55 replies to this topic

[tda3]

Tom I apologize. My buddy and I went out on the jetski's on Friday and he dropped his phone in the water at the boat ramp. He is in the real estate business so he can't be with out a phone. I let him use my phone over the weekend and he had his calls forwarded to my phone. He finally got a phone back on Sunday before we went out his new boat, we left on Sunday so it was too late to call by then. We didn't really have a good day on the water, along with dropping his phone in the water he also blew a fuse in his truck by leaving the trailer lights plugged in when backed in the water.

Hey......no problem. To be honest, I almost forgot about you being in town. It wasn't until the wife said something to me, that I remembered. And that was Saturday afternoon!

Anyhow, sorry we didn't get a chance to meet. Would've been nice to finally put a face (other than your avitar pic) to a name.

So....are you gonna mod the Cobra Jet Steering device to fit or what?

BTW, your friend is brave'r than me. If I had dropped my cell phone in the water, then blew a truck fuse, I'd take that as a sign from God and not go boating.

Tom

[tda3]

So what's the latest with this Cobra Jet Steering product for our beloved Speedsters? Has anyone installed one of these things and if so, how does it work?

C'mon now.....are you guys gonna make me buy one just to see how it does??

Tom

[jeff walkowiak]

So what's the latest with this Cobra Jet Steering product for our beloved Speedsters?  Has anyone installed one of these things and if so, how does it work?

C'mon now.....are you guys gonna make me buy one just to see how it does??

Tom

I had one of my loyal followers from the yamaha jet boat site send kevin a email he is in his town and has the mechanical ability to tweek the steering for him , I will be gone for 2 weeks camping on an island so have at it. I alreadt made the adjustment on my jigs based on the wag system since I never was sent a description of the spot where it was making contact, however as I stated before I pretty well know where it would do that and the simple fix was to move the heel back 1/2 inch that will allow for any variences it the reverse hood adjustments from one boat to another. I hope everyone had fun over the memorial day weekend I stayed away from the water to avoid the inexperienced fools hell bent on ruining peoples boats.

[Kevin Leclair]

Got the email, I will try to follow up with him when I get some spare time.

[tda3]

So what's the latest with this Cobra Jet Steering product for our beloved Speedsters?  Has anyone installed one of these things and if so, how does it work?

C'mon now.....are you guys gonna make me buy one just to see how it does??

Tom

I had one of my loyal followers from the yamaha jet boat site send kevin a email he is in his town and has the mechanical ability to tweek the steering for him , I will be gone for 2 weeks camping on an island so have at it. I alreadt made the adjustment on my jigs based on the wag system since I never was sent a description of the spot where it was making contact, however as I stated before I pretty well know where it would do that and the simple fix was to move the heel back 1/2 inch that will allow for any variences it the reverse hood adjustments from one boat to another. I hope everyone had fun over the memorial day weekend I stayed away from the water to avoid the inexperienced fools hell bent on ruining peoples boats.

Thanks Jeff for the comments/feedback.

Question though.....I know this sounds picky, but the version you're now producing for my application (Speedster 160), does it have the nice engraving like that on the Yamaha units? I'm not trying to be critical or offensive, it's just that the Yamaha units have a more "quality finished" look to them.

And while I'm being honest can I assume that the welding on the unit that Kevin has is the result of that unit being a pre-production type unit? No offense, but the welds look a bit rough. Please note that I'm a manufacturing engineer by trade and work for an aircraft company. So I'm probably spoiled and tend to focus on stuff like that.

I must warn you though Jeff, I'm close to pulling the trigger and ordering one.

Tom

[tda3]

Got the email, I will try to follow up with him when I get some spare time.

Which means you'll never follow up 'cause you KNOW you never have spare time. Dude....you have a house, a boat, this website, a job, and a girl friend (not necessarily in that order), how can you have spare time?

Tom

[tda3]

Bump

Well gang....I've placed an order for a CobraJet steering unit and should get it in a few days. My intent is to not only chronicle the installation, but to try and provide intelligent (which may be a tall order for me ) feedback of how the unit performs on my Speedster 160. Since I've gotten quite use to the handling of my Speedster and will be using the boat a lot during the 4th of July week, I'm fairly certain I can assess how the unit performs.

Stay tuned!

Tom

[Kevin Leclair]

Got the email, I will try to follow up with him when I get some spare time.

Which means you'll never follow up 'cause you KNOW you never have spare time. Dude....you have a house, a boat, this website, a job, and a girl friend (not necessarily in that order), how can you have spare time?

Tom

I doo the best I can to try make time for everything.

[kvoman]

Does this Cobra steering still allow you to do donuts/spins, etc.?

[tda3]

Does this Cobra steering still allow you to do donuts/spins, etc.?

We shall see.............



