An introduction and my first boat, a Watermouse

Fr3AkAzOiD

Cadet
Joined
Mar 8, 2009
Messages
24
I'd like to say hi as I'm new to these forums and just bought my first boat...

So for my first boat I figured I'd start off small, really small, 10.5 ft small.



I picked up '99 Mercury Watermouse, I'm like it's 5th owner but it was in pretty good shape and they are becoming rare, in the past 6 months I've only seen 4 for sale nation wide so I didn't mind driving 600 miles to pick it up since I've been in love with them since I first rented one at Disney.

They were designed for rentals on Disney's lakes and Mercury made a few extra to sell to the public but they were a failure, mainly due to their $5,000 - $6,500 price tag, who would buy one of these little 2 seaters when they could get a wave runner for half that.

Thing is they hold their value and due to scarsity are still demanding 50%+ of original sale price if in good shape which is both good and bad. :\

It's running a 2 cycle Mercury 15 hp outboard but the owner 2 or 3 back got the cover for a 9.9 so he didn't have to register it in whatever state he was from.

This also makes it a nice little sleeper speedboat, as most people would just go "oh, how cute , a little boat with a 9.9 hp engine".

Had it out for the first time today in a small local lake and 3 guys in a metal fishing boat with a Johnson 30hp outboard wanted to race me.

They didn't expect me to hit 26 mpg (verified with gps) from a standstill in 6 seconds, but when the boat weighs as little as this thing it really gets up and goes.

One bonus is I can operate it in no PWC lakes as it's registered as a standard boat.

One downside to it's small size is you will have to expect to get wet if the water is the least bit choppy.

You can see how low you sit in the water in the pic below.



The prop has a good amount of nicks but nothing catastrophic, as does the hull (some sort of plastic), which also needs to be scrubbed down but I'm hoping with a new or repaired prop, and a smoothed out hull and an engine tune up I'll break 30 mph, which in such a small boat seems plenty fast.

No leaks and the engine started right up and never hesitated in the 90 minutes I was out, thing is damn fuel efficient also, used up less then 1.5 gallons of gas for all the full throttle fun I had.
 

mthieme

Captain
Joined
Oct 6, 2007
Messages
3,270
Re: An introduction and my first boat, a Watermouse

Too cool.
I've seen these on the internet before, never in person.
I thought it would a really cool little ride.
I'm envious.
 

sportsmanphil

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Mar 8, 2009
Messages
257
Re: An introduction and my first boat, a Watermouse

I remeber renting one of those when I was a kid at Disney. Sweet find. Wonder if the wife would leave me if I brought one of them home :confused: She's sick of the boat I do have.
 

mthieme

Captain
Joined
Oct 6, 2007
Messages
3,270
Re: An introduction and my first boat, a Watermouse

I remeber renting one of those when I was a kid at Disney. Sweet find. Wonder if the wife would leave me if I brought one of them home :confused: She's sick of the boat I do have.

boat ???? singular ??? as in only one ???
How are you ever going to develop an incurable case of MBS ?


:D
 

tashasdaddy

Honorary Moderator Emeritus
Joined
Nov 11, 2005
Messages
51,019
Re: An introduction and my first boat, a Watermouse

replace the prop, a lot of nicks, can throw it out of balance and reduce performance. it can also be reconditioned.
 

ezmobee

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Mar 26, 2007
Messages
23,767
Re: An introduction and my first boat, a Watermouse

When I was little we rented one of those as Disney. I wasn't old enough to drive it per their regulations. I was bummed because I had already been solo piloting a small tinny for years at that point. So we took one out and my dad and I tried to switch who was driving. That lasted about 5 minutes before the Disney boat patrol made us switch back :( I was obsessed with them after that as well for a while.
 

Fr3AkAzOiD

Cadet
Joined
Mar 8, 2009
Messages
24
Re: An introduction and my first boat, a Watermouse

The ones at Disney kind of sucked though, 9.9 motor and a prop gaurd for safety reasons gave them a top speed of maybe 18 mph with a 150 lb operator and with 280 lbs (2 adults) it could barely get on plane.

I'm getting 24 in choppy water and 26 in smooth, I'm hoping with a little work 30 will be possible.

I'd just need to do some research to find out what the RPM range @ WOT should be for my motor and then try to find what it's running now so I don't end up killing the motor putting the wrong prop on it.

I'm addicted to small go fast things, wife was getting pissed that I was putting so much time into my go kart so instead I buy this boat, lolz.
At least my garage is large enough to fit 2 cars, the boat, and all my other toys. If I ever evicted her car from the garage I'm sure she would leave me. :rolleyes:
 

sportsmanphil

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Mar 8, 2009
Messages
257
Re: An introduction and my first boat, a Watermouse

boat ???? singular ??? as in only one ???
How are you ever going to develop an incurable case of MBS ?


:D


YES thank God, singular, as in one boat. :D

I am down to one boat for a reason, no time. The Garage is full of ATV's dirtbikes, for me and the kids. Harley for me and the wifey. I keep a camper in WV where we ride the ATV's, not to mention the house. Just to keep the maintinance up on whats already here is 2 full time jobs; heaven forbid I actually work a paying gig.

Boat wise we end up fishing more than anything, so we have ridded all things that float except for the 175TXS Bass Tracker.
 
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