Utopia 205 SE First Outing

[Sikiguya]

I wanted to report our first outing as a family. It has been crazy weather here in Wisconsin. 70 one day and 50 the next. We had a storm come through last night...several inches. Today was sunny, 70ish, but windy. It had died down some and so we decided to go for a boat ride.

Everything went pretty smooth. Did the checklist like Craigmri suggested. Got to the ramp just fine. It was somewhat quiet there save for a half dozen fishermen. I think they might have thought we were strange for taking a jetboat out. Only took 3 or 4 tries to get it on the ramp....didn't think it was too bad.:cheers: Wife got it tied to the dock while I parked the vehicle. Jumped in and started slowly out of the ramp. (I did take it out one afternoon last week with a friend just to try it out)

We took it on Silver Lake, a 490 acre lake less than a mile from my house, that is also known for being the location for the recent Amiville Horror remake house(was filmed there). It is deep in the middle 40-50 feet but is shallow on the edge. The area by the ramp is about 3 feet deep. As we left the protected bay/ramp, we idle out...until we got out to about 5 to 6 feet out.

Then we did a couple of laps. We were the only pleasure craft out. There were probably 6 to 8 fishing boat out and 2 crazy wind surfers:reddevil:. We ran it a couple of laps and I turned it over to the wife. She enjoyed driving the boat a lot....maybe too much!:hat: We had some snacks and cruise the shore a bit before heading in.

The boat was perfect! I am not regretting my choice. I am glad that I got the bigger boat..both for the room and the ride. The twin Rotax fired up just fine and ran perfect throughout the day. Wife ran it in the 30 mph range. I went and got it up to 45 to 50...it was windy and the lake was not smooth. How fast can this boat go on glassy water??

Will report more...may even try to get a video of me attempting to back up to the ramp...

 

[Sikiguya]

More Pics

Here are some more pics

 

[rookie101]

Looks Like a great day, and awesome pictures....:hurray:

Don't worry about the backing up, in a few more trips you will look like an old pro. Thanks for sharing, hope to get my old U-boat out this weekend.

Aaron:cheers:

 

[Craigmri]

Jim,

Looks like the family is officially hooked on boating! Like Aaron says, in a few more outings you'll be a pro. The more I use mine the more skilled I become around the docks.

On my last outing I got my 205 up to 52.8mph(gps). This was fairly calm conditions with full fuel load and two adults. Pretty much what boattest.com got during their test. If you got similar speeds using gps your boat is right on the money. The boat speedometer(often called the dreamometer) is often inaccurate.

Did you get to enjoy any carved high speed turns while out on the lake to test some of the jetboat abilities? Could you even imagine buying a prop driven boat at this point?

Thanks for sharing your first outing with the family with us all. You guys are in for a fantastic summer!

Craig

 

[Sikiguya]

Yeah, it is the second time and I am starting to get the whole backing up of the trailer...I am going to practice while the docks are still not busy.

The speed was the speedometer reading. I haven't put a GPS in it yet. We have spent a lot already...even with all the goodies that we got with the boat..I guess that is what they meant by it being a money pit. The water wasn't smooth and had a light chop in it.

Toward the end of the ride, I started to do just that. I haven't done the 360's like I used to do on a jetski when I was younger. Didn't think I wanted to freak the kids out by dumping them overboard. But definitely notice how much tighter this can turn. Hoping to do a bit more when it is calmer and taking the boat to its limit. :hurray: