this.
It was also a crowded day on the lake. I never got to go very much faster than the small wake producing idle speed. Also, the boat seemed to take on more water than I expected, when I opened the ski storage compartment I saw a couple of inches. I've read some suggestions for looking into this.
I expected the boat to be louder than normal engines having been around motorcycles my whole life, but with the high idle it was louder than I expected.
I'm on the fence about keeping it at this point as I'm not for sure that my wife will be patient enough to get the kinks worked out of getting it dialed in and operating it.

But so far I have really appreciated the Jet Boat community that I have found in this forum and another one. Reading some of the recommendations and what to do has me wanting to get this boat running right and see if I can get the wife literally and figuratively, back on board.

 

[Scottintexas]

glad to have you on board,
are you running pre-mix or still have oil lines ?? if you have OEM oil lines you need to switch them asap, they are bad quality and have cost many people an engine,

our motors use lake water for cooling and it's easy to get a leak from a cooling line, also be sure to pull the back deck and look in the bilge area for loose clamps,

.

 

[Scottintexas]

and if you don't like the steering consider some cobra fins and for added safety the cobra locks to keep your cleanout plugs in, it's cheap insurance,

.

 

[marc758]

Thanks. The locks were already installed on my plugs. I am looking at the Thrust Vector X fins that has the 35% off on this site.

 

[marc758]

I'm not running pre-mix, and I'm guessing the lines have been replaced in the past 20 years. I don't have time to do a lot of the stuff I need to tune on the boat, like bringing the idling down, lubing the shifter (which is very stiff) and checking the water intakes and a few other points of concern. I'm want to have all of this done before I take it back out.
The big "if" is on this is my wife. She was so stressed out on the first outing because of the sound and tunings that need to be done I'm having a hard time getting her to come around to the jet boat. Debating on keeping the boat or her. Just kidding. She married a guy that rock climbs, raced motorcycles, skis, kayaks and used to sky dive, but she is drawing the line at a jet boat. smh.

 

[biglar155]

I'm not running pre-mix, and I'm guessing the lines have been replaced in the past 20 years. I don't have time to do a lot of the stuff I need to tune on the boat, like bringing the idling down, lubing the shifter (which is very stiff) and checking the water intakes and a few other points of concern. I'm want to have all of this done before I take it back out.
The big "if" is on this is my wife. She was so stressed out on the first outing because of the sound and tunings that need to be done I'm having a hard time getting her to come around to the jet boat. Debating on keeping the boat or her. Just kidding. She married a guy that rock climbs, raced motorcycles, skis, kayaks and used to sky dive, but she is drawing the line at a jet boat. smh.

Sounds like you need to get the boat dialed in, go out alone to get your skills dialed in, and then very slowly re-introduce the Admiral to the situation.

If she's nervous, watching you fumble with a new skill (like we all had to do) isn't going to make her any less so.

If you look confident and comfortable, that's going to go a long way.

 

[biglar155]

By the way: Welcome!!!

 

[marc758]

Thanks. I didn't feel real uncomfortable with the boat. But it idling high and the higher rpms sounding kinda of intense in idle AND idle speed creating a small wake she felt like the boat was out of control. She is a sky is falling kind of person and scares really easily. My oldest son and daughter, 17 and 15 were trying to have fun telling her to calm down. All of that with a busy lake day was just a bad recipe for the introduction of the boat.
I told her last night about getting things tuned and how it will change a lot of the stuff she didn't like, but she already has her mind made up that she hates it.
She was doing a lot of verbalizing of her hate for the boat and me that day. One of the insults, which I almost took as a compliment, she said, "you couldn't buy a regular boat, you had to go get some Miami Vice wanna be Don Johnson has been fast boat."