Hurricane
Well-known member
This is a bit of a long post but anyone considering more toys, may find it interesting.
As most of you know, we berth at Sant Carles with a fantastic lagoon right outside the marina.
I'm always looking for new things to do and we often find ourselves sitting in the sunshine with a bottle or two of cheap Spanish Cava wondering what to do next.
A group of us have often thought of going back to our roots and bringing a few sailing dinghies out to Spain but we couldn't decide what class would be best for all of us. I even have an old Hurricane catamaran hanging in the roof of my garage at home in Devon and I thought that it would be fun to take it down for use in the lagoon.
This is my Hurricane
Storage would have been a bit of a problem and the marina offered use of the boatyard but catamarans, by nature, occupy a large amount of space and I thought that the cost of storage would outweigh the amount of fun that we would get.
A number of berth holders at Sant Carles have bought larger and sometimes quite powerful speed boats for use on the lagoon which are mainly kept on floating docks. Some store them in the boatyard over winter and keep them in the water when they want to use them.
Although our Walker Bay dinghy has a good powerful outboard, it can't keep up with some of the bigger speedboats and Jetribs. It is a great "all rounder" but it might be fun to have something with better performance.
So, after some careful thought, I decided to scrap the idea of transporting the Hurricane to Spain but, instead I thought it might be fun to include a Jetski amongst Jennywren's toys. There seemed to be room on the bathing platform and I've also seen Jetskis stored on some flybridges.
Late last summer, Timbad (from this forum) had invited us down to Torquay for an afternoon to play with his Jetski so I started by talking to him. It turned out that he was looking to sell his Jetski. If you search these forums, you will see that I have a particular problem with the reliability of jet powered craft - especially Jetribs. I've always seen them as great fun but a huge responsibility when they go wrong. Tim's Seadoo RXT Jetski had a history that I could trust. It seems that this particular model has ceramic washers designed into the supercharger that have a tendency to disintegrate and subsequently damage the entire engine. The supercharger washers on Tim's Jetski had been replaced with titanium ones when it was very new to avoid this problem. So after a little negotiation, I bought Tim's Jetski and we picked it up just before Christmas.
The very next day, it was off to a specialist in Fareham to strip down, rebuild the supercharger and generally give it a full service. It seems that Seadoo give the old (modified) supercharger about 100 hours before rebuilding whereas any superchargers rebuilt with the latest new kits are given 200 hours. So this done, it was just down to the cosmetics (a few gel coat knocks), delivery to Spain and fitting to Jennywren.
It might have been more appropriate to have bought one of the new generation Seadoo Spark Jetskis - see here http://www.sea-doo.com/watercraft/sea-doo-spark.html
These skis are made from ABS plastic (similar to our Walker Bay dinghy) and have smaller engines so are much lighter but I'm sure they are no match for our 215HP RXT!!!
Our Walker Bay dinghy chocks can be fitted either on JW's flybridge or on her bathing platform.
We use both.
Most of the time, the dinghy is kept on the flybridge leaving the bathing platform for just that - bathing. But sometimes, particularly when moving anchorage, we get lazy and just lift the dinghy onto the bathing platform.
So, I decided to use the same type of fitting for the Jetski but I thought it might be a bit ambitious to fit the Jetski on the flybridge.
The final solution is that the dinghy can still be carried on either the flybridge or the bathing platform but the Jetski will only travel on the bathing platform. I think that the flybridge would be strong enough but I don't want to "push my luck".
The fixings for both the dinghy and the Jetski consist of a stainless steel disc with a hole recessed and matching stainless steel disc with a pin.
I then made two additional chocks form Iroko (sometimes called "poor mans" teak). I also popped into our local Indespension shop (trailer spares shop) and bought some rubber trailer blocks which form an excellent pad when fitted onto the wood blocks for the Jetski's hull to rest on.
Sorry, its is early in the season and JW's teak needs a good clean!!
Similar stainless steel discs with an M12 Dome Nut welded to the back were firmly bolted to the bathing platform.
And an M12 eyebolt simply screws when required.
Cross straps stop the Jetski moving laterally.
I was intending on fitting a strap or two over the Jetski's seat but, in fact, it is so well tied down I don't think it is necessary.
Now to Lifting:-
Seadoo supply a special lifting straps like this
But it seems to me that someone needs to hold the Seadoo straps in place whilst it is being lifted and I think that the Jetski would be likely to slide off.
So I fitted permanent rings into the strong part of the Seadoo.
For actual lifting, I made up some webbing straps with carabinas - see above pic.
The end result is a safe Jetski cradle with tie down points that can be removed to give us back our bathing platform for "bathing".
Initially, I planned to fit the Jetski the other way round but its bow got in the way of our passerelle.
Our passerelle withdraws away from sight when not in use.
You can just see the flap that covers it to the left of the Jetski.
Launching and Recovery:-
The crane spans both positions. Launching and recovery is done in JW's starboard aft quarter and swung into place as required.
Unfortunately, I didn't take any pics of the crane lifting the Jetski but here are some taken a few years ago of the dinghy launch/recovery.
Finally, in this pic you can just see that we have also installed a separate plastic Jetski dock right next to JW's berth.
This means that when we are in our home berth, we will leave the Jetski on the plastic doc so that it is easy to launch and recover.
If we need to a quick nip out to the lagoon's restaurant on stilts for example.
AND NOW TO THE FUN BIT
Here are a few pics taken last week out in the lagoon - note the weather - sun and flat seas - all whilst the UK was having huge storms!!!
And a video clip showing just how powerful it is.
Even the short time that we have had so far, it seems that this project has been a success.
And I can't wait to get back down to Spain to have another go.
Anyway, I hope you find this interesting.
There should be a bit of everything in this report.
