New SR jet boat

**fwebster** · 10-08-2012, 04:38 PM

Originally Posted by Bridog

Weber Motors? Any thoughts? I know you had a SeaRayder back in the day.... Brian

Brian,

I am told that Sea Ray felt a niche for a high quality jet boat was being ignored but Yamaha, Sea Doo, etc. because they are basically power package builders, not boat builders. So, expect this to be a very well designed and safe high quality boat with creature comfort that just happens to be powered by a jet drive.

I understand that this is a complete power package based on a 4 cylinder, 4 stroke gas engine that is coupled to a jet pump via a horizontal drive shaft. The engine is supposed to be silky smooth and very quiet. There are 2 engines......one normally aspirated; the other turbo charged, both built around the same base engine, but one having 40-ish more horsepower. Since the pump is shaft driven, it allows the boat builder to locate the engine where it needs to be for proper weight/balance...this is unlike the Sea Rayder that had the engine/pump in a single housing with a vertical shaft. This engine/pump package is totally supplied by Weber Motors and apparently has no Mercruiser or Brunswick involvement. Weber is sort of the Bombardier or maybe Rotax of Germany since they appear top be pretty big in snowmobiles and engines for smaller off road applications.

The question of if and how well Sea Ray dealers will support the Weber power package remains to be seen. My personal opinion is that many the dealers are doing as little service after the sale as possible and are forcing Sea Ray to pick up the void. If Webers are as good as we are led to believe, there won't be a problem, but I can't see many dealers laying in (financing) a parts inventory for only 2 boat models.

Don't ask me to describe how well Mercruiser supported the Sea Rayder owners of their Sport-Jet power packages...........

**Bridog** · 10-08-2012, 04:54 PM

Frank, Thank you. It'll be interesting to see what they are all about. Take care, Brian

**NorCalGlenn** · 10-08-2012, 08:41 PM

To get to the Sea Ray videos...

(Because I'm 'technically challenged' when it comes to linking stuff...)

Go to YouTube.

Search the following, exactly: "SeaRayBoatsandYachts".

The results will show a CHANNEL for Sea Ray.

Click on that, and you'll see all of the new videos.

**Bridog** · 10-09-2012, 08:04 AM

Thanks Glenn.

**LawyerMan** · 10-09-2012, 09:54 AM

**pchansen** · 10-10-2012, 07:00 PM

I went to the Weber Motors website and if correct, the largest engine I could find was 750cc's. In turbocharged form, it puts out 143hp. Not insignificant, especially in a twin engine configuration but at what RPM? The old Yamaha drives were basically marinized R1 motors. The 1 Liter engines put out full power at about 8200 RPM. That would give me a headache! Supposedly, Yamaha addressed this concern by increasing the displacement to 1.8 liters/engine and now WOT is less. 750 cc motors have got to sound like a jet taking off.