REFURBISHED 1993 IJSBA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP JETSKI – JEFF JACOBS

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NUMBER ONE RIDES AGAIN Refurbishing a Piece of Jet Ski Racing History

By Mr. Jez Crook Edited by Mr. Bob Phares

My company, Line One Distributors Ltd formally known as Jetski UK, has been involved within the Jet

Ski market since 1976. Tony Walker, who then owned the company, actually imported the first Jet Ski

into the UK.

Tony was told by Kawasaki Motors UK that the UK weather was too cold and Jet Skis would never

catch on, so he decided to import them direct himself and set up the UK dealer network. As sales

grew Kawasaki Motors UK decided to take over the importation.

That was back in 1992 and here we are today at Line One Distributors, not selling Jet Skis per se, but

being the main UK Distributor for all of the aftermarket products for a healthy personal watercraft

community that began way back in the 1970’s.

A good friend of mine, Gary, decided he wanted to own something very special in the Jet Ski World.

He is an avid collector of former World Champion Moto X Bikes and has 28 in total. Dave Thorpe’s is

his pride and joy.

Having met Jeff Jacobs myself quite a few times I made the call to see what he had in his garage. Jeff

said, “I have a JS440 Superstock and a JS550 Open Modified winning Jet Ski."

“We’ll have both” Gary said.

They came crated direct from Jeff’s house in El Cajon, California. Within a couple of weeks they

arrived and amazingly both of the PJS performance built boats started on the button.

Jeff Jacobs was the most esteemed racer in

IJSBA history during the sports heyday. He won

more National and World Championships than

any other competitor. Jeff possessed a distinct

race style and was a formidable competitor who

teamed up with Performance Jet Ski, the leader

in race technologies and innovation. This story

is about the PJS 2013 World Championship #1

Race Boat refurbished to its former glory under

the guidance of Line One Distributors Ltd

REFURBISHED 1993 IJSBA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP JETSKI – JEFF JACOBS

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I thought that was it, but Gary had other ideas. He wanted us to restore the Open Mod to what it

would have looked like when it came out PJS factory and keep the Superstock as it was.

The Jammer re-build begins with a precision makeover

As you see from these images we stripped the Jet Ski back to its bare bones, both hull, engine, pump

and electrical were thoroughly inspected and reassembled. The two stroke engine is broken down

from the crankcase up to the carburettors.

When completed, we then sent the hull back to Gary to sort out the paint job requirements.

Hull, Hood and Handlebar unassembled ready for the next phase

When we began the work on the engine and pump unit, we commenced by stripping it down and

getting the components bead blasted and polished where necessary.

When we got the JS hull back we were all amazed with the quality and how it was so similar to the

original design.

I’ve seen some “replicas” in the past but this was something else. 20 hours later and we’re finished.

Best of all Gary’s has what he wanted, a gleaming World Cup winning Jet Ski owned by the legend

himself – ‘Jeff “The Jammer” Jacobs’.

REFURBISHED 1993 IJSBA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP JETSKI – JEFF JACOBS

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So here we have it, finished to its former glory!

The Jammer’s 1993 Open Modified Kawasaki JS550 World Finals Winning Jet Ski

All the engineering work was carried out by Line One’s mechanic Mr Nick Dyer.

All the Best,

Jez Crook

Line One Distributors UK Ltd

www.lineonedist.co.uk