Love them or hate them, Personal Watercraft (PWC) tend to quickly create two very firm camps in the boating fraternity. Those who think they are the greatest mode of transport and fun on the water ever created, opposing those who see them (and their riders) as a plague and dangerous nuisance.
Getting the name right
Firstly it’s important to understand that the term ‘Jet Ski’ is a trademark of Kawasaki, while ‘jetski’ is the generic name many people use for the official term ‘Personal Watercraft’ (similar to ‘Xeroxing’ a document, ‘Hoovering’ a floor or ‘Googling’ a search term).
Prototypes
The first ever PWC models were developed in the UK and Europe in the mid-1950s. The British ‘Vincent Amanda’ was a 200cc propeller-driven craft, while the German ‘Wave Roller’ could fit in a car boot, and was available in 1956 for USD$325.
The ‘Sea Skimmer’ (effectively a propelled board you lay down on) was then introduced in 1961. It was 1.7 m long, and reached speeds up to 40km/h. The rider lay on the boat, controlling the speed with hand throttles and used their feet to steer.
Modern start
The closest concept of the traditional model of PWC we have today was invented by Clayton Jacobson II. As a committed dirt bike racer, he wanted to find a way to have the same amount of fun, without the fear of crashing onto the hard ground. In 1961 he sketched his idea of what his vision would look like. Working on the concept over the following five years, his sit-down design was powered by an internal pump-jet, was made of aluminium, and had a fixed, upright handle. Jacobson eventually quit his job in banking to devote himself to developing the idea, and bring a working prototype to take to market.
In 1965 Jacobson then licenced his plans to marine manufacturer Bombardier, with the company releasing the bright yellow ‘Sea-Doo’ with an air-cooled 320cc engine. Sadly public reception was mixed, with Bombardier discontinuing the model in 1971.
Enter Kawasaki
As his agreement had now ended, Jacobson pitched his idea to Kawasaki in 1972 to a warm response. Working together they released the first commercially successful stand-up personal watercraft – the Kawasaki JS400 Jet Ski.
Re-enter Bombardier
Kawasaki models dominated for 16 years until the Sea-Doo sit-down model was re-introduced by Bombardier in 1988, and rapidly started eating into market share.
Enter and exit Honda
Honda decided to get into the market and created their own version – the AquaTrax in 2003. While it was generally well received, it was only released in four countries. It also takes a lot of research and development as well as a multi-million dollar budget to start a brand new product line. Unfortunately their timing was all wrong and when the 2008 financial crisis hit, they decided to exit the market the following year.
Many then few
For a while, there were many PWC manufacturers, including Honda, Tigershark, Polaris, Sea-Doo, Yamaha and Kawasaki, as well as many others. But today the main players have shrunk down to Sea-Doo, Yamaha, and Kawasaki, with a few minor players such as Canadian company Taiga with their all-electric ‘Orca’ and Finnish manufacturer Viva with their ‘Electric Jet’ coming out recently.
Here to stay
With the PWC market projected to grow from $4.8 billion in 2022 to $8.5 billion by 2032, whether you love or hate PWCs, they are here to stay and will continue to ‘make waves’ both on and off the water.
