Oh, all the wonderful things you’ll find on Craigslist these days. We recently discovered this unusual bit of nostalgia from Northern Ohio; a real-deal 1987 Sea-Doo “test market” runabout that later was modded by Decker Racing. The “test market” 1987 “5801” model was the unit that heralded Sea-Doo’s return to the marketplace. A direct response to Kawasaki’s standup and Yamaha’s WaveRunner, the Sea-Doo was designed for the emerging market, and debuted in 1987 – eventually reaching a wider market in 1988.

Although drastically different from Sea-Doo’s original 1968 unit, the 5801 featured several key design features that would carry on for literally decades, particularly the hull and deck configuration, its 20-degree, semi-V hull, how “the seat extended all the way back to allow for two passengers, and the handlebars were padded and included updated grips. Still, there were similarities to the original, including the wide footwells and the positive curve on the bow,” according to an article written by Joel Johnson.

He continued, “The 5801 was powered by a water-cooled 581cc Rotax in-line twin connected directly to the pump by a driveshaft and designed specifically for the marine environment. That engine pumped out three times the horsepower of the original, and the horsepower was transferred to the water through an updated axial-flow pump.”

This particular unit was one of the original #5801 Sea-Doos sold to a limited 400 buyers. Here’s what the seller had to say: “This is one of the 400 test market boats made in 1987 model # 5801 with a 581cc Rotax engine.
I purchase this boat new from Ed Babbit of Babbit’s Motorsport in Muskegon, Michigan. The history of
the test market boats can be found online at parkeryamaha.com under Roots / The Birth of a Seadoo.
In 1990, I had Decker Racing in Marshfield, Wi. modify the engine to include a custom tuned pipe, intake manifold with twin carbs, and dyno tested tuned ports. Boat needs a new starter, battery, carb and fuel system service.” This rare, historic Sea-Doo can be yours for $1,400.

Earlier this year The Watercraft Journal was on the scene at the 2018 Watercraft Superstore Skyway Ski Show to record some behind-the-scenes action.

As always, this show is certainly a blast for everyone involved and this year even the kids got to benefit. For 2018, Watercraft Superstore donated $5000 of the Skyway Ski Show proceeds to the children’s charity Clothes to Kids.

Clothes to Kids is a non-profit entity located in the Clearwater, Florida area that organizes the collection of clothing donations for children in need of clean clothing to wear to school. Their mission is to provide new and quality used clothing to low-income or in crisis school-age children, free of charge.

In 2017 alone, the Clothes to Kids organization provided more than 10,000 school wardrobes to kids in Pinellas County. With their continuing expansion as well as with helpful donations such as proceeds from Watercraft Superstore-hosted Skyway Ski Show, more kids will be able to receive the clothing they desperately need.

According to the Clothes to Kids organization, research shows that children who go to school wearing clothes that make them feel like they fit in perform better academically than those who don’t.

We are certainly glad to see those in the personal watercraft community come together for good causes such as this. For more information, check out the Pickren outreach article here.

It’s not often when we get to cross-share an article between Shaw Group Media’s two magazines, The Watercraft Journal and Mopar Connection Magazine. Albeit two very disconnected industries, and we being the publishers of two magazines servicing very niche enthusiast groups, the intersection of Dodge/Plymouth muscle cars and personal watercraft is a rare one indeed. Yet, as fate would have it, here we are.

Coming from the tail end of the annual geek-tastic San Diego Comic-Con, many outlets took the opportunity to cross-promote the beginning of Discovery Channel’s absurdly popular “Shark Week” broadcasting event, including Dodge. As part of their summer sales event and other promotions, Dodge fired out this silly “asphalt summer” commercial featuring a bunch of beach-goers going about typical summertime festivities in a rather large parking lot just mere feet from the sand.

One such enthusiast is shown ripping a Chili Pepper red Sea-Doo Spark around in a collapsible swimming pool as a 707-horsepower, 204-mph Dodge Charger Hellcat pulls up with a surfboard rack on the roof. Yes, you read that right. That 4-door Charger is packing over seven hundred horsepower and has been clocked at a blistering 204 miles per hour. Not too shabby for a family sedan, huh?

Of course, the parking lot is filled with all sorts of other high-horsepower Mopar muscle, including nearly every offering from the SRT (Street Racing Technology) lineup of performance machines. It’s a fun way to start your Monday, so take a peek below (even if you’re a Ford guy):

The fall preview edition of V Magazine has been sweeping the newsstands and for good reason. It features world renowned fashion model Gigi Hadid aboard a custom Fendi wrapped Sea-Doo RXP-X 300.

To help V Magazine pull off this special edition article, Look Marketing came into the picture to do some public relations and logistics work for its client Sea-Doo watercraft. After all was said and done, over 75 million people from around the world were exposed to the amazing Sea-Doo watercraft.

