New owner and first time boat owner

[v4lu3s]

For 15+ years my wife and I talked about having a boat given we live 10 minutes from a popular lake for recreation and fishing. In 2017 we went and looked the FSH 190 and FSH 210. We also considered a pontoon boat. We couldn't decide and didn't want to finance so we went back to wishing.

Back in March I saw an ad for a 140 hour 2017 FSH 190 nearby at a dealer, originally listed at $29,995, but it had been dropped to 25999, then 21995 and then a "one day special 19,995." I stopped in and took a look at it, it was at a higher end recreational boat dealer, and they asked me if I was interested. It showed signs of salt exposure (salt corrosion on the hatch latches, little bit of rust on the stainless parts, and salt corrosion on the intake grate. It was offered to me at $20k out the door, so I put a downpayment on it.

About 90 days later we took delivery. The dealer found it had a few issues, both with their service department and the boat. The tech that was supposed to go over and make the trade ins ready was billing for hours of work not done. My boat ended up with a new relay or two, a new start solenoid, a new intermediate shaft bearing/seal assembly, and new temperature sensors. Unfortunately, they had to fix one problem at a time to figure out the next.

Last week we picked it up, paid the balance, they threw in 6 brand new life jackets, a throw float pad, bumpers and mooring lines, and did not make me feel like a low budget boat buyer despite most of their boats being 5x higher in price. Our boat had the Thrust Vector XL already on it, a Lowrance Hook 7 (yeah kind of obsolete now but it works and works well enough!) as well as a forward deck fishing seat added. I rebuilt an old Riptide trolling motor from 12v 55lb to 24v 80lb and am putting the factory trolling motor mount with a 1/4 aluminum backing plate under the gunwale with 2x12v LiFePO batteries mounted somewhere. I am replacing small hardware like snaps, rocker switch covers, and the speakers right now.

We have had it out on the water for about 7-8 hours so far and it tops out about 43mph with me alone and less than half a tank of fuel, and 34ish with my wife and daughter in the boat. The cleanout hatch kill switch has already struck as well, so I have put a pad on the bottom of the hatch for now.

So far its been a really great boat. My wife is looking around for used tubes or similar to put our 15 yo daughter on, and we are both eager to be the first one to catch a fish from the boat. I still need to trouble shoot the live well fill pump, not sure if it is a dead pump or a dead fuse, or just clogged...but for now we will just be catch and release or catch and cooler, the livewell may be for bait later on....

 

[Beachbummer]

Congrats on the new boat. We all like pictures!
Practice makes perfect.
a humble word of advice...You will soon enter the danger area of potential over confidence as you build some muscle memory, and everything seems easier with practice. (as it should) Keep your head of a swivel and be ready for surprises yet to come, and all will be well!!!

In my area the discount sports store has items well priced. for towables and other things that are "wear" items, it's not a bad bet to purchase new and do your best to make them last as long as possible with care, but knowing these are wear items and not eternal in life.

Best of Luck! It's rarely cheap, can be done on a budget, but it's a fun way to spend time and money for sure!!!

 

[v4lu3s]

I will definitely need to get pics, my wife took one or two, but for now every time I see the boat I am putting in the water.

A jet boat is a different beast than the rescue and evac boats I use at work, but its coming pretty easily. Most of my experience boating is in fire service boats, often in waterways in city limits and really weird and challenging places, rather than open water and one of the busiest lakes in Texas. Way too many idiots on rental jet skis out here, but I try and stick to weekdays and earlier the better.

Fortunately before the fire service I was a dealer tech at a powersports dealer near the lake, and had some good experience on jet skis (rotax and kawi powered), and a lot of electrical experience from car work for decades, so I am capable of doing most work needed at home on my own, however I am really impressed with the ease of access of most stuff so far! Storage and insurance are running me about $2000 a year, and If I am spending ~$70 for every 3 trips on the boat (and right now there are not sit and fish or swim trip, but constant movement to get seat time), that means a lot of fun for the money!

I appreciate the advice and feel great about what I got at the price I got it at!

 

[Beachbummer]

LOL, I totally underestimated your boating experience based on your recent boat ownership. My apologies. I'm sure you can give us some good lessons based on your commercial and fire boating experience.

 

[v4lu3s]

No apologies needed. It's a VERY different experience. We have 17ish foot "evac" boats with a console and 40hp Evinrudes with plastic props with blades that can be replaced in a minute or two, we run these on flooded streets and train on bayous and the ship channel. We have done some training on lakes that involve things like nosing up to piling, docks, jetties etc so we can load an unload without tying off, and they are also moved on double decker trailers. The other stuff is 22-26 ft boats with or without a pump and deck gun for extinguishment. They are basically oversized skiffs and slow.

