Photos up now from the 2012 Hutchwilco Boat Show held at the ASB Show Grounds  in Auckland. I thought I would sneak through and get some photos on Friday evening when the crowd would be a little smaller. I was a little wrong as there was a very steady stream  of people walking through the gates and having a good look around the amazing put together displays.

I was lucky enough to spend some time with Karen from Benelli, she had made the trip all the way from Italy to help represent her brand with the new New Zealand dealer (Armstrong Marine, based in Christchurch). Karen was more than happy to answer all the questions I could throw at her, and if all goes to plan we should be lucky enough to see these watercrafts on sale here in New Zealand in August. It was great to finally see these watercrafts in person, the B3S stand up ski was very well finished, a little larger in life than I thought, but it makes sense when you have to fit a 1602cc DOHC engine into the engine compartment.

I was informed the B3R Run-About (sit down) will have a couple of very minor changes (mainly cosmetics) to the craft before we see it in stores later this year. But mechanically they will stay the same.

For more information on the Benelli lineup, check out their site www.benellipersonalwatercraft.co.nz.

Sea-doo like normal had a very impressive display, showing pretty much their complete lineup. As expected the all new Sea-doo RXP-X 260 was getting  a lot of the attention from the crowd. Kirk from www.jetskifishingchannel.co.nz had his watercraft there as part of the Sea-doo display, showing with a few accessories added the Sea-doo GTX is an ideal ski for heading out to try your luck at catching some fish.

Next up was Yamaha, Yamaha had their two FX series and their VXR watercrafts on display, the VXR was the watercraft that Jeremy Burfoot used to complete his 6 hour world record on (info here). Yamaha also had their 2012 Superjet on display, the superjet is the only current manufactured stand-up skis, until Benelli start production.

I’m not sure why, but this year there was no Kawasaki stand at what I would think would be the top boating and watercraft show in the country. But it was great to see the other brands waving the flag for our sport / industry.

Photo’s online here or on our facebook here

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Here’s what the Marlborough Express News Paper had to say about it…..

Jet ski trip across strait catches on

A group of Wellington jet skiers who put on wet suits and helmets and jet skied across Cook Strait to Waikawa last month are keen to do it all again.

Garth Simonsen, the owner-operator of Petone jet ski specialist Capital City Seadoo, has been on the Wellington Jetsport Club’s annual Cook Strait crossing at least half a dozen times.

“It’s just one of those things you have got to do,” he says. “Especially if you have got a modern four-stroke jet ski. It is a bucket list exercise to say you have done it. A couple of us saw dolphins in the Marlborough Sounds on the way back so that was pretty cool.”

The riders left Mana, north of Wellington, about 8.30am and took just under two hours, cruising at about 50kmh, to reach Waikawa, before heading back to Mana.

Mr Simonsen said the riders, including a group who travelled from Palmerston North for the trip, were all tired and cold, but buzzing with excitement on their return to the club rooms in mid-afternoon. The annual crossing is restricted to 40 riders, and Mr Simonsen says there is now so much interest that the club is looking at running another trip in November.

Article here

Before anyone emails me and asked why they weren’t invited, I knew nothing about it until some photos appeared on Facebook.

More photos can be found on Capital City Seadoo’s Facebook page here 

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Gossip from around the world was that it was just a beefed up Ultra 260 from the previous years, but as it arrived people started to look into it and it had actually had a fair few changes from its predecessor.

So yes, it’s up 40 horsepower from the Ultra 260 but no it’s not just more boost, well there is a little more boost but there is also a completely new supercharger setup. Kawasaki had redesigned the induction system by adding a Twin Vortices Series (TVS) supercharger. (This is the same supercharger that’s used in the 638 horsepower Corvette ZR1). It delivers 6.3 psi more boost than the previous model; bringing it up to 17.3psi which nets a total of 300 horsepower at just 7750 rpm (measured at the crankshaft).
The internals of the engine had also been upgraded to help out with the extra power, new pistons, crankshaft, stronger cam chain and upgraded crank.

Also added to the 2011 300x was electric trim which has been available on most of the opposition skis for some time, so it was good to see Kawasaki catch up. This is adjustable by the switches on the left hand side of the handlebars. On the right hand side of the bars you will find a blue button, the button takes care of the adjustable cruise control and the ability to limit speed to five mph when piloting through a No Wake zone. I never used it but I know it will come in handy.

The exterior of the ski still resembles the 260, but has a slightly different upper front on it, consisting of a lower nose and a wider front hatch and some of the largest storage to be seen in a ski, and to top it off most of the ski’s here in NZ are available in the ever popular Kawasaki Green.

I’ve been lucky enough to spend a few hours over the last 12 months on one of the first 300x’s to hit the water in NZ and this ski has had a pretty busy 12 months.
If we cast our minds back 12 months ago, most of the personal watercraft races in NZ were preparing themselves for the 2011 NZ Jet Sport Nationals in Rotorua. Chris Farnley from Christchurch was an exception, he was sunning it up on holiday in the Australia, but lucky enough for him he managed to track down Kevin from SkiMD in Auckland to get hold of his brand spanking new, zero hours on the clock 300x and have him in the process of running it in for him.

By the time Chris turned up to pilot his all new ski at the NZ Jet Sport Nationals, Kev had managed to get four hours on the clock for him. Chris had never even sat on the ski until 10 minutes prior to his first race, with this in mind he had a great weekend up against some super tough competition.

His standings for the weekend were

2^nd Watercoss stock,  (behind Darrell Dermott also on a 300X)
3^rd Vet runabout open,
3^rd Expert/Elite Runabout Stock ,
4^th Watercross open

This was the start of a full-on 12 months for Farnleys Jetskis and their Kawasaki Ultra 300x.

After this the ski is shipped back to Christchurch, on arrival Chris thought it was in order to throw a release party, would you believe you can fit over 300 bottles of Corona in the front of a jet ski, well they proved you can.

From now-on this ski became their number one demo ski, and it started  clocking up the hours in a hurry.

It’s the month of May now so the weather is cooling down, so the hours slow down, yeah right. Instead this ski becomes the loan race ski in the South Island Winter Endurance Series. With Chris’s busy commitments he wasn’t able to race in the South Island series like he hoped so what he did was lend the ski to fellow competitors to prove this was the ski to have for the endurance races.

Round one, Lake Wahola, James French onboard the 300x managed to bring it home in 2^nd place behind Phil Barret on his new 300x.

Round two, James Craw onboard the Farnley ski saw  it collect  3^rd place behind a very worked up Yamaha FZR and Phil Barret also on his 300x.

Round Three at Caroline Bay Timaru. Saw super rough water comes out to play making it a very hard race. With Chris himself and Shannon ‘Gunns’ Clark teamed together, they cleaned up in the teams event.

Round Four, saw a similar result of round two, with James Craw bringing home 3^rd place behind another worked up Yamaha FZR of Mike Kennedy’s and Phil Barret on his superfast 300x.

In-between all the racing, the ski came along on most of the NZ Jetski social rides, used as a demo ski at the Canterbury Marine Festival at Lake hood (burning through something like 300 litres of fuel) and also a huge amount of demoing out on the water,  it was gaining  hours faster than a $10 Rolex brought in Thailand.

Round two of the South Island Summer series. Chris enters the large ski in the Run-about open class and managed to muscle the large ski round the short course and brought home a 2^nd place for the day.

So twelve months later, the ski has 153 hours on the clock and is still going strong with regular servicing and expected maintenance it proves Kawasaki have got it right with the 300x

As I mentioned above, I’ve been lucky enough to spend a few hours over the last 12 months on this ski, my first impressions were ‘man this thing is talky’ and ‘how cool is the noise the supercharger makes’ Getting the large hull out of the water in a hurry is no problem for the 300 horsepower engine, the ski turns in and handles a lot better than the previous 260 horsepower model, super comfortable in very choppy condition. I found something not quite right about the seat, where I wanted to sit was the join of the two-part seat, and the off throttle assisting steering seemed very unpredictable, the off throttle assisting steering is there so when you are at idle the engine will speed up slightly giving you power to turn the ski. It caught me off guard a couple of times, but I’m sure with some more time you may be able to work out when it will kick in and not.
I also spent some time on the back of the ski as a passenger which I don’t do very often, but for once even at high speeds I was happy,the large seat and well place seat grip made it very easy to hold on, and also when using the ski to tow a water skier proved simple by using the learners key to limit the power and speed, meaning the rider just has to pull back the trigger the whole way and once the skier was up out of the water buttoning off, and cruising was then simple. {see below for the video}

12 months have passed, and the 2012 model is out now, but the only changes are cosmetic with some changing in the graphics.

All in all an amazing fast ski, the large hull suits the rough conditions we are used to here in NZ, but it still knows how to get out of the water and up onto  plane in charm conditions.

At the time of writing this, the RRP on a band new 2012 Kawasaki Ultra 300x is $25,995

And you can download a brochure here : Kawasaki NZ – Ultra 300x PDF

If you don’t have an owners manual you maybe able to find one for download online somewhere or contact your local shop.

Remove your seat or hood and have a good look for any oil or fuel leaks, also have a quick look at all your hoses and wires, make sure they all still look in good condition and than none of them are rubbing anywhere they shouldn’t be.

Next up check your battery, make sure it is securely in place, and that the terminals are clean and tight. If they show any signs of corrosion you can use a wire brush to clean them and then give them a spray of a marine lubricant like CRC Marine 66.

After this check the engine oil, depending on your make and model there are few different ways of doing this, some require the watercraft to be at operating temperature and some require the watercraft to be cold, so if you are not sure I would recommend a phone call to your local dealer to determine what you need to do for your specific ski. Do remember to have your ski sitting flat, so if you have a trailer without a jocky-wheel you will want to connect it onto your tow bar or lift it off the ground to make sure the watercraft is level.

If you own a Sea-doo that has the closed-loop cooling you will need to check the level of your coolant water, this is easily done by checking the water level on the reservoir.

Check to make sure all the controls are all operating correctly, throttle isn’t sticking or jamming, reverse lever is moving freely and steering is also moving freely.

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Drain plugs fitted.

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Start the ski and then stop the engine by pulling the lanyard, this makes sure if you get into trouble the ski will stop when required and will also make sure the battery has significant power.

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We would also recommend having a quick look round the exterior of your watercraft to make sure everything looks ok and nothing is out of place. Check your pump/impeller , intake grate and the overall condition of your hull.

With only a week to go to the Hutchwilco New Zealand Boat Show. Benelli International has added that it will have its all new line up of personal watercrafts on show at this event in Auckland. This will be the first time that anyone has seen these new watercrafts in New Zealand. These demo watercratfs are doing the rounds of all the international boat shows, Dubai last weekend and once finished here the make there way over the ditch to Australia.  I can’t wait to see the overall quality and finish on the high horsepower beasts.

TJSA, PO Box 5188, Mount Maunganui | Fax 07 575 9913 | Email tjsa@xtra.co.nz | 027 270 7892

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Hopefully by now you have read my article on the new Sea-doo RXP-X (link here) so I don’t need to go into too much detail here, but I must admit, hopping onboard this ski again wearing only board shorts and a life vest (you can’t do this every day with NZ weather conditions) instantly put a smile on my face. Every time I have managed to scam a ride on one of these skis, I find myself grinning like a clown and forgetting about all the troubles in the world.

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When I tested this ski earlier in the year the water temperatures in Christchurch were not the friendliest and keeping dry was high on the agenda, but this time all I wanted to do was throw the ski around and get wet. I had forgotten how aggressively these skis turn in and must admit I came pretty close to throwing myself off, but lucky enough with the ergo-lock seat system I had my legs tucked right in and managed to use the strength of my legs to stop me from getting thrown off the ski.

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Before I go on too much, I must point out that Sea-doo are carrying on their innovation, by adding the iControl system onto all their new models, iControl for those that don’t know is a combination of brakes and neutral, when the skis are first started they start in neutral meaning no more creeping forward like all other watercrafts and with this they have a brake/reverse handle on the left handle bar. This makes maneouvering at the boat ramp or jetty a piece of cake and also adds the safety of being able to slow down from high speeds like no other watercraft can. All the current lineup are now equipped with these features making Sea-doo the current pioneers of technology in the watercraft industry .

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After the RXP-X 260, I pushed my way past the other reporter to grab the lanyard for the other new watercraft for 2012, the Sea-doo GTR. The GTR is designed as a musselcraft on a budget. They have taken their very popular Sea-doo GTI three seater hull and added a 215hp supercharged engine to it. Coming in at just over (NZD)$20k this is one of the cheapest supercharged ski’s on the market.

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I was impressed with how much fun the GTR was, it turns in sharp, not quite as aggressive as the RXP-X, but that is the difference of a ski that is designed to race (RXP-X) to a ski that is designed for the family that want a bit more power and speed than the average family. At top speed the watercraft sits very nice and stable in the water and in all sorts of water conditions you always feel like you have full control of the ski. I personally thought the ski felt very light and nimble, but after checking the specs it is only 20kg lighter than the RXP-X  and only 5kgs heavier than its normally aspirated brother the GTI. The GTR comes in at 348kg. I hope to be able to do a full write up on the watercraft very soon.

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As the day of fun was coming to an end, and only a few hours till I had to be at the airport, I had the hard choice of what would be my last ride for the day. GTI, RXT-X aS, RXT-X, Wake or the GTX

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As I wanted to try another ski that had some reasonably new features on it, I was led to the RXT-aS 260, this model has been around for 12 months from its introduction in 2011.

I’ve been lucky enough to spend a few hours on the RXT-X 260, but never managed to get onboard an ‘aS’ model. The ‘aS’ standing for ‘adjustable suspension’ Sea-doo are the only manufacturer to produce personal watercrafts with suspension. They released this technology in 2009 on their RXT-iS. The ‘aS’ model is designed in mind for rough water racers, the Adjustable Suspension allows the hull to move independently off the upper deck, isolating rider and passenger from the impact of rough water, the rider has full control of the suspension dampening  via the adjustable nitrogen remote reservoir into the glove box. Turn it all the way to the left and the suspension stiffens right up to becoming nearly solid, and all the way to the right and you gets an uber comfortable ride with plenty of travel, somewhere in-between you will find the perfect position for whatever conditions you find yourself in. Hitting some rough water while trying to manoeuvre around a buoy the ski feels a little unpredictable, but I am sure with some more time under your belt you would get the confidence of knowing how the ski will react. If anyone has a spare one of these skis and would like to lend it to me for the Winter Endurance Series, please let me know as I am positive the RXT-X ‘aS’ with its 260 horsepower and suspension would be very well suited for this type of events.

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By now I had run out of time so I returned the Sea-doo life vest and quickly threw on some clothes and made my way back to the airport to head home. While on the journey home I thought about the day I had just had and how well the team at Sea-doo had done to put it all together, and how lucky I was to get an invite. From what I saw Sea-doo have really got it all together with the product, their team and their dealer network. With nearly 50% market share in Australia it proves they are doing something right and leaves the other brands fighting for smaller percentages between themselves.

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Retail pricing NZD (as off 01/05/12)

RXP-X $25,639

GTR $20,799

RXT-aS $29,719

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Information on the complete Sea-doo line up can be found here http://www.sea-doo.com/au/showroom/watercraft/all-series.aspx

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A behind the scenes video.

Hutchwilco New Zealand Boat Show at the ASB Showgrounds, in Greenlane Auckland on 17-20May  2012

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Admission is just $20 for adults with children 16 and under, accompanied by a paying adult, free.

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Six days… 600 kilometres on a personal watercraft. Are you ready for the challenge?

“The inaugural Ski-nZ will be an adrenalin packed adventure on personal watercraft, travelling via some of the most amazing coastline and scenery that North East New Zealand has to offer.”

