Jet Skier (United Kingdom)

Remote Control

PW hire companies barely exist in Britain anymore, largely because insurance costs are prohibitively expensive. But a system is now available that allows hire operators a level of control over their PW while the craft are out on the water. Could radio control change the future of hire in UK?

Jet Control is essentially a remote control lanyard. It works in exactly the same way as if you pressed the stop button or pulled the lanyard out of a craft while riding, except the controller, or owner of the ski, can do it from land. Created in Croatia, the system flooded the market almost immediately, before surging into Spain, Italy, France, Cyprus, Turkey, Portugal, Greece, Tenerife, Kenya, Florida and Thailand. But will the deluge reach our shores?

Device

Jet Control works as a bypass kill switch that attaches to a PW’s ignition loom, using a set of waterproof connector cables, which the manufacturers provided for Jet Control. The system will connect to any model of Sea-Doo, Yamaha or Kawasaki.
The system is set up so that each craft (of a hire fleet) has a receiver with a different digital frequency assigned to it, allowing one base unit transmitter to control up to six craft at a time with a corresponding number of buttons.
On purchasing the Jet Control system the buyer is provided with a guidelines information pack that the company make you read and sign to acknowledge you understand the safety procedures necessary when operating the device.
It is available with a warning buzzer, or can be hooked up to an internal buzzer that some of the latest PW models have. The buzzer puts the hire operator in the position of referee, allowing him to give a series of warnings like a yellow card: One buzz if the rider misbehaves, a second if they do it again, and then finally you cut them off to end their session. The buzzer is an accessory that is sold separately, and unfortunately the buzzer was not available for our test.

Experiment

Meeting Antonio Separovic of Jet Control, we headed for Stubbers Adventure Centre in Upminster, who very kindly let us use their lake and skis for the day.
Centre manager of Stubbers, Bob Edwards, was very interested in testing the system, along with Gary Jones, the centre’s activity instructor and RYA PW and Powerboat instructor.
In Stubbers’ workshop Antonio and I fitted the receiver in a few minutes. The cables are colour coded, so it is very easy to locate the necessary part of the loom. Then you simply unclip them and attach the Jet Control receiver, bypassing and reconnecting the ignition.
As Antonio says: “It’s plug and play!” And the receiver comes with Velcro straps that attach it securely to the fuel tank. We finished up quickly and Gary was surprised at how fast we were. And now it was time to put it to the test, with Gary as our guinea pig rider... Mu ha ha ha!
Once Gary was on the water I was keen to see just how well Jet Control actually worked and as he blasted from one side of the lake to the other I pressed the button and watched him come to a smooth stop, easing slowly off the plane. It works! And what fun power can be.
Gary looked frustrated, and not until we turned him back on could he start the engine and continue. Bob and I were hoping that we could catch him during a hard turn and get him to fall off into the freezing water, but Jet Control isn’t like a brake, it just slows gradually as if you had pulled out the lanyard.
It has a range of six miles, but the transmitter has to be in line of sight with the PW, which makes sense for safety reasons – you wouldn’t want to cut someone’s power if you didn’t know where they were.
The biggest worry is that the rider does lose control of their steering as the water jet stops, which could result in a further accident if they could not steer away from danger. But Antonio explained: “It is not a last minute decision to kill the power. It is there to stop an incident before it becomes an accident. This is not a be all and end all solution, it is part of good management and responsible supervision.”
Bob decided to put it to the test properly and told Gary to nail it full blast across the lake towards the bank without stopping – that would be down to Bob. Bear in mind that the PW is Bob’s property and income, so however much he would like to see Gary hurtle up a bank and through a fence, the chances are he wouldn’t risk damaging the craft.
So with Gary going full pelt at the bank, Bob cut his power about ten metres away from the bank. The craft slowed down off the plane but still had speed, so it hit the bank and rode up it a little. But he wasn’t in danger, there was no impact, he remained on the ski and no stones or rubbish were sucked up the pump.
Antonio continued: “Education is a big part of it. A hire operator would practise and get used to the stopping distances of their craft, so they would know when the correct time to cut a person’s engine is.”
He also explains that in Croatia and other Mediterranean countries where the system is thriving, Jet Control works on a psychological basis. If a customer is paying 60 for 20 minutes ski rental and they are aware that if they misbehave they will be cut off, then generally they don’t. To lose your money completely or waste a valuable five minutes skiing time is enough to dissuade people from being idiots.

Conclusion

I was sceptical of Jet Control at first, but when you see it in action it suddenly makes sense. It really does work.
The biggest criticism, and this is something that the insurance companies would have to asses, is if an accident did occur while using the system, could the hire company be considered liable? If the customer said ‘I crashed because you didn’t stop me’, the blame may suddenly fall into the hands of the hire operator.
But the system is very clever and I believe that with the correct training and education it can only be positive, increasing safety and security for rental. It would be particularly good for sea hire companies, where you could let people know when their time is up with the buzzer, and cut people off if they were misbehaving or if they tried stealing the PW.
A mini box is also in development that is designed for one PW, so if you were to let your friends use your craft and you were not 100 per cent comfortable, then you could use the mini box to keep an eye on their learning curve.
Jet Control is a very interesting and worthwhile system, which is operating successfully elsewhere. I really think it could be a fantastic opening for hire companies in our country.