A Quick History of the Personal Watercraft

Riding a personal watercraft is a thrilling experience. The ride alone gives you a great sense of excitement. But have you ever thought about the history of such machine. If not, then read and learn how the personal watercraft came to be.

The concept of a vehicle that functions like a scooter on water was initiated by the Bombardier family in the late sixties. What they wanted was to create a water version of the famed Ski-Doo snowmobile. After all, they are a clan who love water sports, since most of their summer vacations took place on and around the lakes of the Laurentian region of Quebec.

The Bombardier family, in a move to make reality their dream, commissioned Clayton Jacobsen II to design such machine. Jacobsen also dreamt of creating a motorcycle-like vehicle that navigate on water with relative ease and speed. The two parties joined their heads and their resources to realize the first ever personal watercraft.

Jacobsen first started with a stand-up design. Eventually the two parties worked for a personal watercraft design that allows the rider to seat while navigating the vehicle. The Bombardier family provided Jacobsen with an 18-hp Rotax engine. From then on, he toiled to perfect a sit-down design of his machine.

In 1968, the combined resources of the Bombardier family and Jacobsen gave birth to Sea-Doos (a play on the name of Bombardier’s famous snowmobile line). A year later, Bombardier updated the engine and integrated it with a liquid cooling mechanism, an update of Jacobsens design, which was basically cooled by air intake. But problems with corrosion and engines made the Bombardiers give up on the project.

Jacobsen tried to convince the Bombardier company to go on with project. He insisted that the models needed to be tweaked and adjustments should be made like integrating rubber components and waterproofing the body. Jacobsen’s suggestions were ignored by Bombardier and the project was shelved.

Jacobsen, adamant that he was, bought the rights of the patent and sold the design to Kawasaki in 1971. With ramifications by Jacobsen and the engineering technologies of Kawasaki, they were able to create a better, more functional type of personal watercraft. In 1973, Kawasaki launched the first commercial personal watercraft, the Jet Ski. Today, the term Jet Ski includes all types of water crafts, even though it is a trade name registered for the use of Kawasaki Motors.

Thinking of picking up jet skis for sale ? Then hop on over to our website where you’ll find a great selection on offer. Why not take a look at used Yamaha jet ski? You may pick a real bargain. Check them out today.

Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.