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Participants will experience an action-packed and fun filled week as they navigate the coastline northbound from Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty to Russell in the Bay of Islands. On the way they’ll be taking in amazing sights and raising funds to help the Melanoma Foundation to ‘Create excellence in the awareness, education, prevention, treatment and research of melanoma in New Zealand’. Participants can expect to ride to many iconic spots on the way with a like-minded group of adventurers … all in the name of fun and FUNdraising.

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Follow the Facebook Page

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THE CHALLENGE

Raise the funds and join the Ski-nZ to experience over 600kms of north east New Zealand coastline in the best possible way… if you’re an adrenalin junkie then this is 2013’s must do event. Lock it in today!

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THE PLAN

Sun 3rd March: Muster in Tauranga for an evening briefing and barbecue.
Mon 4th March: Tauranga to Slipper Island to Pauanui to Whitianga.
Tue 5th March: Whitianga to Great Mercury Island to Coromandel.
Wed 6th March: Coromandel to Waiheke Island to Auckland to Takapuna and ‘Auction Night’
Thu 7th March: Takapuna to Kawau Island to Omaha and ‘Half day in the Matakana wineries’.
Fri 8th March: Omaha to Whangarei Heads to Tutukaka and ‘Jet Ski fishing contest/seafood night’.
Sat 9th March: Tutukaka to ‘Hole in the Rock’ to Russell in the Bay of Islands and ‘Last night madness’.

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THERE IS A SERIOUS SIDE

The Yamaha Melanoma Foundation Ski-nZ will be held each year from 2013 to raise funds that help the Melanoma Foundation achieve its goals. Participants will need to raise a minimum of $1500 in tax deductible sponsorship to enter. Participants are encouraged to compete with fellow participants to see who can raise the most sponsorship.

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SAFETY TO THE EXTREME

Safety is the first priority for the Ski-nZ. Travelling with you on the Ski-nZ will be an experienced team, including medical support, mechanics, PWC experts and on-water recovery crews. In keeping with the high safety standards and given that this event is helping to promote awareness of melanoma, participants will be required to wear a life jacket, full face helmet, eye protection, gloves, shoes, and a full length rash suit or wet suit for sun protection. Carriage of individual epirbs is encouraged.

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NAMING RIGHTS SPONSOR REQUIRED

Contact Jeremy Burfoot on Burfoot@xtra.co.nz or             +64212132056       to discuss.

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PERSONAL WATERCRAFT

To be eligible for the Ski-nZ event personal water craft must be sit down, not stand up and must be newer than 2005.

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PARTICIPANTS FROM OTHER COUNTRIES

There has already been strong interest from riders from other countries. Please be assured we will make you most welcome in our beautiful country. Please contact the event director at Burfoot@xtra.co.nz to discuss the logistics of bringing your PWC to NZ or of renting a PWC and trailer for the event.’

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THE COST AND HOW TO REGISTER

You will need to raise a minimum, fully tax deductible $1500 donation. Download the fundraising file for ideas on how to raise this. It’s actually not that difficult.

A $55 application fee must be submitted with your application form and a provision levy that includes meals, event merchandise and DVD will be set closer to the event date. This will cover costs only and will not exceed $500.

To register for the 2013 Melanoma Foundation Ski-nZ, simply download and fill in one application form per ski entered and return with a $55 entry fee. Both the rider and their road crew members will also need to fill in a crew form each. This can be done later.

Please return completed forms to the Melanoma Foundation office by post or email.

Numbers may need to be limited, so register soon.

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The Melanoma Foundation of New Zealand

Postal address: PO Box 91094, Victoria Street West, Auckland 1142
Phone:             09 486 5322
Freephone: 0800 4 MELANOMA (            0800 463 526      )
Email: info@melanoma.org.nz

Physical address: 207 Shakespeare Rd, Milford, Auckland

CEO: Heather Hyland
Mobile:             021 829 454
Email: hhyland@melanoma.org.nz