New to jet boats

[JefO]

Just purchased a 96 challenger. Took it out today and ran great got up to 45. Then I just spent time checking out the lake. Down one leg of the lake I picked up a mess of weeds ( very small grass ) I had to jump in as I was dead in the water. I was able to remove the mess of grasses well guess what still dead in the water so in I went again. I had removed most of the grass. The inlet was still plugged the grasses came out. So here is the problem I was able to go around at 1/2 throttle if I pushed the throttle any higher. The boat would almost drop out of gear. The motor would race and I would lower back and I could move again but at 1/2. Or a med wake speed. Pulled out boat and came home took a quick look doesn’t seem to be any more grasses. ???? Will have to look closer tomorrow.

 

[swatski]

Just purchased a 96 challenger. Took it out today and ran great got up to 45. Then I just spent time checking out the lake. Down one leg of the lake I picked up a mess of weeds ( very small grass ) I had to jump in as I was dead in the water. I was able to remove the mess of grasses well guess what still dead in the water so in I went again. I had removed most of the grass. The inlet was still plugged the grasses came out. So here is the problem I was able to go around at 1/2 throttle if I pushed the throttle any higher. The boat would almost drop out of gear. The motor would race and I would lower back and I could move again but at 1/2. Or a med wake speed. Pulled out boat and came home took a quick look doesn’t seem to be any more grasses. ???? Will have to look closer tomorrow.

With the pump stuffed with grass you are experiencing a lot of "cavitation", or impeller slippage, think of car wheels slipping in mud. That does two things: reduces usable thrust (the impeller revs up very fast but generates little usable thrust), and reduces the amount/imtake of cooling water entering engine/exhaust cooling system - not a good way to run the boat for any amount of time.
If you can not clean all the mess out through the intakes and/or rear nozzle, I would consider pulling the steering/venturi nozzle to clean things up. Not familiar with the BRP/Seadoo as much but it should be fairly simple and we do this all the time.

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[PJ73]

 

[Gym]

Welcome aboard @JefO. We Yami drivers are lucky to have cleanout ports allowing us to cleanout the intakes and impellers from inside the boat. There is another cleanout procedure that works in both our boats that you can try. It's not ideal for seagrass but will likely clear the big clumps blocking the inlet. Here's the procedure to try next time you have a blockage:

1) Go into reverse mode at about 5mph.
2) Pull safety lanyard to kill engines
3) Immediatly put throttle levers into forward position and wait for about 10 seconds.
4) Restart engines.
This process causes water to flow backwards through the intakes flushing the blockage out.
If you still have a blockage you can repeat this process a few times as long as you're not in overheat mode. Also be careful you have room to back up and drift while using this process. This works 90% of the time for me. Sea grass is my most difficult challange and sometimes takes me 2 or 3 tries before I get it cleared but I rarely have to use my cleanout plugs and never have to get wet.

 

[JefO]

Thanks for the

Welcome aboard @JefO. We Yami drivers are lucky to have cleanout ports allowing us to cleanout the intakes and impellers from inside the boat. There is another cleanout procedure that works in both our boats that you can try. It's not ideal for seagrass but will likely clear the big clumps blocking the inlet. Here's the procedure to try next time you have a blockage:

1) Go into reverse mode at about 5mph.
2) Pull safety lanyard to kill engines
3) Immediatly put throttle levers into forward position and wait for about 10 seconds.
4) Restart engines.
This process causes water to flow backwards through the intakes flushing the blockage out.
If you still have a blockage you can repeat this process a few times as long as you're not in overheat mode. Also be careful you have room to back up and drift while using this process. This works 90% of the time for me. Sea grass is my most difficult challange and sometimes takes me 2 or 3 tries before I get it cleared but I rarely have to use my cleanout plugs and never have to