We are delighted you have found your way to the best Jet Boaters Forum on the internet! Please consider Signing Up so that you can enjoy all the features and offers on the forum. We have members with boats from all the major manufacturers including Yamaha, Seadoo, Scarab and Chaparral. We don't email you SPAM, and the site is totally non-commercial. So what's to lose? IT IS FREE!
Membership allows you to ask questions (no matter how mundane), meet up with other jet boaters, see full images (not just thumbnails), browse the member map and qualifies you for members only discounts offered by vendors who run specials for our members only! (It also gets rid of this banner!)
Opinions vary on this, and needs/wants vary too.
We have a 212s and I thought I might need cones, steering mods, intake mods, etc., but after using the boat completely stock for a week, I had little desire to do any mods. I can't detect any cavitation - it hooks up to the water and blasts off like a rocket (the pump intakes look well sealed so maybe it's just not sucking air), the stock steering is almost the same as my old I/O prop for handling, etc. The only thing I added was a second keel rudder tie-rod from Cobra-Jet to balance out the steering - makes the steering a little more natural and reduces wear in one cable. I do not plan on doing any other steering mods. I may replace the air filter boxes with K&N style filters, but if it adds much intake noise I'm not interested. The intake ribbon delete is more difficult with the newer 1800 engines so not really interested in that now - maybe when the warranty is done and I'm bored, I might do it.
The 212 series has massive amounts of power for acceleration and speed - the jetpumps are great for acceleration but not as efficient for top speed, and I'm very happy with the stock performance. Top speed indicated 53.4mph stock (hits 50+ consistently in any normal boating conditions) using regular 87 octane fuel, and leaves most single prop boats behind in acceleration. My wife still shrieks when I punch it at 25mph and we take off like a cat whose tail was just stepped on. We've had Fountains and Bajas cruise along beside us with curious looks after we take off because they can't keep up till we hit the high 40's and then they blow past us hitting 70/80/90+mph. Our jetboat doesn't have the legs to keep up at speed with those monster powerboats, but still not bad for a little 21 footer. We'll never go back to a prop boat unless we win the lottery.
We've been in and around boats for many years, and while some boats are built for top speed, like Fountains with twin 525hp engines, you also need to remember those boats weigh in over 10,000lbs, about 3x as much as ours. So when we punch it, our boat jumps out of the water and takes off like a shot while the big heavy Fountains need to build speed and then the long pitch props get the advantage with massive HP pushing them. We love the big power boats and go to all the local poker runs and charity events every year. But for our use, these jetboats are frickin awesome and a joy to drive. Here's a little anecdote - my wife never had any interest in driving our boats, even though she has her Canadian PCOC license...until we bought the 212. Now she enjoys driving it and has a silly kid's grin on her face the whole time just like I do. That alone is worth the price.
I don't need to get anything...she's all over that with matching outfits long before the snow melts here!
So recently on some of the facebook pages people were commenting on the improvements for their Yamaha jet boats after adding my super magnum ak-19 deluxe steering and they posted that they were experiencing a better top speed by just a couple m p h and then the usual facebook mentality showed it's ugly head and told them basically it was not possible, ok so fact I have been making aftermarket steering since 2001 I have several models for most of the Yamaha lineup. I added in a combination side force stabilizer /plaining surface to the deluxe versions and it has become very popular because it pops the hulls up on plane very quickly, It shields the jet water exiting the nozzles from the transom wash rising up off the back of the boat when it's on plane and this produces a cleaner wake and a straighter jet thrust to propel the boat more effectively and as we already know if you have surf point get rid of it and your fuel economy goes up your top speed goes up and your handling improves. So if you need more info just go to the vendor section and read the info there .https://jetboaters.net/threads/basic-information-about-the-various-options-from-cobra-jet-steering-llc.16857/ will say I am impressed with the 2021 1800 NA engines both in strength and fuel economy and basically they did the mods to the engine for you.
Are you giving us free reign to spend your money then?!
What if the girlfriend and the wife don't like the same colors and styles ?
