First of all.. Go get the boat ! You will not be sorry. They are awesome boats.
Go to boat test . Com look at their test they as well as boating I believe list DB in their test results. Compare the DB ratings agains other outboard boats.
As @TimW451 stated, if you hated this boat, in these times of low availability and high demand you could sell this boat very quickly, but, I do not think that will happen.
You will find that there are a lot of jet boat haters out on the web, there was a recent spat of this on the hull truth, with the exception of those who had been on the FSH series boats. There are many outdated opinions on jet boats, people try and compare these jet boats with the 1970’s Berkeley jet powered boats-these are not those boats. For one, these yamaha jet boats get way better mpg than those old boats. The older jets also had horrible steering control as there was barely anything of the drive sticking down in the water. While the Yamaha’s do require some thrust to change direction, with the articulating keel this helps with slow speed turning and they are planted in corners and do not spin out when making hard turns.
Sound: I have been experimenting with different impellers, and found that the Skat Trak impellers made a huge difference in the noise level while sitting at the helm. I recorded 3 DB less noise, that is a halving of the noise level with the Skat Trak impellers or OEM and the Solas. The Skat Traks have a much taller impeller blade profile, so more impeller blade in contact with the water. When I was testing the ST’s my friend was sitting next to me at the helm and I asked him, “is it me or is the boat a lot quieter with these impellers? “. He said, I had just noticed that before you asked. This was at best cruise speed of 27mph, it was the same level of noise as if you were riding in a car and talking. Pretty impressive.
I had read where people said these boats are loud. From the first day I took my boat out I kept wondering when it was going to get loud and it never has been loud. I have found there is more wind noise at higher speeds that engine / jet pump noise, If I know I’m going to be cruising for a while I use ear plugs, been using ear plugs riding dirt bikes for years due to wind noise.
Trolling: To answer your question, yes I have used the No Wake part of the cruise assist while trolling, so yes it is feasible. I’m going to assume that your trolling is between 3&5 mph? Unless you are trolling for Wahoo.. then what like 15 to 20 mph. At the slower trolling speed the cruise assist will be functioning as the No Wake control and will raise the engine speed up to around 2000 rpm in three step increments from idle. At the higher speeds it will raise engine speed I think in 500 rpm increments, with 8 steps either up or down, once you have the throttles set at say 6000 rpm you can just use the cruise assist button up or down to change speeds. With either No Wake or Cruise assist you should be able to dial in your trolling speed with the engines perfectly.
Here is something I rarely see mentioned here when talking about low speed control. The first detent as you advance the throttles from idle to forward is TDE, or thrust directional enhancer. At this position, the reversing buckets are partially lifted and some of the thrust is doing straight out the back for forward propulsion, the other portion is being directed down and to the sides. Using the No Wake mode in this position greatly enhances low speed maneuvering as opposed to going to full idle ahead where the reversing buckets are fully lifted out of the way. I have asked but not gotten answer here in regards to the E drive that is on the 255 FSH E, I had asked previously when the throttles are pushed from idle to the TDE position-lowest idle ahead position-whether or not the reversing gates can be infinitely adjustable between idle and TDE, and the same with advancing between TDE and Idle ahead, or is it just all or nothing so to speak. On my 210 it’s analog so the reversing bucket is infinitely adjustable so getting the trolling speed set is pretty easy. Having said that on days where the wind is too high for my trolling motor to be able to maintain heading I switch over the mains, again, using the No Wake / cruise assist, with the throttles in the TDE position it is pretty easy to maintain speed and heading. Would thrust vectors help with low speed control? Probably, but I don’t want to put anything on the outdrives that are going to snag a line.
Will Owen from Jet Boat Pilot did a shoot out with the 255 FSH E and the Scarab, in that vid he talks about low speed maneuverability around the docks, but never split the throttles to enhance control..something that should be used at low speeds. If in your 30+ years of boating experience you operated twins you will know what I’m talking about, if not you will learn that this tactic is extremely useful in low speed ops. I’ve even split the throttles when I had a 30 mph tail wind while trolling, had one engine set in reverse to control speed and the other going between reverse and forward to maintain directional control. If you have not seen that video I suggest going to JBP’s youtube channel and have a look at it, it is a pretty fair shootout between the boats and will answer some of your performance questions.
Also, in regards to trolling, you can also use a drift anchor or drogue to help adjust the trolling speed and for down wind stability. My trolling motor has a tough time maintaining a heading when being pushed by the wind, as the prop speed is reduced to maintain 1.8 mph. I have a couple of different size drift anchors that I hook to the tow point to slow the boat and make the trolling motor prop speed higher so it has more directional control.
I use my trolling motor approximately 90% of the time for propulsion as I mainly fish off of my boat. I probably have 500 hours on the trolling motor. I’m not sure which trollers will integrate with the Simrad unit your boat comes with.. might want to do a search here on this site, or just ask for help and someone will chime in.
