Category Archives: NEWS (ENG)

NEWS (ENG)

Yamaha was present at the International Boat Show that was held in Athens in the mid of November, by presenting some of the 2007 WaveRunner models as well as a collection of clothing and accessories. Yamaha is planning to have the following models on the dealer network: the two stroke two seater GP1300R (13.720euros), and the four stroke three seaters FX HO Cruiser (16.940euros), FX HO (16.140euros), VX Sport (10.590euros), VX Deluxe (11.600euros) and the brand new VX Cruiser (11.900euros). The new range of Yamaha WaveRunners will be available from January. The stand up model Super Jet will no longer be available for sale due to the fact that it does not satisfy the latest regulations of EEC.

Sea Doo has the largest range of personal watercrafts in the Greek market. Actually, the Greek Importer will have available 11 models. Eight of those are three seaters (GTI 4TEC 130, GTI 4TEC SE 130, GTI 4TEC SE 155, GTI 4TEC W/B155, GTI 4TEC W/B215, GTX 4TEC 155, GTX 4TEC Lim. Ed. και το RTX), while additionally there are two two seaters (RXP 215 και RXP 155) and one solo (3D Premium). Petropoulos, the Importer of Sea Doo has already established the prices of the new range and the models will be available from February next year.

The official energy drink of the 2006 World Finals was no other than Monster Energy. The company had an exceptional booth and made a strong presence since it used a big truck and the rest of their equipment. They supplied the crowed with ice cold drinks during all times of the events. On the big board placed on the front of their mobile bar everyone could see hundreds of stickers that were stack on there by racers and teams. Multi National Champion of Greece in pwc racing, Akis Malouchos put the sticker of his business, (Champion Jet Ski store), on the famous Monster board.

Getting on the 3DR seat and grasping tightly on the bars of this race craft was enough! Having ridden Mac’s supercharged factory Kawasaki race craft two years ago and some other race crafts of this nature, I thought I was accustomed to the unique power and was expecting to feel something similar. Well, I was wrong. This specially built race craft is a monster with enormous pumping acceleration. The acceleration on the straight was enough to glue my goggles to my face! Getting on the gas right after exiting the buoy was another story. My body had to be so tight and firm while having it in the right position before exiting the turn…otherwise, I could easily high sided. Macc Racing had definitely done a superb job in terms of handling since this monster gave you the feeling of running, as if the boat was on rails. No matter how hard I was trying to turn it, there was no sign of rear end sliding, and it was making it harder and harder to keep up with the forces in order to stay on board. Even Chris had told me that due to the fact that he had spent lots of time developing his stand up, he hadn’t enough time on the Runabout. As a result, he was getting tired much easier than before. The pump was fed properly and the hook up was great under test ride conditions. I did not have to lean on the hull in order to pin it into the turn, no matter how stiff the turn was. Therefore, the pump was operating much better; a fact that was achieved by hard work and many hours of testing different sponsons, spacers and the overall matching of them. For Havasu set up this STX-15 Supercharged to reach constantly 83mph.

Now we are talking about something that has a totally different feeling. I have heard a lot about Hydrospace and I have not ridden a Stock or Riva version. Though, this one was powerful it still had a turbo lag at low rpm not too much to worry about. Still you need to have this in mind when you hit on the brakes prior to going around the buoy, so you hit the throttle much earlier than on a two stroke. The power was coming out in a linear way without hitting hard on any particular range. The new designed ride plate made a big difference in the way that this craft was cornering. It was aggressive and sharp much more than any other stand up I rode that Monday. As soon as I was thinking to turn, it was turning. Though, you need to practice a lot in order to find the point that the power output and the steering will cooperate properly. I mean that sometimes when you want to correct your lines the engine does not respond at the same time, so you may loose your track or even fall as it happened to another journalist quite a lot of times. When I was turning around the buoy it was tracking well but straight line stability needs some improvement. In the future we will see better performance out of this craft if someone would take the time and put it back together as it had been designed to be.

The first thing that I noticed this year in Dustins SX-R was that the engine response was much more abrupt, more instant when I griped the throttle. The craft was accelerating faster and it was pulling out of the turn stronger. Then on top, the power was progressively becoming linear, a fact that in the race course looked as if Dustin did not have enough top speed. I do not carry out top speed runs with a radar gun therefore I am notin position to tell you more about that, since I believe that you know much better. Although, Dustin told me that he was using the same set tap in handling, I believe that this race craft was more precise and more aggressive during turns. The ride plate with the pattern whole provides good driving and hooks up without feeling the rear end sliding no matter how hard you push it around the buoy. The rear sponsons also include something to this, though I have noticed that the ride plate is the one that makes the big difference. Overall, this package is very good and JSU have proved it by having Dustin on the podium. According to Dustin Motzouris, his JSU Racing SX-R reaches a top speed of 63mph.

This SX-R had tremendous torque compared to any other SX-R I had ridden the last three years. It pulls out of the turns strongly from very low rpm and it gets even harder at mid range. Though, I believe that so much torque wares out the riders during the race regardless of how good his physical condition is. Still the power was not coming out aggressively as it did in Dauliachs SX-R two years ago. The front sponsons feel good, they provide better driving when you start leaning the craft into the turn and additionally have better stability and traction when you lean. Personally, I believe that the new ride plate with the 10 holes helped too, though I would have loved to test it for much longer time. The ski was hooked at a straight line well as if it was glued on the surface of the water. The Hydraulic trim made a large difference since it was smooth enough to operate by using only the index finger.. The steering felt too loose compared to Dustin’s who prefers it to be tight. Overall, Macc Racing SX-R is a good and powerful package that provides good feeling and can be pushed to its limits without getting nasty surprises; however it demands very good physical condition. So when you have three motos to race well, I do not know… even Chris said that it was too much for him! According to Chris MacClugage during testing this SX-R reached a top speed of 62,5mph.