Thank you, who else puts this much into r&d into these boat’s maneuverability? Not yamaha
Well it's my passion ,I did it in 2001 for myself and my family because I have always been a boat person had my first motor boat at 14 years old and I rode my bike to the marina to get the boat and go to the beach where all my friends would gather and water ski , They would donate money for gas usually 50cents as that would buy 2 gallons . And later on I volunteered to work in a marine repair shop to learn about engines , Back then they were mostly 2 stroke.
I built many boats and my favorite was the 19 foot I. O. that I totally gutted changed the hull and converted it to a 140 HP Johnson sea drive. One day in 2001 at 49 years old I made a big mistake and purchased a jet boat ,never test drove it had no idea what I was getting until I put it in the water for the first time and said HELL NO! I parked it refused to use it and then I decided to build a steering system for it because that is how I do things when I am challenged with a issue.
I took that boat to the water and said OH MY GOD!! this is the most nimble and most fun boat I ever owned, just that first modification and it was a huge improvement at all speeds, for all my uses from fishing to water sports and guest opoerators loved to drive it as well.
This is the actual boat and the steering system I desighned and built from scratch , it is painted gold and look at how small the fins were. I used that boat for years people asked me to do something for the Yamaha jet boats , I knew nothing about them , a local person brought his Yamaha jet boat to my house and said in desperation please make this boat steer better ,I hate it and I plan on selling it if you can't make it steer any better. I know I will loose a lot of money if I sell it but I hate it! He said he was going to leave the boat in my yard and for me to call him when I have something for him to try . Funny that was exactly how I ended up inventing the EZ locks for the push button clean out plugs as well , someone dropped ione off at myt house and begged me to solv that problem also.
This was A challenge so I desighned my first Yamaha system ,installed it on the nozzles , called him come over and we took it to Lake Seminole to try it.
The minute he backed it off the trailer he started smiling and then he started playing around with the people on jet skies near us ,showing off his new toy!!! Then he told poeople on forums and I was overwhelmed with orders. This is a set of the original steering fins for the yamaha jet boats
The next thing I knew I am being overwhelmed with requests from people who owned Yamaha jet boats begging me to make some for them. No I built all these by hand myself and I had to get my 2 boys to come over and help.
So that was how it all started. And as time went on and peoples needs changed as well as the boats designs changed so did my steering systems in order to fill in the voids and bring the Yamaha jet boats handling to a whole new level and it kept me busy for the last 25 years.
So it is my passion and with about 1/3rd of my entire life dedicated to it I am proud of what I accomplished.
Also one day in the beginning of all this inventing stuff , my son came to me and asked if I could possibly build a steering system for his friends P W C,,
I was a fisherman and not really fond of those at the time but I had him drop it off at my shop and I built a system for it.
They took it out in the middle of the day and they finally returned home after dark while I was sitting there worring if something happened.
To my relief they were excited yelling and jumping up and down about the huge difference in handling it made and how I must try it out because it is totally amazing and there was no way to explain it in words.
There was the start of the P W C steering and here is a video I just did a few weeks ago at 73 years old in very shallow water to add to the drama.
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