Fishing Frenzy

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.

In a move to realize their goals, the Bombardier family approached vehicle engineer Clayton Jacobsen II. Jacobsen happened to be planning to initiate a similar project, a motorcycle-like vehicle that can be driven on water. The two parties joined their heads and their resources to create 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 salvage the project but to no avail. He tried to convince the Bombardier company to update their models with the changes he suggested such as incorporating rubber components and waterproofing the body. Jacobsen's suggestions were ignored by Bombardier and the project was shelved.

Jacobsen, determined to finished what he started, bought the rights of the patent and presented the design to Kawasaki in 1971. With some tweaks of the initial design by Jacobsen, Kawasaki was able to create a better, more practical variant of the personal watercraft. In 1973, Kawasaki introduced the Jet Ski, the first commercial personal watercraft. Today, the term Jet Ski means all types of water crafts, even though Kawasaki Motors is the registered owner of the trademark.