I posted a thread of objective problems we've experienced with our new Fish Pro immediately preceding this one. Here are some subjective comments about our ownership experience so far:
- The Seadoo cover is very nicely designed, high quality and versatile. I was reluctant to buy at its high price but in hindsight glad I did.
- The Fish Pro 170 has a great deal of power for somebody new to the PWC game. If anything, I'd prefer less power and better fuel economy if that was an engineering trade off that could be made. I'd still want to be able to cruise at 40 - 45 mph on the machine though.
- The engine is louder and revs at higher RPMs than I, as a new PWC'r, was expecting. I bought the normally aspirated Fish Pro thinking more Buick / Cadillac but it feels / sounds more like a Ninja. I don't recall the exact numbers but at 40 mph, I believe it's close to 7000 RPMs.
- The dock bumpers are expensive and don't work at most docks I go to for refueling. They don't have enough size to work in most situations I've experienced (primarily refueling docks).
- The Seadoo anchor has been a complete failure with very little holding power. The float for the anchor line broke in half after a couple weeks of use. We anchor in Lake Michigan with a sandy bottom. To my dismay, not only will the anchor not hold our Seadoo even in mild conditions, the other day I tried anchoring a Hobie pedal board with it (60 lbs) when there were less than 1 foot waves on the lake but there were some boat wakes. It did not hold.
- Very disappointed to see there is no usb phone charging port in the phone dry storage compartment. Thought I'd researched this plenty but apparently not enough. Seadoo / Bombardier charges over $110 for this part alone. This is an important safety issue IMO - not an area where Bombardier should be looking to make additional profit. Cell signals carry well over water and having this included on, what I thought was, a premium PWC purchase at over $17K just makes sense. I can't imagine the OEM cost of this part is more than $15.
- The EQ balance of the stereo system on our Fish Pro isn't to my liking. Seems very mid rangy with muddy highs and a fair amount of base.
- The LinQ fuel caddy is very sturdy and latches to the Fish Pro well. There is a small loose cap that is part of the filler spout assembly that seems like it would be very easy to lose when refueling over water. If it is lost, I'm not sure the fuel caddy would still be water tight and if so, that's a big deal. The fuel caddy is nicely designed as a squat, low profile tank which is great for stability and mounting to the boat. The flip side is that it's shape is the opposite of what you'd like when tipping the fuel into your filler port. A conventional jerry can is tall and narrow for a reason.
- The big fishing cooler is very stout but seems clunky to me as though it could have been designed to be equally performant and not weigh so much empty.
- The Fish Pro / ST3 hull handles the chop in Lake Michigan quite well and the seat is comfortable. This was a big deciding factor when buying the Fish Pro and I wasn't able to test this before purchasing.
- Fuel economy seems to be around 7 mpg when driving at 30 mph as I usually do. I like the adaptive nature of the fuel gauge on the Fish Pro. It seems to sample the conditions of your driving and estimate how much range you'll have left if you keep doing what you're doing.