Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, August 15, 1994 TAG: 9408160024
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Aren't personal water craft (PWC)-frequently called Jet Skis-a toy for the teen and 20-something crowd to cut up on?
That's one of the misconceptions, said Pete Jordan, sales manager at Webster.
"Actually, the young people cannot afford to buy them," said Jordan, who is the top PWC salesman in the region. "They aren't inexpensive."
The high-performance Sea Doo XP that Jordan sells comes with a burly 80 horsepower Rotax power plant and a price tag of $6,350. You can get an entry-level PWC for about $4,350. While its 55-horsepower engine isn't exactly a howler, "it still will run 40 mph," said Jordan.
"You never know when they walk into the door who is going to ask for them," said Mike Fielder of Advantage Marine in Roanoke. "We have granddaddys coming in here buying for themselves; we have parents coming in buying them for their teen-agers. It is just absolutely every age."
The typical PWC buyer is 28 to 60 years old, said Jordan. Most prefer a three-seater, and they want a high performance engine under them.
"The older people will ride down the lake to get an ice cream or ride down to visit a friend, and it maybe will only cost them $2, where if you start up a boat it takes you two gallons just to turn the key," Jordan said.
As for the young and young at heart, speed and performance is what counts.
"What it amounts to, you don't go boat riding on a PWC; you don't go fishing on a PWC," said Jack Cox, the boating safety coordinator for the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. "You go out to cut a shine; you find the biggest wake and jump it."
Dominguez chose a three-seater, buying her PWC at the urging of an older friend who owns one.
"My main concern was the stability," she said. "I don't care how fast it goes or doesn't go. It is easier for me to handle than my husband's boat."
PWC have been around for two decades, but they really didn't take off in this region until three seasons ago, when Webster Marine Center, a boat dealership at Hales Ford Bridge, began touting the Sea Doo. Before that, PWC were something you'd expect to find in a motorcycle shop, where many still are sold .
"Our first year we sold 60, the next year we sold 140. This year, if we would have had 200-plus units, we would have sold them," Jordan said.
A scarcity of Sea Doos is expected to keep Webster's sales to about 190 in 1994. That's nearly twice as many PWC sales as all other type boats combined, Jordan said.
Other boat dealers have looked on with awe and scrambled to catch up. Advantage took on the Tigershark line last year. The 1994 models have sold out, Fielder said.
Conrad Brothers, on Claytor Lake, became a Wetjet dealer this year.
"We sold everything we could get," said Mike Ratcliff, who eagerly is waiting for the first delivery of the 95 models.
Twenty-five percent of the new boats being registered with the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries are PWC, said William Antozzi, the agency's boating safety officer.
"There is a PWC frenzy going on right now," said Jordan, who predicts the time will come when there will be more PWC on Smith Mountain Lake than there will be ski boats, fishing boats, cruisers, sailboats and all other types of craft combined.
On some weekends, it can seem that way already.
"I have one customer who calls all PWC `sea gnats,'" said Ratcliff, whose business is best known for high-performance ski boats. "The reason he calls them sea gnats is because they hang around your rear end and won't go away."
Like moths flocking to a bright light, PWC operators love to frolic in the wake of a bigger boat, which gives them a high profile, especially to the people on the big boat. They also tend to buzz about in congested areas, which one critic said "is like having a dirt bike track in your backyard."
"I've always had a negative view of PWCs," Dominguez said, while waiting for her Sea Doo to be launched for a test run one day last week.
"It is like anything else in this world," Jordan said. "You have a few irresponsible people. If they are driven responsibly, if they are driven knowledgeably, then there will be no problem whatsoever out there."
Dominguez doesn't anticipate problems.
"We will not take it out when other people are out ramrodding around," she said.
"They definitely are fun," said Lt. Karl Martin, a state game warden who works Smith Mountain Lake. "Looking at the positive side, by far the majority of the people handle them properly and do not cause a problem."
Even so, half of all the boating accidents on the lake this year have involved PWC.
Safety officials are concerned about the horsepower-performance race that has gripped the surging PWC industry as each company covets the "most powerful" ranking. But for many dealers and consumers, it is pure excitement.
"Tigershark promises us that we will have a model next year that will outsell everyone on the market," Fielder said. "It is going to be bigger and faster than anything out there. They won't tell us anything more. They say we are going to be able to ride it in about two weeks."
Wetjet will have a unit in its 95 lineup that will tout "half again as much horsepower" as the beefiest 94 model, Ratcliff said. Sea Doo and the others aren't expected to be left behind.
In the past, PWC have been the product of motorcycle or snowmobile manufacturers; now boat and outboard manufactures are taking notice.
Last year, Wetjet was purchased by Mastercraft Boat Co., best known for high-performance tournament skiing craft. Rumor has it that Mercury, a major outboard manufacturer, is building a PWC.
Fielder said Mercury wouldn't say anything officially at a dealers' meeting a couple of weeks ago, but some of the technical staff mentioned that a prototype is being tested in Florida.
"There is no doubt in my mind if they have gone that far they are going to bring it out," Fielder said. "I am surprised they have waited this long. I think in October they will either introduce it or announce that they will introduce it in the spring. I don't think they will miss another summer."
by CNB