Yamaha Jet Boat Steering

[adrianp89]

Aftermarket fins simply align the driving technique with owners preconceived notions of how it's supposed to work.

Wrong. I had zero pre conceived notions, and never driven a boat in my life before. From the factory it just doesn’t drive as well as it could.

The fins don’t change how the boat drives, it enhances it. I think it’s clear you have never driven a jet with and without fins.

I could drive the boat fine before fins but after it is a lot easier and makes the experience better.

 

[2kwik4u]

Wrong. I had zero pre conceived notions, and never driven a boat in my life before. From the factory it just doesn’t drive as well as it could.

So how did you find out about the fins? Just stumble across them in a store? Read about them online in any number of threads about how they make driving a jet so much better and investigate further? If you had no preconceived notions then you would've been just fine with the way it drove, as you would have had nothing to compare it to. This isn't how it went down. You had no preconceived notions about boats, but you did have preconceived notions about things with seats and steering wheels. Instead you went looking for something to make it better, or more appropriately "less like it is, and more like something else". You sat down in a seat, and drove something with a steering wheel and compared it to other things with steering wheels, and it didn't behave like what you had experienced previously with things with steering wheels, so you went out to find out how you could make it behave more like other things with steering wheels. It's not about boats, it's about user interface, and expected results from inputs given. You did have preconceived notions and experiences, and they didn't align. That's OK. Nothing wrong with that, but to deny it is to not see the reality of the situation.

I have driven Yamaha boats both with and without the fins. IMO, they are an extraneous accessory that solves a problem I don't have. If you didn't like the way the boat drove, and the fins helped with that, great. I'm glad there is a product for you that helped make it better. For me, I don't want something else attached to the bottom of my drive for me to kick, that solves a non-existing problem. I also think they look like a terrible afterthought hanging off the nozzle when on the trailer.

There is also a widely accepted premise that a new owner should put fins on from the very beginning of ownership and never look back. This smacks of inexperience, and misconceptions to me, and I hate that new owners and potential new owners are dissuaded away from jet propulsion by these misconceptions. How many of us have been at a dock, fuel station, or elsewhere and had a conversation with someone else about their boat? How many of those were started with "I really liked the layout, but I heard jets were impossible to drive so I went looked elsewhere"? How many new posts do we have on this board alone start with "I really like the jets, but I'm really worried they are hard to drive"? We're not doing ourselves any favors by telling everyone they must have fins to enjoy the experience. Perhaps this is a "dumb crusade" on my part, or perhaps I'm so far in the minority here that I'm really the oddball here (which is most likely the case), but it's an agitation I have with the community in whole.........

Although honestly, if this is the biggest disagreement we have, I think we're still doing better than most communities

 

[Cobra Jet Steering LLC]

2kwik4u

Here is quite the opposite of what you just posted, this customer had no preconceived expectations. https://jetboaters.net/threads/one-more-cobra-jet-steering-review.30246/#post-491594 if you were on yamahajetboaters.com when people were begging me to make steering for Yamaha jet boats and I was not interested because the jet nozzle and reverse reminded me of the nozzles on the river boats used in the Vietnam war and were in my opinion totally out of date..
I now look back and laugh at that and when those same people asked me to come up with a lock that was EZ to use and inexpensive for the clean out plugs and again I did not design one until I installed a set of purple plug fixes in Johnny O's boat for him and I understood just what people were dealing with. I personally tell people to drive their boat as it came from the factory and then decide if they want more control. I also tell them to do a high speed turn and quickly decelerate while in the turn or try to tack a big wave and steer while doing that. People also run over friends and family members when retrieving them during watersport activities or have family members that totally refuse to drive the boat. Their personal perception or not perception is reality and I like to have control I would never own a P W C or jet boat without steering , and if you think it is ugly to have those systems on the back of the boat imagine how ugly it is to run over a friend or child or slam into a dock and mess up the side of the hull. So relax and understand that the proof is in the pudding as @swatski would say and he showed you how to take a 24 foot boat and do an S turn without thrust and how to do a 180 at W O T and only loose a few M P H with a keel and rudder.

So there is nothing wrong with people wanting more from their jet boat especially since it is readily available and time tested and proven to deliver it's just natural. I love having the ability to do things that most people can't do .
These are a few of my favorites

To each their own ,

 

[2kwik4u]

I'm clearly in the minority here, and am doing a terrible job of getting my.point across.

I'm out.

 

[Neutron]

Anyone can adapt with experience to operate a jetboat without fins just fine, but give the controls to a non jetboat experienced driver and it could be a problem.
Fins help with that there is a much less learning curve.
Are they necessary? No.
Are they helpful? Yes