While I have significant Yamaha motorcycle experience, I'm a newbie on these PWC’s. I purchased a 1996 1100 Yamaha Wave Venture this week to ride at our beach house in Jupiter, FL.
Day one was interesting – getting out through the Indian river inlet around to the beach seemed pretty treacherous – but determination got me there. After about 30 minutes I had enough comfort to start jumping the waves etc…. it was an absolute blast – every bit as much fun as I thought it would be!
Day two, the rough water the inlet exit was still a little scary but not as much as day one. The ocean was still rough on the beach side so there was a lot of wave jumping etc. As you would imagine a bunch of water rolled over the front end at various times.
After about an hour of this type of riding – the front end started doing something really weird….. It started to handle as if the whole front end was full of water! Not knowing what was going on I beached it and looked all around for the problem but did not find anything – no accumulation of water anywhere?? After a few minutes on the beach I took it out again to see if the problem was repeated….. it was for a few minutes but then seemed to just go away. To describe this problem in a little more detail – in rough water the front end wanted to dive rather that top the waves, and it became very difficult to steer. It also seemed to loose power at the same time too. In calm water it just doesn’t have as much power and does not turn as well.
This was repeated twice while at the beach yesterday. Finally with the ocean getting rougher by the minute, I decided to ride it back into the inlet. With the problem gone temporarily I rode without any problems in the inlet and inter-costal calm waters for another half hour. At one point I went up to where the river meets the ocean and was capsized. It was upside down for about 5 minutes – but fired right back up when righted (thank God!).
However the problem with the front end reappeared a few minutes later in calm water. I rode it for another hour until it ran out of gas, trying to get a better understanding of what was going on. The problem did not go away this time.
Can anyone explain what may be causing the problem that makes the front end want to dive, slowing down the PWC, and diminishing the maneuverability? I'm a little concerned about bringing it around to the beach side again with this problem. It would be damn near impossible to ride it through the inlet with this problem, and it would not be an easy feat to get it out of the water if I get stuck on the beach side.
Thank you in advance for any experience you can share.
Day one was interesting – getting out through the Indian river inlet around to the beach seemed pretty treacherous – but determination got me there. After about 30 minutes I had enough comfort to start jumping the waves etc…. it was an absolute blast – every bit as much fun as I thought it would be!
Day two, the rough water the inlet exit was still a little scary but not as much as day one. The ocean was still rough on the beach side so there was a lot of wave jumping etc. As you would imagine a bunch of water rolled over the front end at various times.
After about an hour of this type of riding – the front end started doing something really weird….. It started to handle as if the whole front end was full of water! Not knowing what was going on I beached it and looked all around for the problem but did not find anything – no accumulation of water anywhere?? After a few minutes on the beach I took it out again to see if the problem was repeated….. it was for a few minutes but then seemed to just go away. To describe this problem in a little more detail – in rough water the front end wanted to dive rather that top the waves, and it became very difficult to steer. It also seemed to loose power at the same time too. In calm water it just doesn’t have as much power and does not turn as well.
This was repeated twice while at the beach yesterday. Finally with the ocean getting rougher by the minute, I decided to ride it back into the inlet. With the problem gone temporarily I rode without any problems in the inlet and inter-costal calm waters for another half hour. At one point I went up to where the river meets the ocean and was capsized. It was upside down for about 5 minutes – but fired right back up when righted (thank God!).
However the problem with the front end reappeared a few minutes later in calm water. I rode it for another hour until it ran out of gas, trying to get a better understanding of what was going on. The problem did not go away this time.
Can anyone explain what may be causing the problem that makes the front end want to dive, slowing down the PWC, and diminishing the maneuverability? I'm a little concerned about bringing it around to the beach side again with this problem. It would be damn near impossible to ride it through the inlet with this problem, and it would not be an easy feat to get it out of the water if I get stuck on the beach side.
Thank you in advance for any experience you can share.