Tower or No Tower?? Is one needed for water sports???

[Enduro900]

I live in Boynton Beach, FL since 2006. I had Yamaha xl1200 waverunner and a Honda ST1300 motorcycle and never enough time to enjoy them with the short summers, here it's summer all year long except during a Hurricane (there are still people out even then!)

I sold both toys and bought my house so I'm looking at a new Jetboat! I was a at the unavailing of the Yamaha 275 in Miami in 2019, I recorded alot but I found myself at the end of someone else's video

That is me with the Yamaha Racing shirt with my wife and kids at the 9:55 mark. I arrived right when they were thru for the day with the demo rides... That's ok, looking forward to the 25 ft this year... fingers crossed.


Cedar Point has an awesome Marina, check it out: Marinas at Cedar Point | Cedar Point

My kids and wife were intimidated by the roller coasters, so during the day we hit the Castaway Bay water park, its awesome... then after-hours I was able to hit the coasters by myself with minimum wait less than 15 mins on the major rides. There is also a nice area with rides for little kids!

Only negative on the marina is the Wi-Fi in the marina it just does not exist and cell towers are far away, I was recording the trip to put on youTube, I took all of my videos in 4k then back at the marina I was not able to upload anything to the cloud so I ended up running out of space which crippled my phone to the point I had to get a new one! My GoPro was fine but I did not want to carry it into the park. You live and learn!

The picture where my wife and daughter are laughing was taken in the Bay Harbor restaurant:
Bay Harbor - Drinks and Dining | Cedar Point the decor was a little dated but we had a great time, it was my wife's birthday.

In the future it would be great to have a group make the trip from the Lake St. Clair/ Detroit River area to Cedar Point! There are hotel rooms on site and cabins off for overnight stays.


Cedar Point Marina:
One of the benefits for staying in the Marina is that you get to enter the park 1 hour before general public and stay later, there are two restaurants in that area also we have gone to both.
This popular marina is one of the largest on the Great Lakes and features a floating pier system, gas dock, marina store, picnic area, gated docks and swimming pool.

Amenities and Benefits

Floating pier system Restrooms and showers Fuel docks Dockside pool and whirlpool spa Gated dock areas 24-hour security Complimentary WiFi in the Marina Store Beach access Two-minute walk to Cedar Point Pedestrian access to Cedar Point Guest laundry facilities Courtesy shuttle service on Cedar Point Peninsula Discounted Cedar Point tickets Two marina Platinum Passes* Eight Castaway Bay Indoor Waterpark day passes*

*Included with full summer seasonal dockage.

Dining

Two restaurants, the upscale Bay Harbor with its fresh seafood and steak fare; and the award-winning Famous Dave’s Legendary Pit Bar-B-Que, are located in the Cedar Point Marina and welcome boating enthusiasts.



And they also have Castaway Bay Marina:

Located adjacent to Cedar Point's Castaway Bay year-round indoor waterpark, this tranquil full-service marina has gated docks, a heated swimming pool with a sundeck, gas docks and rest rooms with showers. All 180 slips are equipped with full utilities.

Amenities and Benefits

Gated docks Heated swimming pool Sundeck Fuel docks Restrooms and showers

Discounted Cedar Point tickets Guest laundry facilities Two Marina Platinum Passes* Eight Castaway Bay Indoor Waterpark day passes*

*Included with full summer seasonal dockage

Thanks for the pics from Cedar Point......keep doing cool things with the kids, when they are grown they do remember that stuff trust me!

Boynton Beach......when we are down in FL that is where we go for boating! Father in law belongs to one of those boater clubs where you pay dues and can use any of their fleet (He used to have his own but cant keep a boat at his house and also got tired of trailering it to the intercoastal).

Thanks for the video of the 275. I hope the New “250/252” have the bow seat arm rest, true walk-thru transom design, the swim-up seats and the SVHO engines as an option. I hope they don’t carry the 275 styling (can’t say I like the look) or the price though (I have a feeling the 250/252’s will price at mid-sixes and top out at high 80’s, to sequence the pricing (212’s top out in the high 50’s, 250-252’s $60’s-high $80’s, 275 $99-$130 is my guess but I hope I am wrong)

 

[Rowdie]

My big dilemma is the wife hates the towers/look and how they take away the “open air feel” of the boat. I was leaning towards a model with a tower so that we could have the ability to do all water sports in the future when we have grandkids (tubing, skiing, wakeboarding, wake surfing, etc.). Is a tower necessary to wakeboard/wake surf or are there longer ski poles that can be used on the non-tower models?

It’s not strictly necessary. Neither is some tow pole. If you’re going to be doing a lot of wake boarding, skurfing, I’d suggest getting a proper ski boat.

I also assume a tower on the Yamahas gives you a larger Bimini? Or is the Bimini only larger on the 242SE/X models???

The models with a proper Bimini have significantly larger Biminis. For my boating I’d go with the Bimini top every single time. The two families I boat with on the regular have both seen the light. They’re busy trying to figure out how to get more coverage.

I also have not ruled out a 23ft-26ft i/o and on most I/O’s the towers are a $3k-$7k option, and I’d rather put that money towards max HP options.

Thank you!

that’s seems like a lot for the arch, but more importantly I’d never buy an io. I’d be interested in hearing the case for one these days

 

[mikeb9550]

Anyone have height issues on the towers with going under bridges? Seems like a pain to keep folding.

 

[HangOutdoors]

I have had the issue twice. Under one bridge after folding the tower I had about an inch of clearance, another time about 1 foot of clearance. Two nobs and lower it down. Not really a big problem, but an annoyance if I have the bimini up and have to collapse that as well.

Also the tower sux going through the McDonalds Drive through. Had to back up and ship the admiral up through the drive through line on foot. First and last time she did that.

 

[msavold]

I was reading this thread and wanted to add exactly that: Consider also anything you might have to go under...
If we head south from our place, we're good. If we go north, we're screwed with three low bridges to go under. So SX240 for us and the bimini stays down until we get past them.

 

[HangOutdoors]

Also let me add this.. One of my wakeboard racks is high, because I have multiple rocket launchers lower plus I like seeing everything to the all the way around me when I am driving and not being obscured by a wakeboard. The first time I went under a low bridge and had to lower my tower, my rack was in the way and stopped it a bit high on the windowshield. We barely go under. I purchased the Professional swivel mount from Reborn so that I could swivel the racks out of the way or in, next time I need to drop the tower.