New to the forums, and new boat owner as well

[Chatt_Jetsetter]

I posted this in the Chaparral forum a few minutes ago, thought I'd say hello here too...

Hello everyone, I've been reading the threads on this forum the last few weeks as we try to finalize our boat purchase. My wife and I are in Chattanooga, we have two young girls and we're excited for the lake this summer. We have family property on Douglas in Dandridge, but will be boating on Chickamauga and the surrounding lakes here in southeast TN and Northeast GA. While we both have lots of experience boating, this is the first boat we've owned.

We're getting the 2020 Vortex 203 VRX, single engine (250hp). I think it will be a great first boat; my wife really likes the interior layout and I like there's no prop for the kiddos to get injured on. We hope to test drive it in a couple weeks or so and then if all goes well we will be putting it in dry storage with an in/out service. We're about 30 mins from the lake so hopefully we can get a lot of boating in this year.

I think there's a lot of great info on these forums from a lot of great people, so hopefully I can start to contribute at some point. Anyway, just wanted to say hello!

 

[TexAg2010]

Howdy and welcome!

 

[Crob83]

Sweet ride! Love the colors

 

[Chatt_Jetsetter]

Thanks, I thought it would be a bit too much for my wife but she really likes the look of the boat as well. I grew up in a 19' Four Winns bowrider, she grew up on Pontoons. I just assumed that's what she'd want to look at but she liked this one right away. Hope we get to take it out for a quick run here in the next few days.

 

[anmut]

Welcome - beautiful boat!

 

[Mully262]

That is a great first boat! Admittedly it makes me nervous when people say "this is my first boat" on a sweet new ride. Sounds like you both have experience as kids in the boating world, which is great!

Here are my 7 cardinal rules for new boaters:
1. Read the forums, use Google, watch YouTube. Easy to get educated on whatever you are wondering about.
2. Take a boater safety course, even if you took it as a kid. Great refresher.
3. Create a checklist for launch, towing, and recovery. (It'll take a while to get the muscle memory on all the little steps)
4. Don't feel the pressure from other boaters around docks and boat launches! People can act aggressive, don't let them distract or frazzle you. Quickest way to get you to make a mistake.
5. Speaking of docks and launches, only go as fast as you are willing to hit something.
6. Put your hand at the bottom of the steering wheel when backing your trailer (then you hand moves in the direction you want the trailer to go).
7. Have fun, be safe!

Totally agree on the props. Even when you are anchored or free floating, kids around the transom is sketch and made me nervous. Just so many options for a freak accident. I love Chaparral boats. Prior to becoming obsessed with jet boats, I was strongly leaning on a Chaparral I/O purchase. What a beauty you have!
Cheers!

 

[Chatt_Jetsetter]

That is a great first boat! Admittedly it makes me nervous when people say "this is my first boat" on a sweet new ride. Sounds like you both have experience as kids in the boating world, which is great!

Here are my 7 cardinal rules for new boaters:
1. Read the forums, use Google, watch YouTube. Easy to get educated on whatever you are wondering about.
2. Take a boater safety course, even if you took it as a kid. Great refresher.
3. Create a checklist for launch, towing, and recovery. (It'll take a while to get the muscle memory on all the little steps)
4. Don't feel the pressure from other boaters around docks and boat launches! People can act aggressive, don't let them distract or frazzle you. Quickest way to get you to make a mistake.
5. Speaking of docks and launches, only go as fast as you are willing to hit something.
6. Put your hand at the bottom of the steering wheel when backing your trailer (then you hand moves in the direction you want the trailer to go).
7. Have fun, be safe!

Totally agree on the props. Even when you are anchored or free floating, kids around the transom is sketch and made me nervous. Just so many options for a freak accident. I love Chaparral boats. Prior to becoming obsessed with jet boats, I was strongly leaning on a Chaparral I/O purchase. What a beauty you have!
Cheers!

Thanks for the welcome and advice Mully. You are right, we both have lots of experience piloting boats, but none actually owning one We are going to rely on our dealer for all the maintenance initially so we can make sure everything is done correctly. I'm pretty handy so I might do some of the routine things myself eventually.

I will say I'm a pretty good trailer backer upper. From construction trailers when I was a young man to cattle trailers for our small farm, I've backed my share. I will say I'm MUCH better at it when I can look over my shoulder or out the window, I never did get comfortable backing just using mirrors. We will be putting this in dry storage, so we might be hauling it on the trailer maybe a couple times per year.

Thanks for all the tips!

 

[212s]

I posted this in the Chaparral forum a few minutes ago, thought I'd say hello here too...

Congrats on the boat purchase!

