i went down to my Chesapeake condo on sunday and i took the family boat out after a 3 year haiatus (hmm..interesting, i have owned my stang for 3 years....interesting. lol).

anyways, let me tell you, even though its a 1998 GradyWhite Sportsman 180 (18') with a measily 130 yamaha outbaord, it was still a real fun time. just crusin' down the bay and the wind and water. it was simply amazing, i forgot how much fun a boat is.



soooo...it got me thinking...i may want to upgrade. i have been looking at 20+ ft Wellcraft Scarab, or even a twin engine sea doo/yamaha 270 hp jet boat. i am leaning towards the jetboats because they are set up for speed AND sports (wakeboarding, tubing, skiing) instead of just speed like the Scarabs.

has anyone have any experience with jet boats?

oh, and here is a scarab that is pretty much bad ***..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-99da...eature=related

 

I would stay away from the jet boats for skiing and wake boarding and stuff. I have done all that behind one and its not really that fun IMO. The Jet propulsion system of them things have a hard time pulling a wake board out of the water and once you DO get up on a wake board behind a jet boat it is really hard to do much. When you "pull" against the boat to "dig" or turn or whatever the jet system lugs way down and by the time your right into the middle of your jump or whatever your doing the boat has slowed way down. Its just really hard to have much fun behind one of them unless your on a tube or something that doesnt creat much force for the boat to pull.

My friend has a 18 or 19 foot Crown Line pleasure boat that he is getting ready to sell. Extreamly nice boat IMO. His has got a race built chevy engine in it and is fast as a **** LOL. Every time we take it out we try to kill each other on the tube. Taking turns and "whipping" each other into huge waves and ****. Its fun as hell but I think Im getting to old for that stuff. Now days everytime I go to the lake with him I come back feeling like I picked a fight with a club bouncer LOL.

 

i feel like that every time i go out too. lol. you can never get too old for that until your like 55. lol

 

....and everytime I sea a jetboat'er or jetski'er, I wanna' get my 12ga flare gun out and shoot'em

stick wth a reel boat, like the Scarab
here's a couple of shots of my 19' Sea Pro

 

randy, thats kinda what my boat looks like. lol

i was looking at scarabs on ebay, and a 2001ish 24' with a 454 mercruiser are going for like 15-16k. are people really not doing any boating cause of the gas prices? its not going to stop me from having my fun! lol

 

yes, fuel prices and the slumping economy dont help at all
I'll give you a for-instance: we fished the OC Tuna Tornament last week on my buddy Ricks boat, a 29' Lures wth 2 350 efi Merc's and we fished most of the "meats" out to @42miles offshore...when we got in and fueled the boat, it came to $885.00 at the pump.....

 

HOLY MOTHER SON-OF-A COD KNOCKER! almost 900 bucks for a tank... that sounds like the bill for an 18 wheeler! My friends Crown Line can only run premium fuel. Last time I was with him to fill it up. I cost just over 100. I was in amazement over that one. But the high prices and premium fuel to boot KINDA put things into perspective.

 

yea, but im not looking to have twin engines or anything like that, i may travel maybe 20 miles (from Anchor Marina in North East, MD to Turkey point and around the chesapeake bay) every trip. so i dont go far, i just go in circles cause its fun to whip the person on the tube around sometimes. lol

 

thats fine, just dont buy some gay-*** jet-drive boat and a tip, if you are a member of Boats US (and I highly recommend it), at some marinas they will give Boats US members $.10 off per gallon on gas, so we did save $88.50 off that fill-up at Fishermans Marina in West OC on friday....

 

lol. we know the marina owner's personally and they take care of us