Look Marketing did some extensive behind the scenes work to help make this possible. They explain their full involvement in these excerpts below from their press release:

We helped pick the right Sea-Doo model for the look the creative team wanted. We worked with a local Miami vehicle wrap company to deliver the unit and help with the Fendi wrap graphics. For the actual shoot, we made the Sea-Doo portion as turn-key as possible. It also helped that Gigi Hadid was a genuinely nice person, with a great work ethic, and admitted adrenaline junky. She listened intently to our instruction on-set and did indeed ride aggressively for a full four hour shoot.

To date (mid-July) the effort has generated over 456 million impressions from being featured in 38 different outlets. The biggest hits have come from Gigi’s own social media posting. Again we helped Hadid and photographer Mario Sorrenti have a great experience and they shared their appreciation with more posts. #lookatus

Listen, we’re all excited to learn what Yamaha Motor Corp. USA has in store for 2019, but it would appear that the social media team for Yamaha’s Australian division just let slip a major spoiler. So if you don’t want to spoil the full reveal coming August 15th, you best click on another article right quick. OK? Yeah, here we go:

In a Facebook post dated July 17th, the Yamaha WaveRunners Australia page published a gallery of five images featuring SuperJets from different models from various time periods each with stylized font reading “The End of a Legend.” Above the gallery, it read “So many memories. Which one stands out for you? #SuperJet #lastevermodel.”

The images and the accompanying hashtags clearly revealed that 2019 would mark the end of the SuperJet as we know it. Of course, The Watercraft Journal has been pushing the notion that as 2020 will denote the 30th anniversary of the SuperJet that a long rumored, highly anticipated TR-1 1049cc 4-stroke version of the standup would take its place.

Yet, as the Yamaha Australia team would have us believe, it may be the final send off for the SuperJet completely. If that is so, it’ll be a sad day when we all bid farewell to the last of the OE production 2-stroke standups, marking truly, the end of an era.

Update: The Watercraft Journal recently spoke with Yamaha Motor Australia’s National Marketing and Communications Coordinator, Aaron Taha who explained, “Australia introduced a new 2-stroke emissions law banning the distribution and selling of all 2-stroke models in Australia. Because the SuperJet is a 2-stroke model, it has been discontinued in Australia moving forward.”

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This is a remarkable story from NJ.com. Six years after a Sea-Doo was lost during Hurricane Sandy has been returned to its owner, Hillside Fire Department fireman, Douglas Ferrigno. During the hurricane, the machine was torn away from the dock behind Ferrigno’s Pelican Island home. Someone found it and unfortunately reported an incorrect tag number and Ferrigno thought his Sea-Doo was a victim of the storm. Last week, Ferrigno posted a photo of his missing Sea-Doo on his Facebook page. The old photo featured the Sea-Doo secured to the dock prior to Hurricane Sandy.

The remains of another PWC were found while another ski sat damaged and unclaimed at an empty damaged waterfront home in Brick,NJ. The home was undergoing renovations and a contractor was preparing to remove the beat up Sea-Doo and decided to have the police run the numbers a second time and sure enough, it was Ferrigno’s ski. He received a call July 2cd from the Brick Township Police and was in disbelief that his ski was found.

Ferrigno drove 6 miles, 6 years later to find his Sea-Doo with all its parts and in working order. The cover was still secured to the machine, which kept the rain out and the key in the ignition. He took the Sea-Doo home, replaced the battery, spark plugs, and added new gas. The Sea-Doo cranked over and it’s back on the dock as though it never left.

Ferrigno considered finding his Sea-Doo a blessing after reeling from the devastating effects of the storm. He was only able to move back into his home in April and hadn’t purchased a new PWC so the return of his old Sea-Doo makes him feel as though things are back to normal.

“We all went through devastation down there,” Ferrigno said. “It’s a nice symbol to know that good things can happen. I got it out yesterday. It’s out in the water. It’s like nothing ever happened to it.”

Terri Nallamothu and Ryan Kulka began the Michigan Wave Makers, LLC waaay back in 2017. Well, OK it wasn’t that far back. But they did it to “bring the thrill of the jet ski competition world to the great state of Michigan.”

According to the group’s web page, the “community of Lake Orion is proud to be hosting events that will bring jet ski riders from around the country to compete in freestyle events, as well as a races with a generous prize purse for the winners in each category.

“We hope that we continue to grow and bring more events around Michigan for many more years to come. ”

Coming this August 18th, 2018 is the Wave Makers’ “Brave the Wave” event, which opened up rider registration just recently. Registration deadline is August 10th, so there’s not a lot of time to waste. And you should want to join the fun because a portion of proceeds from Brave the Wave 2018 will go toward the McLaren Oakland Foundation, an organization “established in 2004 to ensure that everyone, regardless of age, race and financial status has access to state-of-the-art health care services.” Good stuff!