One small thing I see wrong, I think that bimini is in the wrong spot for trailering. It should be hanging off the back of the tower using the short poles to support it with the pivot poles attached in the middle so the wind is pulling instead of pushing. As it is now, there is not a lot of support and trailering down the highway may damage it. Should look like this:


Or you can easily remove it for trailering.

 

[Chatt_Jetsetter]

Congrats on the boat purchase!

One small thing I see wrong, I think that bimini is in the wrong spot for trailering. It should be hanging off the back of the tower using the short poles to support it with the pivot poles attached in the middle so the wind is pulling instead of pushing. As it is now, there is not a lot of support and trailering down the highway may damage it. Should look like this:
View attachment 143486

Or you can easily remove it for trailering.

Thanks for the tip on the bimini; in that pic it's still in the dealers lot, we're going to drive it on Saturday. I'll ask about that, thank you!

 

[Scott Huse]

I posted this in the Chaparral forum a few minutes ago, thought I'd say hello here too...

Hello everyone, I've been reading the threads on this forum the last few weeks as we try to finalize our boat purchase. My wife and I are in Chattanooga, we have two young girls and we're excited for the lake this summer. We have family property on Douglas in Dandridge, but will be boating on Chickamauga and the surrounding lakes here in southeast TN and Northeast GA. While we both have lots of experience boating, this is the first boat we've owned.

We're getting the 2020 Vortex 203 VRX, single engine (250hp). I think it will be a great first boat; my wife really likes the interior layout and I like there's no prop for the kiddos to get injured on. We hope to test drive it in a couple weeks or so and then if all goes well we will be putting it in dry storage with an in/out service. We're about 30 mins from the lake so hopefully we can get a lot of boating in this year.

I think there's a lot of great info on these forums from a lot of great people, so hopefully I can start to contribute at some point. Anyway, just wanted to say hello!

Welcome to the Forum! You'll love the boat, I met a guy last year with the same boat and I was impressed with the ride it had in rough water for such a small boat.

 

[InmyElement]

Beautiful boat! Welcome! Hopefully you'll get some insight and we'll help you spend your $$ while your here..
Major reason we looked at jets also...no prop for the kids to get tangled in, but #1 rule especially when kids are getting in and out of the water..Shut the engine off!
I've sucked up a few ropes between boats and skis..not pretty.

Happy Boating!

 

[Chatt_Jetsetter]

It's a done deal; we got to take it out for a spin today. Wife really likes it, the kids just love being on the water. I couldn't really test its performance because it's brand new and still computer limited until 20 hrs but I liked it a lot. Easy to steer, it responds pretty quickly at low speed to steering inputs so I don't feel like I'm drifting all over. Just a really nice boat all around, hope to have some fun this summer!

 

[Mully262]

Congrats! Keep pushing the warm weather up North please!! I need the river to ice out soon! I hate waiting!
That is pretty cool that it is computer limited during the break in period. Annoying, but cool.

 

[212s]

That is pretty cool that it is computer limited during the break in period.

I like that actually...keeps people from forgetting they need to be gentle as the desire to punch it is always looming. I took my time breaking in the boat...figured it was like a vehicle and needed roughly 600 miles on it to be fully broken in. 600 miles is 10 hours at 60mph, so basically I took 10 hours to gradually break her in and didn't hit WOT till 10 hours. Just before I put her to sleep for the winter I noticed the APS sensors were not fully opening with WOT so there might be another 1 or 2 mph in her...will see come spring time.

Annoying, but cool.

No...annoying is knowing my boat will fly like the wind, but I couldn't punch it WOT for hours. ACK!

 

[Bohdiez]

Welcome to the party and congrats to the boat life!

 

[Chatt_Jetsetter]

Congrats! Keep pushing the warm weather up North please!! I need the river to ice out soon! I hate waiting!
That is pretty cool that it is computer limited during the break in period. Annoying, but cool.

Will do, we are all ready for warmer weather! Yeah the dealer said the break in is computer controlled for that reason, the dealerships were seeing engine damage caused by brand new boats going wide open within a couple hours. So the way it drives for now is you can go full throttle and the boat will plow for a bit with the bow in the air and then SLOWLY level out to plane, with top speed around 22-25 mph.

He said at 10hrs it will open up a bit, and then fully unlock at 20 hrs. I'm a nerd so I'll still probably baby it a bit until we're a bit past 20hrs.

 

[Bizywk]

 

[Bohdiez]

Now that’s funny. They have computer chips for break in periods. Not surprised either but it’s good to know. Haha. I prob would done same thing and be like wtf.

 

[Mully262]

"Hopefully you'll get some insight and we'll help you spend your $$ while your here.."

Happy Boating!

FACT! This forum will fill your head full of ideas you haven't yet considered. Damn you all!!!