Jaco Kruger showing the operation of a jet ski with Vesconite wear rings
A marine adventure company has installed Vesconite wear rings on all its SeaDoo Spark jet ski pump sets with great success.
Offshore Adventures first tested a sample of the precision machined, no-swell, wear-resistant Vesconite wear rings as an alternative to the OEM ones, made out of an alternative polymer material, and the replacement ones, made from stainless steel.
Impressed with the results, the adventure company then changed all of the pump set wear rings on its six jet skis to the Vesconite ones.
Vesconite application developer Phillip de Villiers notes that the Vesconite wear rings form part of the housing that contains the jet skis’s propeller.
This is always wet because the propeller is the means by which the jet ski is propelled through the water.
As a result, Vesconite was favoured for its no-swell properties and good dimensional stability in water. The no-swell properties also allowed De Villiers to design a wear ring with a much smaller running clearance, which resulted in better efficiencies and superior operation than had ever been achieved on the jet skis previously.
"The wear rings also sometimes came in contact with abrasive beach sand when the jet skis were started close to the shore," says De Villiers.
"The occasional contact between the wear rings and beach sand was also not problematic for Vesconite, since the material is wear resistant and copes well with abrasive conditions," he notes.
The wear-resistant nature of the material also meant that it survived the rare contact between the wear ring and the propeller, resulting in less replacement and lower maintenance costs, he adds.
“In the jet-ski rental industry, one can't afford downtime,” says Offshore Adventures owner Jaco Kruger.
“These wear rings are not only long-lasting but affordable!” he enthuses.
Offshore Adventures is based out of Plettenberg Bay in South Africa. Besides various other marine adventures, including swimming with the seals and observing the once-a-year sardine run, the company rents jet skis and provides guided jet ski tours with a qualified skipper.
Plettenberg Bay is part of the Condé Nast Travellers Gold List ⎻ its list of the nine best destinations in the world for 2022.