Yamaha Articulating Keel Removal

[Cableloco83]

For anyone else who may come here looking to remove that, I did 1 that was frozen solid. It's not hard to remove the entire assembly from the hull. Its 4 nuts from the inside, access from the cleanout tray. Then I use a razor to cut the silicone behind it and pried it out with a flathead screw driver. Reassembly is easy, I used 4200 on the backside to seal it. But with the assembly out, a oxy acetylene torch and a large punch will remove that pin. I cleaned it up nice and put fresh bushings in it. Nice and smooth now.

Just did the same, now need to get 4200 seal. I have a 2020 AR240. Thank you

 

[anmut]

Let us know how it works out! I'd like to keep the low speed tracking with my cobras but remove the AK because of potential damage at the sandbar with heavy waves.

 

[omarpina]

Let us know how it works out! I'd like to keep the low speed tracking with my cobras but remove the AK because of potential damage at the sandbar with heavy waves.

Did you have any issues or know someone that had issues with the sandbard and waves with the AK?

 

[I_squared_r]

Did you have any issues or know someone that had issues with the sandbard and waves with the AK?

The owner of cobra recommended to me to remove my articulating keel when mine was stuck because it could potentially break and the linkage could damage other steering parts as well. I decided to keep it in because I never pull up to sandbars. I can't comment if the articulating keel makes a difference, but I really like how my boat steers now. I don't have to put constant input at no wake speeds.

 

[anmut]

Did you have any issues or know someone that had issues with the sandbard and waves with the AK?

I'm not aware that people have had issues, but I have been at sandbars facing busy channels with my boat backed in and if there were some big rollers coming in I could tell my keel was hitting the bottom - super hard to push out a boat at that point too! I'd also love to have some of the playfulness of the jet with the stability I need for my wife when she drives...

 

[omarpina]

Maybe @Cobra Jet Steering LLC can ellaborate.

 

[Hike]

There’s been a lot of talk about how to remove the keel but I haven’t seen any reports of if it actually decreases the turning radius or not.. does anyone have any test feedback?

 

[Cobra Jet Steering LLC]

There’s been a lot of talk about how to remove the keel but I haven’t seen any reports of if it actually decreases the turning radius or not.. does anyone have any test feedback?

Any time you reduce the steering input you also lessen the steering effect.
So no rudder would make it even more lethargic in turns unless you add one of my steering system to it.
My super steering systems get rid of the slow turns and get rid of the loss of control when reducing your speed in a turn. The loss of steering when slowing down in a turn can be dangerous to anyone in the water you are going in to pick up from water sport activities for example.
If you want a sports car on a dry road type of handling I make it Just do your research 23 years experience making jet boats steer and drivers smile.
If you want to get rid of the rudder for other reasons .

I have setups to allow you to remove the rudder from the keel and upgrade the steering effect at all speeds and not have parts hanging down below the hull.
On a twin engine version The best one is to add a single super ultimate version designed for the nozzle matching the year of the boat to each nozzle and for even greater effect at slow off plane speed you can also stagger the fins so the inside fins are set higher than the outside fins like I do with the super magnum AK and AK-19 versions.
Setting the inside fins higher than the outside fins pushes more water when the boat is sitting down in the water at slow speeds as that is when you need the most push due to the huge increase in hull resistance as opposed to the hull being up on top of the water on plane plus you get to decide the amount of input you prefer .
You can also remove the rudder from a single engine boat and add the super ultimate single engine system to it.
I have had people do that after hitting oyster beds and ripping the rudder clean off.
You can always get with me if you feel you want to make a change to the rudder setup. I just helped a local customer with removing the rudder from his boat when his rudder locked up and he decided to just do away with it .

 

[Tiemanbr]

Sorry folks for the delay in response to how the boat handled without the articulating keel. It has been a busy Summer and have not had many chances to get the boat back on the water. The couple of times I got it out I made a few observations:

1. Acceleration and top speed had minor improvements likely due to reduced drag of the AK. I am talking maybe 1 mph faster top but I don’t have qualitative data to prove that.

2. Low speed handling did not change and was not noticeable without the AK likely because I have the thrust vectors which are in the low position at low speeds and do the same thing as the AK.

3. Ease of turning improved with regards to back force on the steering wheel. Previously I had to have both hands on the wheel and use some muscle to make a sharp turn particularly when pulling a tube and making S-turns. My wife did not like driving when pulling a tube because the amount of force needed to turn the wheel quickly left to right while pulling a tube. Without the AK, the back force is less I would say 25% less but noticeable and frankly more manageable/enjoyable to drive. Overall this is where I noticed the most improvement after removing the AK.

4. Turning radius. This is hard because, ideally this is quantifiable but I have not been able to measure it. My feeling is the radius is shorter without the AK. I noticed this when turning around to pick up a wake boarder that had fallen. Certainly an improvement but can’t tell you how much.

Overall I am happy with the removal of the AK and don’t have any plans to reinstall it. I will keep trying to provide additional feedback as I use it more. One of the other things I was curious about is the jet wash / spray reduction without the AK. Presumably it would be less as you reduce the amount of drag and formation of air under the water.

Stay tuned.