Sea-Doo is a Canadian brand of

personal watercraft A personal watercraft (PWC), also called Jet Ski or water scooter, is a primarily recreational watercraft that is designed to hold only a small number of occupants, who sit or stand on top of the craft, not within the craft as in a boat. P ...

(PWC) and

boat A boat is a watercraft of a large range of types and sizes, but generally smaller than a ship, which is distinguished by its larger size or capacity, its shape, or its ability to carry boats. Small boats are typically used on inland waterways s ...

s manufactured by

Bombardier Recreational Products BRP Inc. (an abbreviation of Bombardier Recreational Products) is a Canadian manufacturer of snowmobiles, all-terrain vehicles, Side-by-side (vehicle), side by sides, motorcycles, and personal watercraft. It was founded in 2003, when the Recreati ...

(BRP). All Sea-Doo models are driven by an impeller-driven waterjet. All Sea-Doo PWC models are produced at BRP's plants in

Querétaro Querétaro, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Querétaro, is one of the Political divisions of Mexico, 32 federal entities of Mexico. It is divided into Municipalities of Querétaro, 18 municipalities. Its capital city is Querétaro Cit ...

and Juárez,

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. Its

Rotax Rotax is the brand name for a range of internal combustion engines developed and manufactured by the Austrian company BRP-Rotax GmbH & Co KG (until 2016 BRP-Powertrain GmbH & Co. KG), in turn owned by the Canadian Bombardier Recreational Prod ...

engines are produced at BRP's plant in

Gunskirchen Gunskirchen is a town in the Austrian state of Upper Austria. Geography Gunskirchen lies in the Hausruckviertel. About 11 percent of the municipality is forest, and 78 percent is farmland. Internal combustion engine maker Rotax has been headquarte ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

. In 2016, Sea-Doo had a 45.8% share of the PWC market in the US.

History

Bombardier introduced its first personal watercraft in 1968, called the Bombardier Sea-Doo. It was designed by Clayton Jacobson II, who would later develop the more successful Kawasaki

Jet Ski A personal watercraft (PWC), also called Jet Ski or water scooter, is a primarily recreational watercraft that is designed to hold only a small number of occupants, who sit or stand on top of the craft, not within the craft as in a boat. P ...

watercraft. Also heavily involved was Bombardier's

Laurent Beaudoin Laurent Robert Beaudoin (; born May 13, 1938) is a Canadian businessman from Quebec. From 1979 to 2003, he was the CEO of the transportation company Bombardier. Early life Beaudoin was born in Laurier Station, Quebec. In 1959, while studying a ...

, who was interested in expanding the success of the

Ski-Doo Ski-Doo is a brand name of snowmobile manufactured by Bombardier Recreational Products (originally Bombardier Inc. before the spin-off). The Ski-Doo personal snowmobile brand is so iconic, especially in Canada, that it was listed in 17th pla ...

snowmobile to the PWC market. Advertised as the "Jet-powered Aqua Scooter", the original yellow Sea-Doo was 5 feet wide and 7.5 feet long, somewhat resembling a flying saucer. In 1968, it was powered by an air-cooled, 320cc engine with a top speed of 25 mph. Following complaints of overheating and inefficiency, it was replaced in 1969 with a water-cooled 372cc engine. There were common complaints about discomfort from its flat seat and minimally-padded Ski-Doo supplied stainless steel handlebars. After only two years on the market, it was discontinued. The Sea-Doo was re-introduced in 1988 as its own brand under Bombardier. By 1995, annual sales for the Sea-Doo reached over 100,000 units, signaling a turnaround in the company's declining sales. By 1997 the company had $212 million in sales, recapturing over half of the PWC market. In 2022, during the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

, Sea-Doo personal watercraft converted into explosive

unmanned surface vehicle An unmanned surface vehicle, unmanned surface vessel or uncrewed surface vessel (USV), colloquially called a drone boat, drone ship or sea drone, is a boat or ship that operates on the surface of the water without a crew. USVs operate with v ...

s were used to attack Russian naval vessels at the

Sevastopol Naval Base The Sevastopol Naval Base (; ) is an occupied naval base located in Sevastopol, in the disputed Crimean Peninsula. The base is used by the Russian Navy, and it is the main base of the Black Sea Fleet. Internationally, the base is recognised as ...

Models

There are five categories of Sea-Doo models:

Recreation Recreation is an activity of leisure, leisure being discretionary time. The "need to do something for recreation" is an essential element of human biology and psychology. Recreational activities are often done for happiness, enjoyment, amusement, ...

, Tow Sports, Touring,

Sport Fishing Recreational fishing, also called sport fishing or game fishing, is fishing for leisure, exercise or competition. It can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is occupational fishing activities done for profit; or subsistence fishing, ...

, and Performance. The Sea-Doo jet-powered sport boats included a four-seater Sportster 150 with 155 hp or 215 hp, a four-seater Speedster 150 with 255 hp, and a seven-seater Speedster 200 with 310 hp, and a Speedster 230 with space for up to twelve people. The Wake 200 model was made for wakeboarding and the two Challenger models were less sporty and more luxurious: a smaller Challenger 180 and a larger Challenger 210. In 2012, BRP discontinued sport boat production, citing a decline in global sales in the marine industry. This meant the loss of 350 jobs, including most of those at a plant in

Benton, Illinois Benton is a city in and the county seat of Franklin County, Illinois. The population was 6,709 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. In 1839, Franklin County, Illinois, Franklin County was split roughly in half and the county seat was p ...

. The Sea-Doo Spark which was released in 2014 was aimed to attract new buyers to the decreasing PWC market. This model was in development for eight years and was code-named CAFE (clean, affordable, fun, and easy to use). It used a unique polytec hull and deck structure to cut costs and weight. The Spark quickly became the best-selling Sea-Doo model. In August 2021 they released a Pontoon boat style boat called the Switch.

References

External links

Sea-Doo website
{{Set index article Bombardier Recreational Products Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1988 Personal watercraft brands

History

Models

See also

References

External links