The engineering and the design are great. They seemed to borrow a lot from Yamaha in terms of layout with the bow seating, and the passenger captain's chair setup is just like my AR240 had. I watched the video and commented some thoughts on it a couple weeks ago and the founder of Kyma (Edward Malle actually replied. It's cool to see he's listening in and engaging with consumers. The notes I had were 1) the bimini is quite small 2) the interior upholstery might be quality materials, but it's very basic monotone 3) needs 14-1500lbs more ballast to be able to match the wave size of other wakeboats in the same price point.
I think it's a great first showing. The struggle I think they're running up against is, at the same price point, I can pretty much design a custom boat in a proven platform. It'll take time and investment before they have any economy of scale that will allow them to have the same amount of offerings and be profitable. They're relying on the uniqueness of the thing to make sales... it is unique!
No doubt the jet is fun to drive. The owner commented that the boat had a top speed of 45-47mph, which out performs most any v-drive wake boat. The wave appears truly surfable, without requiring any creative editing. The Sea Keeper is a positive for ride quality and could prove to be cool for wake shaping. Right now however, I'd be shocked if it provided a much adjustability as other well equipped entry level wakeboats.
We should see more reviews conning. Edward said Boating Mag should be releasing their data any time now. I'll intrigued and I'll be watching.
I would say yes, for the price point, you're looking at a proper vdrive - BUT, not everyone that wants a great wave can boat on water that's consistently deep. Enter the jet advantage for us river rats that need to get through some shallows to find the deeps. Since getting into watersports, my wife and I constantly (like monthly) go back and forth between a proper vdrive for sports and keep the jet because we're in 4-5' feet of water regularly. I made my family watch this video last night because I was so excited for something new and came up with the following pro/cons:
Pro's:
- 23' foot size is the unicorn size, in my opinion, for a great wake boat
- 15" draft? That's less than Yamaha and really amazing for 5k dry weight boat
- True neutral?! I want more info on this for sure
- Surf pipe on a jet boat!
- Power tower with articulating bimini - very much like a Supra or Nautique - and if you can drive the boat with it down, is great for escaping bad weather.
- Jet boat maneuverability in a surf-style boat without having thrusters/additional batteries
- 3k lbs of stock ballast is very nice - I'd imagine another 500lbs of lead would really wake up the wakeboard wave.
- Downward facing jet thrust to improve surf wave.
- Seakeeper system for wave transformation is really interesting, that's like a 2x usage of that product.
- Many options that Yamaha won't install come standard (surf pockets, phender pro, vdrive-class sound system)
- "Tubing setting" is funny to me - I would've named those something different like "kids, "teenagers," and "revenge"
- Multiple surf tow points on the tower
- Wet storage in the back
- Power shutoff behind the rear seat
- Hinged seats when accessing storage - unreal how many 100k "economy class" wakeboard boats have seats that aren't secured.
- Trash located under the step to reduce traffic
- High windows for wind protection, but cutout like a vdrive for communication
- Access to the jet pump through a swim platform
- SWIM PLATFORM on a jet boat - for watersports you cannot beat an actual swim platform
- Review eluded to that the boat is much quieter than "other jet boats," probably due to the surf pipe and V8.
Cons:
- Pump has direct access, but looks like the cover is bolted in (good for sealing) but I thought about those nuts going right into the water during an attempted cleanout.
- The outside-the-tub cupholders were weird to me. I get it that they're also rod holders, but that went a bit too far IMHO to make a do-everything boat. I'm not bringing the kids out for a day of bleeding fish on my wakeboard boat - I'll buy a cheap aluminum for that.
- 12 person capacity - ouch... on a 23' vdrive a 23' boat is 15-17 people. That's only two more than my 21' Yamaha
- You're back to winterizing this boat like a vdrive vs. the jet-ski motors we're used to.
- I'm back and forth on the co-pilot chair - my wife really likes ours, but to me it's wasted space. That said, the bench-only option in wakeboard boats creates a rear facing option only... I think Tige has done it best recently with their newest boat where there's a bench and a co-pilot helm, and the seat rocks between a double bow-facing seat, or a rear facing seat for water sports, with just a simple movement.
- Coming from a Yamaha and going to a single-engine boat, you would lose that confidence that if you had a bad pump jam, you could still limp back to the dock.
- Direct-to-consumer sales model... hmm, not liking that for service issues in the future.
Questions:
- Tell us more about pulling the pump?
- Tell us more about who makes this pump, their history, and advantages to this particular pump manufacturer?
- Tell us more about the impeller, the blades, the intake, the pitch?
- Tell us more about the steering - jet only? is there a rudder?
- Tell us more about how the waves are shaped for surfing - can you use SK for switching rider sides quickly?
- Tell us more about the motor - closed or open loop cooling?
- What exactly does the sound system consist of, amps and speaker size?
- Battery(s) and onboard charging setup?
- Tell us more about the ballast system - looks like a bag system, but how many pumps, how quick do they fill, and is the fill software timer based or actual (probably the former with a bag system).
- If true neutral is a "transmission" style system, what's maintenance like on that? Fluid to change and winterize?
- Tell us how you achieve the RPMs needed for a jet pump with a V8 that's lower RPM - has to be a transmission??
- Trailer in the video look branded to the boat, but who actually makes it, and is it better than the cheapy ones that come with Yamahas?
- Any LED lighting on speakers, cup holders, etc.?
- What is the height of the bimini in the tower-down position?
- Tell us more about the warranty offered on boat and motor? How does warranty work with a DTC model?
- If the jet thrust is downward facing, could this be made into a "trim" for the jet at all?
- Is the boat plug in the middle like a vdrive or at the stern like a jet boat?
Honestly, this boat really screams "built by people that understand both vdrive and jet boat advantages and disadvantages, and really really spend a lot of time on the water." I continue to be impressed!
Last edit to this post: The similarities to Yamaha are not a coincidence - appears that the owner of KYMA used to be the Operations Manager at Yamaha in TN. Good for him!