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I purchased my 1994 Rage 15ft Whaler last summer. It is the omc 115 hp turbo jet. Upon taking it out for the first time, it started very hard. After finally getting it started, it smoked like crazy. It ran, but would not go fast. At full throttle, it would only putt along. A week later, I took it out on the lake again to test it out and try to find out what was going on. When the boat is in neutral, it sometimes seems to surge and pop it's self out of neutral for a few seconds, then pop back to neutral. It still starts hard and has no power. While on the last test run, I was going across the lake, at full throttle, but still just putting along. All of a sudden it started to pick up speed and finally I was flying. But as soon as I slowed down and tried to get it up to speed again, it wouldn't go. I haven't yet taking it out this year, and don't want to until I get to take a look at it the engine. I am looking for some suggestions. Anyone have any similar problems or know what could be going on?

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Kevin:

I have a 1992 Rage with a Yamaha 50. It's a fabulous boat -- a nice combination of power, versatility, fun, fuel economy, and head-turning Whaler mystique. It's great for Lower Nemahbin (not far down the road from your Waukesha), which has shallow areas. I've effectively doubled the size of my lake, and I enjoy the looks I get from those gingerly piloting their prop boats.

You've probably got two distinct problems. I strongly suspect that your difficulty starting the engine is unrelated to the high rpm/slow speed issue. I've just exhausted my knowledge on the engine-starting problem.

I have first-hand experience with the second type of problem (high rpms/slow forward speed). After experiencing that problem, I had a marine mechanic look at the boat, and he said the shifter needed adjustment (and perhaps eventual replacement). I think he was saying that the gate over the jet nozzle was partly obstructing the jet because of a problem shifting.

I was probably to blame. When I first got the boat (which had no owners manual) I tried to go directly from reverse to drive, or vice versa, without turning the engine off. I later read somewhere (here?) that one should not do that -- and I recall that it was difficult to shift when I had done that. I suspect that doing that stretched the shift cable so that it went out of adjustment. I now turn off the boat before shifting from forward to reverse, or vice versa. I have not seen a recurrence of the high rpm/slow speed issue (except once, when going through weeds, see below).

The problem with the high rpms/slow speed also cropped up once, when the impeller was clogged with weeds and silt. That happened when I was in extremely shallow, weedy water, trying to do a good deed (hauling a tire out of the traffic lanes). But the problem was quickly solved when I turned the boat off, restarted it, and revved it up. The blockage was discharged, and away I went.

Best of luck with that head-turning Rage 15!