Tom

[jeff walkowiak]

I now have a new computer so let me see if this works // haa it does . the steering for yamaha is laser cut etc because they order so many of them it was wort the investment to have that done, however the company I am dealing with is killing me with being late with my orders constantly and raising their prices through the roof, I am currently looking for a new company to do this work for me,, as for the sea doo steering I don't make a lot of those so it would be cost prohibitive to do all the start ups for a handfull of steering units at the present time, however the yamaha people were buying hand made units last year and they purchased hundreds of them , this year they are running through about 150 units a month. As for the welds I weld those for strength and actually weld them with numerous passes on the inside to make them strong, the templates I have for future production have slots for the fins cut in the base to allow me to weld them from underneath and on the inside , however I will probably add a weld to the outside because I am a overkill type and I don';t really worry about glamor I worry about strength I would rather hear someone complain about a weld than complain a fin fell off LOL all the stress goes to where the fin is attached to the base plate. I use a 308 stainless rod that costs 67 cents each and those use about 5 rods per unit because of all the passes I make . When you get your set you will see the penetration is complete and the fins are made to give and deform if you should strike a submerged object, they can then be straightened back to their original shape. All my hand made prototypes were made for effect to prove they work I really did not intend to go mass producing these and really want to license the patents so I can stop being a slave to this. I could go have the entire things mass produced and I suspect they would end up being a lot mor expensive in the end. Even the yamaha steering is still assembled welded etc by me. just the parts are laser cut. So try it out and see if you like what it does and keep in mind that it is a hand made prototype. Thanks J T Walkowiak

[kvoman]

Looking at the videos and pictures, it appears that the unit will provide very sharp turns and improve handling but will no longer have the spin capability since you now have two fins in the water.

I would venture to guess that if you try, you either won't be able to or if you try to spin the boat hard enough and succeed in spinning, this fin will be damaged or cause your nozzle to be damaged.

It looks like a very solid product but at this time, I'd rather have the spin/donut capability on my boat - not that I do it all the time, but just when I want to, at least I'll be able to.

[jeff walkowiak]

that hasn't been the situation so far even on the twin 23 foot yamahas ,but I guess we will find out sooner or later. There is a first time for everything so far I am being told it actually lets you do spins on demand without any surprises. It also lets you back off the throttle in a turn without loosing the turn and allows for you to pull skiers without them draging the back of the boat all over the place, atleast that is what the people are reporting back to me. and those boats have 2 sets of steering not just one, I am interested to hear how it does with the single mercury set up in the spin dept myself.

[kvoman]

"It also lets you back off the throttle in a turn without loosing the turn and allows for you to pull skiers without them draging the back of the boat all over the place."

You're right about this because it has steerage control now with two fins on each jet. I saw your posts over at the Yamaha board about being able to make it only 2" deep instead of the standard 3" deep, I think that may help making it easier to spin the boat.

[tda3]

My speculation is that spin outs WILL NOT be a problem. And this is my theory to back up that speculation.

As one is moving forward under power, due to the thrust being generated, the weight transfer is biased towards the stern of the boat. When the steering wheel is sharply turned, the hull rolls which forces a greater/larger contact of the lifting strakes and/or chine. This "digging in" pulls the bow down therefore causing a weight transfer forward (if you think about the last time you did a spin out....did you not feel like you were being thrown forward a bit?) This weight transfer forward naturally causes the stern to rise. Now, if the stern is higher out of the water, so is the jet nozzle and the Cobra Jet steering device. Therefore, the device has little to no effect on the spin maneuver.

In theory.

YMMV.

Tom

[jeff walkowiak]

I don't know how your hulls do in spins first hand ,however I can do them on my ski whenever I want, but I have to do it intentionally, not like before when the ski would slip around on it's own. I was in a 20 foot yamaha doing spins with my steering and we would start a turn at wot then wip the wheel and you better be holding on because it definitely did a spin. On this particular test drive the boat owner kept slowing down and then backing up the boat for no reason, finally I asked him ,just what was the reason for all the stops and backing , he was smiling and said I can't believe I can finally steer the boat in reverse, oh well, to each their own. The fins don't dig down under the plain of the boat so I don't see how they will stop you from doing deliberate spins I do believe you will need to relearn the handling of the boat and adjust how you get it to do things as it will be a lot more shore footed than previously experienced in the stock condition. Other things you may experience is the reduced amount of force needed to turn the wheel at high speed totally oposite of what the average person expects , the reason is simple, the force you feel in the wheel is caused from the straight jet of water being deflected by the steering nozzle, this jet is pushing the nozzle back from the inside trying to straighten it out, the fins are catching water on the outside creating an oposing force on the nozzle and canceling out some of it's force. This actually produces less stress on the steering componants and acts like a variable power steering .My experience was after adding the steering I could steer at high speed with only one hand, prior to the steering it took all my strength with both hands to turn the wheel at speed. I personally liked being capable of doing 90 and 180 degree turns on a dime running w o t. without loosing control.