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Originally Posted by Bruuuce
I have had a couple jet boats in the past. Think shallow water river boats for the most part. This is when I lived in the NW and did allot of fishing activities out of them.
The caveats to jet boats, the main one is there is no neutral. If the engine is running there is thrust. The neutral with thrust is the bucket 1/2 up and 1/2 down or something similar. That is not 100% neutral. Then you still have side to side thrust goin on, so you can't just put it in neutral and not tend to the wheel and throttle.
I am sure you know that, but I would drive both types to make a decision about jet vs prop.
The great think about the jets I had is they ran in less than 6" of water. I don't think the recreational jets are set up that way, but have not looked at them in quite some time.
Boats are fun, I need another one soon. Thinking of the inflatable catamarans for where I live now. A little 14" with a small outboard would be quite fun for nocking around on the hooch...
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This is still true about neutral but it isn't as bad on the newer ones. I forgot about steering, I had to add extra fins to my nozzles otherwise low speed steering is pretty crappy.
You can get into and out of pretty shallow spots. But you need to be careful that you aren't staying too long in shallow water with the engines running otherwise you can suck up too much sand/silt and clog your cooling passages in the engine(s). And possibly suck up rocks/sticks into the pumps and eff up your props. At least those are fairly easy to remove and clear on land. Just time consuming etc.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Joekerr
See below, don't know first thing about boats, but why did the motors need to be flushed (and what exactly does that mean) every time you used the boat? And presumably the washing was because it was in salt water? Which is something I don't have to worry about lol.
My wife would LOVE a boat, and I would HATE one for the expense and trouble. But I don't know the first thing about boats - what makes keeping a jet boat in an in-water slip complicated / troublesome?
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We only boat in freshwater and flush them a couple of times a year. The important one for us is doing it before storage for the winter. Never had an issue with any of our engines be them outboard or inboard.