Watercrafts

[Paul R]

Is anybody using PWC's / RWC's for SCUBA operations? Whether it is for transporting divers & gear, use as dive platforms, etc...
We are considering them for navigating through shallow parts of the river that have been inaccessable by Zodiac.
But we would like to glean any experience other teams may have.

 

[mdjh51]

we had several incarnations of a hovercraft for several years. Lots of maintenance issues. eventually we blew up the engine in the last version and decided that zodiacs were our best bet (we had zodiacs the entire time as well). If the river is too shallow for zodiac, you can just get out and walk/pull your boat with the prop out of the water. I would think that if it is that shallow, then the intake for the PWC would become fouled anyway. Ive seen recreational PWC suck up large rocks in 18 inches of water. theres also this Gibbs Sports Amphibians

 

[salth2owannabe]

We use PWCs in very shallow rocky water out here. We've used then in conjunction with a pull behind sled (of sorts) for transporting/retrieving divers etc. They work well as a safety platform to quickly retrieve a diver if they get caught in the current. You do need to be a little careful about running the pump on shallow rock bars but if you get a rock caught in the gate you just flip them over and pull/pry it out.

 

[emoreira]

I own a Kawasaki PWC. The user manual is specific not to run it in waters shallower than 0,8 mts.
I knew a guy that started a PWC near the beach and the intake sucked sand and fouled the engine, so be carefull to run it in shallow waters.

 

[Trance]

I know this is a bit old, but what kind of motor are you using on your Zodiac? If your not using a jet drive, have you thought about it on the Zodiac(since your obviously thinking about it with PWC) I just recently went out on a jet drive john boat for a recovery, and was really impressed with how it handled on the lake, and how shallow the boat was able to operate. I know there are projet Zodiacs as well as the ability to outfit a outboard jetdrive such as a Yamaha 40/90.

 

[Zeagle Eagle]

Most PWC's need at least 18 inches of water to not suck up the bottom. I know, I have replaced 2 impellers. It's very difficult to carry a tank on a ski, not impossible. You need to build some sort of PVC frame to hold it.

 

[Trance]

We did end up sucking up leaves while at the landing, but real easy to clear as we just trimmed the motor up. I was also thinking about pwcs in the past as I'd like a couple to tour lake chains, and they do make pull behind trailers for them that I would think could be able to utilize a fabricated rack of some sort. Where there is a will there is a way, it just depends on what kind of resources and effort one is willing to invest.

 

[Zeagle Eagle]

We did end up sucking up leaves while at the landing, but real easy to clear as we just trimmed the motor up. I was also thinking about pwcs in the past as I'd like a couple to tour lake chains, and they do make pull behind trailers for them that I would think could be able to utilize a fabricated rack of some sort. Where there is a will there is a way, it just depends on what kind of resources and effort one is willing to invest.

It just takes one rock to ruin an impeller. I have a double trailer with a huge lock box on the front. I could probably put 20 or more tanks in there. Not sure about the weight though. I might have to fill them with Helium to make the weightless....

 

[emoreira]

It just takes one rock to ruin an impeller. I have a double trailer with a huge lock box on the front. I could probably put 20 or more tanks in there. Not sure about the weight though. I might have to fill them with Helium to make the weightless....

It's not only sucking rocks or debris with the jet propeller, but also, and even worst, is that the cooling water that goes through the engine is taken from the Jet exit, so, if you are sucking sand owing to the low depth, that sand will go to the engine cooling circuit and can burn your engine. This is true for the old engines. Now with 4 strokes engines and PWC that seems more a yacht than a Jetski, cooling is a closed circuit running via the Jet plate.