Ryan Meyer
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 10
- Reaction score
- 12
- Points
- 52
- Boat Make
- Yamaha
- Year
- 2018
- Boat Model
- SX
- Boat Length
- 21
I'm a new member and I wanted to say thanks for all the information that's available on this forum, it's been invaluable to say the least.
A little background...I've been boating pretty much since I was born and running boats since I was twelve so I have a fair amount of experience (30 + years). From 14 foot tillers to I/O's with the last boat being a 17.5 ft Lund Fisherman with a 150 Verado (supercharged 4 stroke outboard). The Lund was a fish-n-ski layout but we haven't really fished the last few years so we decided to look for a boat that fit our current boating lifestyle. With that being said, after a fair amount of research I decided to pursue a jet boat. We boat on Lake Winnebago which is a large (139,000 acres) shallow (max depth 21 feet) fresh water lake and wanted something that could handle the rough water and provide a fun platform for anchoring on sandbars and water sports.
Luckily there is a Yamaha dealer 10 minutes from where we keep the boat so we setup a test drive on a SX195 which was what we were possibly planning to purchase. We had 8 people on board for the test drive which went well, but we quickly determined that a bigger boat would be a better choice. It wasn't so much the space or power but the 19 footer's bow rides so low when off plane that I can almost guaranty we'd be taking water over the bow on a regular basis. So, we decided to go with the SX210 (got the updated bow roller, anchor, bow cover and 3 year warranty included).
Having had the boat for about 2 weeks and 11 hours of usage I can say overall I'm very satisfied. After reading all the information on this site I was a little concerned by some of the thoughts on the boats performance but overall I can say it's pretty good. With only 5 months of boating season paying an additional $10K just didn't make sense for a 212 and the 240 was just too big. I knew the top speed wasn't going to be there (our Lund would do 54 with a light load and hit 50 with 6 people on board) but what really surprised me was the low end torque and mid range performance of the TR1 engines. This weekend we never had less than 8 people in the boat and that included at least 5 adults and several times wed had total of 10. The boat is very quick to plane and can cruise all day at 30MPH. With a full load (11 people) my top speed was around 37, with a light load I was able to hit about 44. Pulling tubes was no problem even with a full load of people. Our previous boat in a 1.5 foot chop would rattle your teeth and you had to constantly work the throttle to smooth out the ride but in the Yamaha I could set the cruise at 27 to 30 and it would literally glide over the chop. It was a truly night and day difference. I would love the boat to be faster but I can honestly say that it's exceeded my expectations. Also, I don't know if it's just me but I thought maneuvering the boat was easier than our outboard. It actually tracks straighter than the Lund did at no wake speeds and I found it easier to pull up to the dock and put into the lift as well. You do have to use more throttle but once you get a feel for leveraging the thrust It was pretty easy. I just completed the 10 hour maintenance on my own which took a littler longer than expected but that was just me being over cautious. So far everyone is loving the new Yamaha boat!
Cheers!
A little background...I've been boating pretty much since I was born and running boats since I was twelve so I have a fair amount of experience (30 + years). From 14 foot tillers to I/O's with the last boat being a 17.5 ft Lund Fisherman with a 150 Verado (supercharged 4 stroke outboard). The Lund was a fish-n-ski layout but we haven't really fished the last few years so we decided to look for a boat that fit our current boating lifestyle. With that being said, after a fair amount of research I decided to pursue a jet boat. We boat on Lake Winnebago which is a large (139,000 acres) shallow (max depth 21 feet) fresh water lake and wanted something that could handle the rough water and provide a fun platform for anchoring on sandbars and water sports.
Luckily there is a Yamaha dealer 10 minutes from where we keep the boat so we setup a test drive on a SX195 which was what we were possibly planning to purchase. We had 8 people on board for the test drive which went well, but we quickly determined that a bigger boat would be a better choice. It wasn't so much the space or power but the 19 footer's bow rides so low when off plane that I can almost guaranty we'd be taking water over the bow on a regular basis. So, we decided to go with the SX210 (got the updated bow roller, anchor, bow cover and 3 year warranty included).
Having had the boat for about 2 weeks and 11 hours of usage I can say overall I'm very satisfied. After reading all the information on this site I was a little concerned by some of the thoughts on the boats performance but overall I can say it's pretty good. With only 5 months of boating season paying an additional $10K just didn't make sense for a 212 and the 240 was just too big. I knew the top speed wasn't going to be there (our Lund would do 54 with a light load and hit 50 with 6 people on board) but what really surprised me was the low end torque and mid range performance of the TR1 engines. This weekend we never had less than 8 people in the boat and that included at least 5 adults and several times wed had total of 10. The boat is very quick to plane and can cruise all day at 30MPH. With a full load (11 people) my top speed was around 37, with a light load I was able to hit about 44. Pulling tubes was no problem even with a full load of people. Our previous boat in a 1.5 foot chop would rattle your teeth and you had to constantly work the throttle to smooth out the ride but in the Yamaha I could set the cruise at 27 to 30 and it would literally glide over the chop. It was a truly night and day difference. I would love the boat to be faster but I can honestly say that it's exceeded my expectations. Also, I don't know if it's just me but I thought maneuvering the boat was easier than our outboard. It actually tracks straighter than the Lund did at no wake speeds and I found it easier to pull up to the dock and put into the lift as well. You do have to use more throttle but once you get a feel for leveraging the thrust It was pretty easy. I just completed the 10 hour maintenance on my own which took a littler longer than expected but that was just me being over cautious. So far everyone is loving the new Yamaha boat!
Cheers!
