Test Run Problems

Our initial test run showed up a few problems with the boat. Some we were able to fix and some we will have to live with.

The boat had trouble getting onto the plane. The original impellor in the jet ski was then replaced with the lowest pitch Solas impellor I could buy. This vastly improved the performance but the pump will still cavitate badly if the throttle is floored from a standing start. Accelerating relatively slowly improved the transition to the plane. The more weight in the boat and the more it would cavitate at take off. Once on the plane the accelerator could be floored and the boat will launch pretty well.

Top speed with just be in the boat topped out at around 55 – 60 Kmh. This is using the onboard speedo which is probably quite in-accurate. I was initially disappointed with this as I had hoped for a top speed around 80 kays.

Also the tacho would only show around 2800 revs at full throttle and the motor never really sounded like it was revving out properly. A test of the electrics showed that whilst being OK-ish the coils in the stator were not fantastic and could do with re-winding. Some months, yes months, later we installed the repaired electrics and fired her up. Still had the same top speed and the same revs but it was smoother. An adjustment to the tacho now had it reading correctly, we think, and it now shows it revving out to around 6000 revs.

With all these problems behind us we were able to tow two big kids (no not me) on kneeboards and my son James on a wakeboard. It took a little practice to work out how to slingshot them at the start but after that taking off was no problem.

You should see the look on the other boat users faces when this little boat cruises past towing two kneeboarders and doing it with ease. We had plenty of top speed and were continually being told to slow down but the skiers out the back.