Markus

Spent all of the weekend (from friday night to sunday night) at Camber sands, great fun.

Couple of chaps had jet bikes / jet skis and I kinda like the idea of them.

so, where would one get one from? how much (new and used) what fuel do they run on. how to transport them (trailer?), how fast?

just curious as I'd love one, it'd be real fun to see the dog try and keep up with me, or have her sitting on the back!

alistair

I used to have a jetski, but then a couple of kids meant that I had to do the only sensible thing and get a jetboat instead :-)

A new ski is probably in the region of £6-8k depending on what you want, boats start at about £13k - £25k. There are a number of dealers nationally, mine came from Pump Action Racing in Stamford 01778 341 144. All dealers will do new and secondhand. You see a few in Autotrader or boat magazines.

They run on regular unleaded and are 2 stroke so use oil and have a seperate oil tank too.

Transport them on a trailer, just need to find a lake or somewhere on the coast you can launch from. If you want to use the Scoob, you will need a lake or a club with a tractor you can use to launch. My wife has a Jeep Cherokee which we don't mind putting in the sea occasionally as its doors start a bit higher......

The max speed is 50-60 mph - which is bloody fast on water. Acceleration is pretty impressive too as is handling - On a ski you can easily turn faster & tighter than you can stay on ! Getting rid of passengers is very easy.........

JetSki's & boats are both good for towing, either can pull ski's, wakeboards, inflatables etc.

Fuel economy you'll be familiar with - I reckon I could do £50 in a day (which is only really a few hours of solid use), but then again what do you get if you drive the scoob in the same way you do a jetski ? Depreciation can be pretty brutal too, about car levels 50% + in 3 years.

Servicing is every 20 hours (which is not as often as it sounds at first) and is about £150 I think. End of season winterising is about the same IIRC.

Add atleast £100 for a long wetsuit, £50 for a short one depending on when you want to use it £50 for a life jacket then a few hundred each for skis, wakeboards and each inflatable and it starts to add up.

Main brands are Yamaha, Seadoo & Kawasaki. Tigershark (Suzuki) used to be a player too, but I think they stopped manufacture a year or so ago. I only know of Seadoo for the boats.

There are loads of different options, size & engine sizes basically. Depends what you want to do - smaller ski's are more manuverable, but bigger ones are more stable for towing (as well as carrying more passengers).

Ski's & boats (but no prices) -

Markus

Thanks for the comprehensive reply.

Think that seadoo is what the chaps were playing on.

think that I'd be going for a used one, as at 13k that would be more than I paid for the scoob.

camk

If you can find somewhere that hires them out then thats a good bet to see if your really hooked. A couple of my mates got the bug after one weekend and then bought one each the next weekend, unfortunately after too many lagers. They still get pi$$ed off when its mentioned due to the large amount of dosh they lost and the little or no use they made of them.

Regards
Cammy

Brendan Hughes

I'd second Cammy's comments. Mate of mine had a jetski 10 yrs ago in Bournemouth. We all went out and had a play on it, very nice time. But I don't know how often he used it, and at 4k it seemed to me (aged 22 with no real job) to be a bloody expensive toy. I'm in Lisbon for five years now, and seriously considered a jetboat, having been in one in New Zealand. But what do you do with it? In a car you get in (perhaps with a mate), blat around the lanes, and get out at a pub, or a park, or your friend's house, whatever. But in a ski/boat surely you blat about for a bit but always have to return to square one? There's nothing else you can do! Go and hire one every weekend for the next four, then decide if they're still great or if the novelty wears off!

BJH

alistair

Good points - I had a jetski for about 18 months and used to go to a lake. I had just about enough after the first year, but the sea opens up much more fun.

It's definately a team game - gets pretty boring on your own. Skiing wakeboarding or inflatables are the way to go.

Nice day out - fun in the boat then a picnic on the beach with the kids, more playing then off home.

The kids love the boat and playing on the beach and coz of the boat I'm prepared to drive an hour each way to the beach on a weekend which wasn't always the case........

GM

Noisy, smelly, smokey things - get yourself a proper boat - one with a sail!!!!

GM (who does actually have an RYA powerboat certificate )

fast bloke

Markus - your best bet is to buy a 2-3 y/o one in the middle of the country. Chances are it has been used on a lake instead of the sea. As stated above, lakes get boring quite quickly, so three y/o may not have had a lot of wear. Fresh water use is also a bonus. They are fairly straight forward to maintian, so if you are spanner minded at all you should be able to service it yourself. If you can buy one with a documented service history you will be at least able to make an educated guess about the running time so far. 50MPH on water is mental, but you do get used to it quite quickly. You really need a couple of people and sea use to keep up the novelty.

p.s. GM - Noisy, smelly and smokey = fun fun fun. Are you elderly?

Jonathan Witts

Hi Markus

I have been riding Jetski's for years now. Current craft is a Yamaha XL1200. 135bhp !!

Its a big, fast, stable craft thats good for wave jumping or long distance crusing. A trip across to the Isle of Wright is a regular occurance.

My Ski is in its third year now and probaly worth about £5k, so not too much. Last Season I bought a wake board and if I am down with mates we give that a go for the variety.

If you ever want a blast just email and I'll gladly let you take her for a spin.

One of the oldest Jet ski shops has a good web site :-

Jonathan Witts

Another good place for info is:-

GM

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by fast bloke:
<B>GM - Noisy, smelly and smokey = fun fun fun. Are you elderly? [/quote]

Do you know what happens if you're racing a lightweight dinghy in sod all breeze and a jet ski drives across in front of you? You stop the minute you hit his wash. And its always me they drive in front of - never the people I'm racing

howardb

Markus,
IGW car dealer in Bolton has gone into liquidation (or similar). They have a jet ski in the showroom. Might be worth a call to see what it is and what price.

alistair

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by GM:
<B> You stop the minute you hit his wash. And its always me they drive in front of - never the people I'm racing [/quote]

GM, are you sure you're not elderly - doesn't sound much like racing to me

fast bloke

GM - Can I make a suggestion. If you where to get a much smaller dinghy, say around three foot by two, and put a seat on it, and then maybe get something like a 1000 or 1200cc engine for it you might not have this problem any more.
Anyway - why bother to sail in sod all breeze. Is that not called sun bathing or something?