Yamaha Jet Boaters

any idea on weed control I just replaced my frozen cleanot plugs with new ones and saw a seadoo jetboat cruise right trough my weedy bay with no effort I tried it and plugged my intakes out within 50 yards of my dock?? I got towed in with the pontoon put it on the lift and the intakes were plugged so bad I had to pull the plugs and bend a piece of 1/2 inch thinwall electrical conduit and push the weeds out. It worked great. needless to say this will be on my boat from now on. So whats up with the seadoo getting through the weeds and Yamaha can't? did he take his intake grates out and is using his boat like a garbage disposal? If I catch up with this guy to see what he did I will post it. any help would be great. waterford wi.

I've found that the faster I'm going, the less weed issues I have - how fast was he going, and how fast were you going when you tried it?

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Matt

2007 Ford F150 4X4 Supercrew
2011 Yamaha SX210 "Kimberly Ann"
1978 Beautiful Fiance (Upgraded to wife on 7/28/12!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
2000 Wonderful Son
2003 Lovely Daughter
2003 Awesome Stepson

Yeah, if you're on plane and moving along quickly, you have a better chance of making it through than if you're just moving along at 15 MPH. Last weekend I cruised through an area of seagrass while cruising on plane at 35 MPH. My son turned to me and said "Dad, we're in the seagrass!". I just nodded and kept the hammer down. We made it through no problem. Normally if we were just puttering through, we would have had a clog.

There's a limit, though. If the weeds/grass is too thick and sitting at the surface, then you'll still clog even when on plane, but your chances are better if your moving fast. Just be prepared to shut it down if it does clog!

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cobra7



2006 Yamaha SX210 (Black), Painted Trailer (White), Kenwood/Polk Audio, Cobra Jet Steering Fins, Seadek Cockpit Deck Pads

islandracing sells water strainers that act as water filters and help you with this problem

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pin fix, pre mix, bulb primers, kenwood stereo, 53 mph on gps BONE STOCK, never seen salt water

Tow vehicles:
2012 silverado LTZ,
4 door jeep wrangler rubicon
2003 Chevy express cargo van.

I see no reason why the SeaDoo would have any advantage over any other jet boat as far as weeds getting into the intakes.

We have lots of kelp off shore in California. I once clogged the intake of my jet ski while idling in port. I avoided the kelp beds but also would be caught by surprise going over some kelp and didn't get clogged. Little by little I began to experiment until I learned that I could just about skim over any kelp bed without trouble if I was going WOT. I suppose the boat wouldn't be as successful as it does have a deeper draft than a ski at full power and isn't as fast.

Just make sure that where you start your run you have a weed free spot, then get up to speed as quick as you can. What does get sucked in will get chopped up and spit out. No doubt you'll still have some clogging issues if the weeds are thick.

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Joy and peace came into my life when I accepted Jesus Christ.
Cobra Jet Steering, E-Z locks, Bimini extension, MP3 connector, RAM mounted GPS, Anchor Buddy, 25# Richter anchor, hour meter, SS scupper, adjustable pedestal, spare tire, Water Witch bilge switch, PerfectPass Star Gazer, and a Pacemaker!

Last weekend I had to stop and unclog the intakes about 8 times. Twice I had to put it on my boat lift and pull the weeds out. I was wondering what I could use to push them out from the top so I'm glad you shared your idea about 1/2 inch conduit.

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2008 AR230

First the strainers that were mentioned are for the water lines going to your engine to keep trash out of the cooling passages in the engine,, not for keeping weeds out of the intake grates,, weeds will always be a problem, I have found hitting waves will knock them out usually and I now have a new trick where I go fast then quickly drop the throttle to idle and then back to wide open, this pushes the weeds through the intake and out the back,, just let passengers know to hold on because the boat plows water for a few seconds when you get off the throttle, also do a search and there is a reverse trick where you kill the engines while backing up and then put the controls in forward allowing water to back flush through the pumps and out the intake grates , all this stuff has been talked about year after year.

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[quote="jeff walkowiak"]First the strainers that were mentioned are for the water lines going to your engine to keep trash out of the cooling passages in the engine,, not for keeping weeds out of the intake grates,,

sry, i thought he meant weeds in the cooling lines

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pin fix, pre mix, bulb primers, kenwood stereo, 53 mph on gps BONE STOCK, never seen salt water

Tow vehicles:
2012 silverado LTZ,
4 door jeep wrangler rubicon
2003 Chevy express cargo van.

Eventually that could also be an issue .
Those strainers work pretty well and in weed infested areas they would be a good thing to use keeping in mind that you must clean them out every day you use them because if they get clogged your enging can overheat.

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I watched my neighbor with a 4Winns 351 cleveland jet boat. nothing but problems big weed problems. I am so lucky to have a yamaha no problems other than weeds. I use a 1/2 inch thinwall conduit that I had to bend to push out the weeds worked great! I only had to use one time but I highly recommend keeping this on board. It beats the heck out of getting out of the boat I found the best way to get rid of weeds is to pick up a little speed and just kill the engines. You may have residue weeds but you can get them later. I was ready to sell this one owner boat with 90 hours on it but I just love this boat to much/ NOTHING and I MEAN NOTHING COMPARES TO THIS BOAT

Can someone help me understand exactly where you're sticking this conduit, and which direction you're pushing? I'm confused. We experienced some weed issues for the first time this Friday. Noticed that when we put the hammer down we would only get to about 6500 RPMs and the boat wasn't getting up on plane. Used the reverse trick and it worked great.

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2013 Yamaha 212X
2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland

Sounds like he's going in through the clean out plugs and pushing the weeds down and out.

Scott

sometimes they jammed in the intake so bad reversing doe's not work. I bent a piece of thin wall conduit and pulled out the cleanout plugs and pushed them out like that. The other options would be getting out of the boat and pulling them off by hand which is not always going to be a good option. It has worked great a couple of times for me now. I keep this in the boat with me now. good luck to ya.

possibly some of the blue flexible plastic conduit would be a better alternative since it is not only flexible but pretty strong and won't rust

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Why we are at it, you really need to spend some time on this forum learning all the tricks. You are accurate - this is one bad ass boat, and one of the fastest (if not the fastest) and best handling Yamaha out there, given its size. I keep wondering why I need to "move up" to another Yamaha, other than needing more room. The "reverse trick" works great; you must replace the oil lines (no need to go pre-mix); get a plug blow out fix (Purple Plug fix available on this site from Brian works wonderfully); you must replace the oil lines; you must replace the oil lines; you must replace the oil lines; and you really must remove the clean out plugs after each and every outing. Finally, you must replace the oil lines.

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Tom in MD
01 LS2000 sold; 08 SX230
Silverado; Pilot, Civic and Kia;
Retired Cop/30 yrs & got out at perfect time as there is
no respect anymore for those that protect and serve thanks
to 8 years of Obama, the worst President in history.
MAGA!