Tried out a Jetboat

[chambers1517]

We fell in love with a jetboat at the boatshoe in the spring. The layout and rear was incredible. My wife and kids spent about 2 hours in the boat and almost pulled the trigger. The only thing that held us back was the fact we own a nice sterndrive bowrider. All summer we talked about the jetboat. I found out a guy at work had a boat like we were interested in. He took me and my wife out in it over the weekend. It drove different which was ok. Layout was awesome. Lots of storage and room. My wife hated the way it sounds, I did too. It seemed really loud. It is a twin engine 2008 model. It reminded me of a cvt atv. My wife kept asking me what was wrong with it. It ran good but we cruise quite a bit and don't think we could handle a 2 or 3 hour cruise with the noise. Is this typical for the jetdrives. This trip completely was a letdown.

 

[redneck joe]

what is the exact difference between the two boats?

 

[oldjeep]

The noise would be typical of a jetski powered jet drive, not a "real " big block powered jet boat. Might be able to eliminate some of the weed whacker noise by better insulation of the motor compartment.

 

[chambers1517]

I thought about new at the boatshow but have a really hard time eating all the depreciation. My current boat is a 2008 Caravelle interceptor. It does not have the rear walkthrough and we swim a lot and like the rear lounge on the jetdrive. I have been looking for a really nice low hour Yamaha 212 or larger but now have lost a lot of enthusiasm for them. The boat we tried was a 2008 Yamaha 212. Performance was similar to my boat except the acceleration was better on the jet and top speed was better on my boat. The acceleration on the jet was great but the sound at cruise 35- 40mph was miserable.

 

[H20Rat]

Jets are noisy... No way around it, there simply is no way to get the exhaust to exit underwater like an outboard or most I/O's. So my jet is a merc v6 powerhead, its going to sound roughly the same as when an outboard is fired up on the muffs.

 

[thumpar]

You can get a layout like that on sterndrive boats. I know Crownline makes a lot of models like that.

 

[oldjeep]

You can get a layout like that on sterndrive boats. I know Crownline makes a lot of models like that.

Four wins has a couple I/O's that have the wake boat style seating as well. Not quite as much space as the real thing, but nice.

 

[Slip Away]

Noisy, it's a Yamaha that is why. Try the Chaparral Vortex and Scarab jet boats. They have the BRP (formerly in sea Doo jet boats) engines and are insulated much better, and quieter with the supercharging.

 

[oldjeep]

Noisy, it's a Yamaha that is why. Try the Chaparral Vortex and Scarab jet boats. They have the BRP (formerly in sea Doo jet boats) engines and are insulated much better, and quieter with the supercharging.

Quieter with the supercharger? I guess it is different when you are not sitting on it, but the supercharger whine in our RXP is definitely something you hear.

 

[OrangeTJ]

A few things:

1. The 2008 you went out in would have had the HO MR1 engines, which rev out to 10.2K rpm at WOT. They're loud, no doubt about it. Starting in 2012, the 212, 240 and 242 boats went to different engines that rev out to about 7.7K rpm, still not quiet but not as high pitched or loud as the HO MR1 engined boats. Those 1.8 HO engines are still the standard equipment across the 212/240/242 lineup, but starting with the 2015 models of the 24 footers the entire boat has been designed with much better sound insulation all around and all accounts are that they are now much, much quieter at all speeds. This has not yet been applied to the 212, 210, 192 or 190 series boats, but it seems likely that it will be applied to the 21 footers in the near future.

2. It seems that the Rotax powered Chaparral and Scarab are actually louder, not quieter, than the Yamahas. Hopefully they'll address that.

We love our 2011 Yamaha SX210, which has different and not quite as high revving (8200 rpm max, albeit less powerful) engines than the 212 you went out in, but it is still a fairly loud boat. It's really the only thing we don't love about the boat and it isn't enough to make me want to trade out of it.

Long story short, if you like the rest of the boat but just don't like the noise, it might be worth either checking out one of the new 24 footers (2015) or waiting to see if the changes to sound insulation get applied to the 21 footers in the next model year.

EDIT: never mind - I just reread and saw that you are looking at used only. In any case, not every boat is right for everybody. In your case, you're in luck since you already have a boat you like!