Any questions or comments - fire away!!
As most of you know, we berth at Sant Carles with a fantastic lagoon right outside the marina.
I'm always looking for new things to do and we often find ourselves sitting in the sunshine with a bottle or two of cheap Spanish Cava wondering what to do next.
A group of us have often thought of going back to our roots and bringing a few sailing dinghies out to Spain but we couldn't decide what class would be best for all of us. I even have an old Hurricane catamaran hanging in the roof of my garage at home in Devon and I thought that it would be fun to take it down for use in the lagoon.
This is my Hurricane
Storage would have been a bit of a problem and the marina offered use of the boatyard but catamarans, by nature, occupy a large amount of space and I thought that the cost of storage would outweigh the amount of fun that we would get.
A number of berth holders at Sant Carles have bought larger and sometimes quite powerful speed boats for use on the lagoon which are mainly kept on floating docks. Some store them in the boatyard over winter and keep them in the water when they want to use them.
Although our Walker Bay dinghy has a good powerful outboard, it can't keep up with some of the bigger speedboats and Jetribs. It is a great "all rounder" but it might be fun to have something with better performance.
So, after some careful thought, I decided to scrap the idea of transporting the Hurricane to Spain but, instead I thought it might be fun to include a Jetski amongst Jennywren's toys. There seemed to be room on the bathing platform and I've also seen Jetskis stored on some flybridges.
Late last summer, Timbad (from this forum) had invited us down to Torquay for an afternoon to play with his Jetski so I started by talking to him. It turned out that he was looking to sell his Jetski. If you search these forums, you will see that I have a particular problem with the reliability of jet powered craft - especially Jetribs. I've always seen them as great fun but a huge responsibility when they go wrong. Tim's Seadoo RXT Jetski had a history that I could trust. It seems that this particular model has ceramic washers designed into the supercharger that have a tendency to disintegrate and subsequently damage the entire engine. The supercharger washers on Tim's Jetski had been replaced with titanium ones when it was very new to avoid this problem. So after a little negotiation, I bought Tim's Jetski and we picked it up just before Christmas.
The very next day, it was off to a specialist in Fareham to strip down, rebuild the supercharger and generally give it a full service. It seems that Seadoo give the old (modified) supercharger about 100 hours before rebuilding whereas any superchargers rebuilt with the latest new kits are given 200 hours. So this done, it was just down to the cosmetics (a few gel coat knocks), delivery to Spain and fitting to Jennywren.
It might have been more appropriate to have bought one of the new generation Seadoo Spark Jetskis - see here http://www.sea-doo.com/watercraft/sea-doo-spark.html
These skis are made from ABS plastic (similar to our Walker Bay dinghy) and have smaller engines so are much lighter but I'm sure they are no match for our 215HP RXT!!!
Our Walker Bay dinghy chocks can be fitted either on JW's flybridge or on her bathing platform.
We use both.
Most of the time, the dinghy is kept on the flybridge leaving the bathing platform for just that - bathing. But sometimes, particularly when moving anchorage, we get lazy and just lift the dinghy onto the bathing platform.
So, I decided to use the same type of fitting for the Jetski but I thought it might be a bit ambitious to fit the Jetski on the flybridge.
The final solution is that the dinghy can still be carried on either the flybridge or the bathing platform but the Jetski will only travel on the bathing platform. I think that the flybridge would be strong enough but I don't want to "push my luck".
The fixings for both the dinghy and the Jetski consist of a stainless steel disc with a hole recessed and matching stainless steel disc with a pin.
I then made two additional chocks form Iroko (sometimes called "poor mans" teak). I also popped into our local Indespension shop (trailer spares shop) and bought some rubber trailer blocks which form an excellent pad when fitted onto the wood blocks for the Jetski's hull to rest on.
Sorry, its is early in the season and JW's teak needs a good clean!!
Similar stainless steel discs with an M12 Dome Nut welded to the back were firmly bolted to the bathing platform.
And an M12 eyebolt simply screws when required.
Cross straps stop the Jetski moving laterally.
I was intending on fitting a strap or two over the Jetski's seat but, in fact, it is so well tied down I don't think it is necessary.
Now to Lifting:-
Seadoo supply a special lifting straps like this
But it seems to me that someone needs to hold the Seadoo straps in place whilst it is being lifted and I think that the Jetski would be likely to slide off.
So I fitted permanent rings into the strong part of the Seadoo.
For actual lifting, I made up some webbing straps with carabinas - see above pic.
The end result is a safe Jetski cradle with tie down points that can be removed to give us back our bathing platform for "bathing".
Initially, I planned to fit the Jetski the other way round but its bow got in the way of our passerelle.
Our passerelle withdraws away from sight when not in use.
You can just see the flap that covers it to the left of the Jetski.
Launching and Recovery:-
The crane spans both positions. Launching and recovery is done in JW's starboard aft quarter and swung into place as required.
Unfortunately, I didn't take any pics of the crane lifting the Jetski but here are some taken a few years ago of the dinghy launch/recovery.
Finally, in this pic you can just see that we have also installed a separate plastic Jetski dock right next to JW's berth.
This means that when we are in our home berth, we will leave the Jetski on the plastic doc so that it is easy to launch and recover.
If we need to a quick nip out to the lagoon's restaurant on stilts for example.
AND NOW TO THE FUN BIT
Here are a few pics taken last week out in the lagoon - note the weather - sun and flat seas - all whilst the UK was having huge storms!!!
And a video clip showing just how powerful it is.
Even the short time that we have had so far, it seems that this project has been a success.
And I can't wait to get back down to Spain to have another go.
Anyway, I hope you find this interesting.
There should be a bit of everything in this report.
Any questions or comments - fire away!!
