Personal watercraft is usually made of fiberglass, it's a small light watercraft differed by the special hull shape, which allows to start gliding quickly, to make the steepest turns easily and to remain almost dry at the same time. Acceleration to the high speeds becomes possible due to its comparatively light weight (130-350 kg) and high-forced 2-, 3-cylinder motors of 70-155 HP by the volume of 700-950 cubical cm. Such engines have two cycles, one carburettor for one cylinder, oil injection and differ in high turns, to 7 thousand per minute.
PWC's manufacturers offer the whole range of models which can be divided into two basic groups: sports and tourist. Comfort and possibility of luggage transportation of the first group is sacrificed to manoeuvrability and speed which by the way can reach 120-140 km/h. Personal watercrafts of the second group are almost motorboats able to transport three persons. Volume of there luggage rack achieves 200 L, and enormous Bombardier LRV DI, unique personal watercraft, meant for four people, have 678 L luggage rack! But a tourist watercraft is not so quick at turns and lose sports one in speed.
Personal Watercraft Principle of Operation
A personal watercraft doesn't have an external screw, a water jet activates a motor. The water jet sucks in the water from under the bottom of the ship and throws it out with the force through the special jet in a stern. A personal watercraft is steered by a "horned rudder", connected with the special nozzle on a jet. When you turn it to the left or to the right the vehicle is immediately slewed about to the corresponding side. And if to lift it or to lower, it's possible to make a personal watercraft either to perform stunning jumps or to dive under water!
The last function is called the trim system and every manufacturer has its own indication for this. For example, Bombardier indicates this system as VTS, Yamaha as QSTS, and Kawasaki as KATS. Yamaha sets the trim system almost in all of models, except for almost racing SuperJet700 and the cheapest WaveRunner XL700. Kawasaki sets the trim system only in one Ultra 150, and Bombardier exceptionally in the RXX, XP, RX, RX DI sports models.
If your personal watercraft rouse interest of shady characters the antitheft system is foreseen for this case and each producer has its own one.
PWC Advantages and Disadvantages
Basically, personal watercrafts of different producers are very similar to each other and differ only in some technical and designer nuances. Let better shop assistants of this technics tell you of these. Besides the advantages mentioned above, which are high speed and manoeuvrability, such “toys” have substantial disadvantages, excessive consumption of fuel, and not the cheapest one.
One should pay for large consumption of fuel for a pleasure to have a quick as the wind ride. Motors of 90 HP consume about 13 liters/hour, and motors of 100-155 HP consume from 20 to 40 liters/hour(!). But new 2-stroke motors of Bombardier PWC's which are equipped with injector, consume fuel almost two times less. At the Bombardier GTX 4-TEC and Yamaha WaveRunnerFX140 tourist models the 4-stroke motors are installed since 2002. They have 1494 and 998 cubic cm volume correspondingly, and consume not more than 12 liters/hour at 155 HP and 140 HP.
Personal Watercraft Maintenance
Personal Watercraft is indeed a product of high tech, requiring attentive attitude toward itself. Then it will serve you longer and expenses on a serious repair ($1-2 thousands on the average) will not burden your budget. Remember that the main enemy of a personal watercraft is the water, though it sounds strange. Got into the engine cylinders, it results in their rapid deterioration through overheating, numerous hydroblows and corrosion. And this means reduction of the haul to 80-200 hours of work instead of 2-4 thousands determined for a personal watercraft.
It's easy to postpone a serious repair. You need to read the hand-book carefully and to follow exactly all its items. For example, you may turn a personal watercraft over after a keel over (or if you simply turned it upside down) only to one side. This is made in order not to inundate an engine, notice that every model has it differently! In addition, it's worth to ventilate and dry out a motor compartment after every journey, and to wash also the cooling system. These simple actions will protect the motor from a chronic overheating with all of ensuing consequences.
The second vulnerable unit is a
water jet. Seaweeds, dirt and especially the sand get inside and can result in a very rapid deterioration, sometimes even to the serious damages. A repair can cost you several hundreds or a couple of thousands dollars. Therefore you may approach a shore only with a stopped motor because a water jet begins to suck in the sand, sea shells etc. already at a depth of 90 cm. And the bushes of seaweeds is better to go around or pass with "uprush", i.e. to gather to the top speed and then to slow down abruptly.
In addition, you need to follow recomandations of the manufacturer for operation without problems. For example, new Bombardier TO-1 requeres to pass through the servicing after 10-hour work, and then after every 50 hours. It will cost money.
Transportation of a Personal Watercraft
You'll need to purchase a special trailer for transportation of your PWC. By the way, it pays more to buy a PWC and a trailer in a set. You may count for an essential discount then.