Owning a boat and operating to go fishing, tubing, and just fun on the water is a bit different. I have a lot to learn, the jet drive I incredibly different, and the fiberglass hull is a different animal than the overbuilt aluminum commercial type hulls. Even at all out none of those were remotely fast boats, and being able to hit 40+ on open water is nothing like running a bayou (day or night). I will NEVER turn down advice, I learned a long time ago we all see things a bit differently, have different experiences, so I am willing and able to learn from anyone.

 

[drewkaree]

The cleanout hatch kill switch has already struck as well, so I have put a pad on the bottom of the hatch for now.

I still need to trouble shoot the live well fill pump, not sure if it is a dead pump or a dead fuse, or just clogged...

Congrats on the boat, it's already sounding like a great experience for you and your family!

Cc: @FSH 210 Sport for your live well issues, and maybe he's got some recommendations about the kill switch area too.

Dunno what the kill switch issue is, but that should be an easy fix. I've 3D printed some test pieces, but no real-world experience with them yet, and others have used coins as well. These ideas are assuming your issue is with the switch having contact problems with the lid, if it's something else, give us some more info, there's plenty of help to be offered and found here

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

Congratulations on finally getting a boat !

Sounds like you’re fully capable of doing all the maintenance items yourself, I suggest you get a service manual to assist in the maintenance endeavors.

YAMAHA MANUAL STORE

www.yamahapubs.com

Regarding the live well…. I believe your boats live well is like mine, it has a fill pump and an aerator pump. Both pumps are the same, Tsunamis, @Adrian @ JB Solutions did a post here. The official "What did you do to your jet boat today" thread. post# 3,953. To remove them, push in on the red tab and they unscrew from the base. The fill pump can get debris in it, so just pull it off the base to check. The inlet also has a sea cock / valve in the engine bay that needs to be on to allow water to come in.
There is also a circuit breaker for each of these pumps, the rubber nipple looking thing right next to the rocker switch.
In the mean time if necessary you could always use the 5 gallon bucket to fill the live well.

As far as the clean out hatch kill switch goes, most of the time it’s a height adjustment issue and or an issue of the clean out hatch latch needing to be snugged up so the hatch doesn’t jump up and down while you’re under way. The incidence of the clean out hatch kill switches failing is low, most of the time the height adjustment nuts come loose and it works its way down and just needs to be re adjusted. The switch and nuts are plastic, so just snug on the threads, maybe add a little bit of silicone on the threads to keep them from backing off.

So the dealer had the pump out to replace the intermediate bearing…. @madtom made a good few posts here intermediate bearing replacement info.
Lots of posts about greasing these bearings, me included, these are also 100 hour interval maintenance items. The net net is, if you put the grease in slowly once the housing is full the excess grease will push out around the intermediate shaft on the back side without damaging the seals. In that thread you’ll see that the back / blind side of the bearing always has water on it, so it’s important to keep this bearing

You may want to pull the cone / grease reservoir at the back of the pump to check for grease level and water intrusion, that’s a 100 hour maintenance item.

Thread 'Jet Pump Cone Grease amount'

Jan 12, 2025

Two years ago I service the grease cones on my boat, I was behind one year on that service (boo FSH 210 Sport Boo). I remember the first time I pulled the cones that I thought there was not enough grease in them to be able to migrate up into the bearing carrier and into the front bearing.

Here is what they looked like in April of 2023 after I had serviced them in 2021. I had filled the cones up about 2/3 of the way with grease.
Port


Starboard


When I serviced them in 2023 I filled the cones up with grease after much thought and research, again my thinking was...

• FSH 210 Sport
• Replies: 18
• Forum: General Discussion

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New Wire Marine is a good place to get replacement rocker switch covers.

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Quality Custom Switch Panels | Marine Rocker Switches | Breakers | Wire | Boating Electrical Equipment and Parts. Easy online ordering at NewWireMarine.com

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Being that your boat was a salt water boat, you may want to check the engines’ internal anode or just replace it. In addition, you could use salt alway flush and let it sit in the engine to help dissolve any remaining salt in the engine. Salt Away has a procedure on their website on how to do this. Click on the How To tab on their website. How To | SaltAway

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The original 19’ FSH boats have the normally aspirated 1.8L engines and get phenomenal miles per gallon, I think boat tests video had it at 4.5 mpg so economical to operate!