Fishability: First off I will say that fishing off of a center console is great, fishing off of the FSH with its swim deck is awesome! 99% of the fish on my boat are landed on the swim deck, hands down the best place to fish from. The rest of the boat is great too! I‘ve taken out several folks who had never been on a center console and they asked before leaving the dock “So why the center console”. But the end of the day all who have fished off of my boat were not only converts but huge fans. Everyone can walk around without having to step over others, and there is always some place to hang onto. With three people on the boat I regularly run 6 lines while trolling without issues, you have to be smart about it, putting the shallowest lures way back, then progressively deeper lures closer and closer to the boat. There are not outdrives, props etc to get the line hung up on, which is one of the reasons I have not added steering enhancers to the pumps, for one I don’t need them, and two it is just something to catch your line on, or kick when you are swimming. There are rod holders everywhere, like 22 or 25, so there is always somewhere to put your rods whether actively fishing, are “on deck” so to speak-vertical rod holders on either side of the center console, or up out of the way in the rocket launchers. I wish my Dad was still around, he would have loved fishing off of this boat! He lost many fish to the outboard motor when fish would cut under the boat and get the line wrapped around the motor.
You have two live wells and an insulated fish box, all of which can serve duty as ice chests or storage. I think the aerator on your boat is different than mine. Mine works great and keeps fish perky, and helps those fish that are a bit in shock to recover to be released.
Maintenance: If you are just a little handy and can change the oil in your car, then you will be able to change the oil in these engines, you will need a vacuum evacuater, I have the might vac one. It’s just a bit different as opposed to popping a drain plug. There is very low maintenance on these boats, you have different engines than I do, but the book says oil change intervals are 100 hours, and I’ve been doing mine at 50 hours with Amsoil synthetic 10W-40 oil. Just keep the receipts and you will not have any warranty issues-per Yamaha corporate.
At 100 hours you may want to pull the pumps-super easy- and check the grease under the cone where the rear most bearings are. This task can be accomplished in a hour or so. It takes me 1.5 hours to remove, change impellers, and replace the jet pumps, I didn’t do it that fast the first time but after the first time it was very simple. More than likely you will just add some EPNOC grease and reassemble.
There are two intermediate shaft bearings on the aft bulkhead in the engine bay, that the manual says to grease at 10 hours and then every year or 100 hours. These take water proof grease and not much of it. There is much discussion here about these bearings, some say not to grease them which I do not agree with, and others say to grease them. I greased mine following what the shop manual said to do and no issues so far and 180 hours on my engines.
You do not have any cooling water impellers to worry about as the engine gets its cooling water from the jet pump itself. This jet pump provided water cools the engine, provides cooling water for the CAC’s / charged air coolers, the oil cooler, and the regulator / rectifier cooler. There is a small screen on the jet pump that is held in by 4 6mm bolts, that the manual says to check as part of the 10 hour maintenance. I believe there is some super charger service at 200 hours but I’m not sure about the hour requirements on that. Again, I think the clutch in the SC gets replaced.
Safety: First and foremost, while underway everyone should have a pfd on and know where the safety equipment is and at least one other person should know how to operate the boat in case you go down.
This boat has been designed for off shore work. All members with the exception of one here have stated that use off shore has been great, 3-4’ seas are no problem, with bigger water the boat has good performance as well.
All posters here who have this boat report excellent comfort on the boat with ample seating, hand rails seating, and hand rails while standing next to the helm. While this boat is no Boston Whaler, all boats in this class beginning in the 80’s I think are required to float level if swamped-hopefully that never gets tested. You have two engines, so another to get you home if in the unlikely event fails. Be aware that you need to get some clamping pliers or something lIke that to pinch off the water inlet lines on a non running engine if the boat is going more that 5 mph-plenty of threads on that here and very easy to do if that unlikely event occurs. There are no props or outdrives to kick and split toes, shins etc.. while swimming around the boat, or spinning props to maim and kill someone. The 255 and 252 FSH have higher freeboard than the 210 or 190 series of FSH boats which adds safety in so far keeping water out of the boat, and to keep little and bigger ones inside the boat.
Another point rarely if ever mentioned. Your boat has brakes. The thing about Yamaha jet boats is that at any speed you can pull the throttles back and go right into reverse thrust. Something that cannot be done with an outdrive unless going relatively slowly. There are all kinds of warning stickers and warnings in the manual against this at any speed above idle in the manual and for good reason, if you select reverse while cruising and apply throttle, if some one is not seated and hanging on the boat will stop so fast it will throw them out of the boat. Check out the boat test.com test on the 195 FSH sport where captain Steve demonstrates this and says “not to be taken lightly” There are also some you tubes where people do this on purpose to stuff the bow on calm waters for a thrill.. I have tested this on my 210 numerous times to know how the boat will act if I have to do this, and braking performance is……….. impressive.
Again, I see getting this boat as a win win situation for you and your family. I know it is a big leap as you say, and I like @Ericd bought my boat without a test drive to see if I liked it. I test drove mine when I went to pick it up just to make sure everything worked properly. I have not regretted that decision at all, and have been super happy with my little 210.
