November 8, 2011
Owners and guests love what they generically call Jet Skis. Captains, engineers and deckhands usually don't.
Nonetheless, personal watercraft (PWC) are practically mandatory equipment onboard many megayachts.
"They're like liver and onions," freelance Capt. Warren Koehler said. "Either you love them or you hate them. Either way, they bring a strong reaction."
Following are a few hints for a more harmonious relationship with these “sea mosquitoes” from the people who know them inside and out: repairmen, captains and crew.
The most popular PWCs are Sea-Doo by Bombardier, AquaTrax by Honda, Jet Ski by Kawasaki, and WaveRunner by Yamaha. The Personal Watercraft Industry Association describes them as vessels with an inboard motor powering a water jet pump.
They are a recreational craft designed to be operated by a person sitting, standing, or kneeling on top, rather than in, the vessel. They are relatively small compared with tenders and other boats, fast, fairly simple to use, and designed with propulsion systems that do not have external propellers so they are safer for riders.
All of this adds to their popularity on yachts, especially for charters.
But they are one more thing for yacht crew to deal with.
"Maintenance is the biggest part, preventative maintenance," Capt. Koehler said. "Most important is flushing the system each time you use it. You have to keep it clean to prevent corrosion and electrolysis."
Mike Shaw is service adviser at Broward Motor Sports in Ft. Lauderdale. He frequently repairs PWC for yachts and said corrosion is absolutely the main problem.
"The crew know to do maintenance but they don't always do it," he said. "They keep me in business. I've pulled so many engines apart and it looks like barnacles growing in there.”
He strongly recommends using a saltwater treatment applied with an attachment that connects between the water hose and engine during regular flushing. This helps dissolve saltwater residue.
Crew fight corrosion on all cables, also. Shaw suggests using anti-corrosion sprays for the whole engine.
"Spray everything, every time after rinsing," Shaw said.
Capt. Jay Kimmal of M/Y Summerwind learned a lesson with one of the three PWC he has onboard.
"It's just more than a year old and the engine is rusted, the inside cylinders and walls," he said.
Kimmel said he does all the maintenance suggested in the owner's manual, especially rinsing the engine with fresh water and spraying the contacts with silicone.
"The tech said the salty air just gets in when the engine cools,” he said. “Now that's something it doesn't say in the owner's manual."
A technician in St. Maartin told him to start and run the engines every couple of weeks, whether used or not.
"You need to move the air out and heat them up," he said. He has also replaced the injectors because he said they're made of plastic.
Not all guests want to use the PWC on every trip, which can make maintenance more important. If they are expected to not be used, there are several theories on storage.
"Even if they are idle, you still have to do monthly maintenance," Capt. Koehler said. "Letting the crew use them is a good way to check them and do maintenance."
If they sit for more than a couple of weeks, Shaw suggests crew drain the fluids.
"Either run dry or drain the fuel,” he said. “The ethanol settles out.”
For seasonal storage, though service adviser Juan Smith of Jet Ski of Miami suggests leaving the tanks full.
"I like to service them before putting them into storage," he said. "The oils have the right additives, you want to have new oil to move the additives through the system."
Smith's theory is that if you store them dry, then everything is dry when you try to start it back up, which can damage the engine. He uses 2+4 fuel conditioner which he said is good for four years. And he suggests leaving the battery with an inbound charger.
Depending on where they are stored, Shaw recommends spraying all metal parts, all the cables (reverse and steering cables) and covering the machines.
"They definitely can corrode," Shaw said. "No water craft is water tight. Leave the plugs out when you store them."
Smith uses Yamalube oil and Boeshield T-9 for corrosion inhibition.
"These things are breathing heavy, humid air," he said. "That moisture is in the system and needs a humidity defense. The metal is only protected by the oil."
Smith tells yacht crew to really read the manual and use the manufacturer's recommendations.
If crew prefer to service their own PWCs, that's fine, but he urged them to call with questions and take the machines in for manufacturer’s service every 75-100 hours of use or at least once a year.
"The engineers are savvy and know what they're doing,” Smith said. “There are just different subsystems with these. And sometimes yachts just don't have all the special tools onboard."
Capt. Herb Magney of M/Y At Last maintains relationships with repair facilities in Florida and Nassau, Bahamas.
"Both of which help us with remote problem resolution and they are there for routine changing of major parts," he said.
The two-stroke machines on M/Y At Last have been modified for saltwater with enhanced spark plug cables, absorbed glass mat batteries and lots of extra lubing of cables, Magney said. The crew also take care to prevent fuel problems.
"We double filter our gasoline for sediments and water before using it, because we had fuel related problems before," Magney said. "That last bit of air has salt in it."
To an extent, yachts have to carry spares because they are travelling, said Jet Ski’s Smith. He recommends standard oil, filters, plugs and corrosion inhibitor, and a battery charger to keep one battery charged at all times. Some captains said they keep spare cables, starters and carburetors onboard.
"And you have to carry gas, not diesel," Kimmal said.
Even once the science of maintaining PWCs is mastered, they can still be a headache when you factor in the human element, the driver.
"The nightmare is with guests," Capt. Koehler said. "It's guests that don't have a clue. You have to teach them."
Many people are unaccustomed to navigating watercraft, a vessel with no brakes.
"They don't know you have to have propulsion to steer, to maneuver," he said. "If you leave off the throttle then you can't steer.
"They don't know they could use reverse," Koehler said. "If they knew that much, they wouldn't be in harm's way, anyway."
Koehler makes sure to put up fenders to protect the yacht.
"Since they don't know to throttle, they just run into things, like the dive platform," he said.
Several servicemen said many repair issues stem from such preventable incidents.
"The problems with these [PWCs] is usually user-error," Shaw said. "And there is no way to control the guests."
Another problem comes with shallow water that can introduce sand into the cooling system and that can be expensive to repair, he said.
"You see them beach the Jet Ski and then start from there," Shaw said. "But every single one of these requires a minimum of three feet of water."
He recommends starting in deep water and possibly push the machines up and down to try to get the sand out first before you start the motor.
Guests think of the PWC like they would a rental and often aren't paying attention to issues.
"One of our yachts just got two new machines because the charter guest ran it through the alarm and the engine overheated," Smith said. "That trashed the engine."
"The operator can turn off alarms, but some of the newer models have a default that keeps the speed slow during an alarm," Magney said.
Magney attempts to cut down on incidents with a two-page checklist the crew walks the riders through. Then the guest has to sign it, he said.
Even with constant maintenance, PWCs are not all that bad.
"My boss really likes them and the kids really, really like them," Kimmal said.
And, quietly, Capt. Koehler admitted that although they are a bother in many respects, he doesn't completely want them off his boats.
"They are fun," he said. "I do like them."
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