New member. What a great forum you have here. I live in Vancouver BC, Canada, Pacific waters. I've been researching all the threads here looking for info on the 255 FSH and jet propulsion in general. I think I'm sold on the Yami but man am I getting crucified from all my boat buddies for even considering it. I don't know anything about jets but have been boating for a good portion of my life on ski boats (Mastercraft, Centurion, etc), and my social circle has mostly nice crossover boats (Whalers, Pursuits, Grady White's). I'm not a diehard fisherman but love to fish when I can. I've got 2 small kids (and friends) that want to get out and have fun and explore the waters here so I'm looking for a do-it-all boat and feel this is the one. Like every boat there are compromises - I feel this one may be the jets and ride quality in our waters here. Other than that it looks like it fits the bill.
My question - should I be looking at something different or is this the one? Can anyone comment on this boat in the waters in this area? The most common comment - look out for the flotsam and it will beat the shit out of you in our waters - it will f' everything up. I feel that's a bit inflammatory. Open to suggestions!
Cheers.
So, if you have been looking at the threads here then I assume you have read through the 252 FSH Sport and 255 FSH sport E threads? If so, you have seen that some of the folks who have them have been out in some 4’ + seas and say that the 252/255 FSH hull, which is specifically designed to be an off shore boat, is working well for them.
There was a thread over at The Hull Truth, which in this thread was anything but the truth, where these guys who knew nothing and I mean nothing about jet boats were tossing around all kinds of falsehoods about the FSH series of jet boats. The exception there was a few guys who had actually been on these boats and those people had nothing but good things to say about them. The FSH boats are different from your GW’s, Whalers, Pursuits etc.. and most people fear different.
There is another member here who was recently going through a similar situation as you. His location is different but he could face some big water himself on the Great Lakes. Here is his thread, my response is post #13 in that thread.
As one of the members stated above about what his family misses about their Yamaha is the swim deck. As a fisherman I can tell you the swim deck is awesome for landing fish, as a person who likes to go swimming and tow people around the swim deck is awesome. Most people think FSH stands for fish, it dose not, it stands for Family Sport Hybrid.
Have you scheduled a test drive on one of these FSH boats yet? I have had quite a few people on my boat who were only familiar with outboard or I/O powered boats and were skeptical of my little jet drive boat, by the end of the day they were blown away be the performance and fishability of my boat, and the 25’ versions just have more of that good stuff.
You said you are in pacific waters.. that is a bit open ended as it is not clear how far you go offshore, but, it sounds like you are more of a closer to shore guy as you don’t fish a lot, but maybe you will. Anyway, the Yamaha is no Grady White, Boston Whaler etc… those are big boats with some heavy off shore use in mind, and they are awesome boats to be sure, But chances are you will pay close to an additional $100,000 USD for that awesomeness, depending on how you outfit your boat. The best band for your buck really is the Yamaha. While I love my 210 FSH sport, I do like the 252 FSH sport over the 255 FSH sport E, the reason for that is the analogue drive of the 252, and better mpg. The 255 is a beast and will go about 8-10 mph faster than the 252, but it uses a lot of fuel to do that. But even the 255 will get comparable if not better mpg than a twin outboard powered CC. No one has done a test yet on the 252 so all that is available are the boating magazine test and the boat test.com of the 255.
So your friends who are excoriating you, do they have any actual modern day jet boat experience? If not than what they say could very well be here-say not unlike that which was seen on the hull truth site, some of the stuff that was said over there was laughable to say the least. The modern day jet boats are the chevy big block powered Berkeley jets of the 1970’s.
