Local mechanic patents gizmo for racing jet skis

(CNS): Don Patrick, the owner and mechanic of Wes-Tec Jet Ski performance race team, has successfully invented and patented a Jet Ski part which is credited with assisting the performance of the racing watercraft. Patrick, who has been involved in the watercraft racing and recreational arena for over 18 years, is well known in the local community for his mechanical fixes and engine rebuilds. Now he has created an important machine part that is being sold all over the world by Riva Motorsports in Florida following its debut at the annual World Finals held in Lake Havasu Arizona in October. The gizmo known as the “Last Drop Oil Extraction Systems” took several months to perfect and corrects a fault on Jetskis that allowed dirty oil to mix with new.

Patrick said that he has  been tinkering around with Jetskis since he got his first watercraft in 1989.

“I started trying things to my wave runner in the quest of making it go faster but still keeping it reliable. There were only a few things on the market for the particular one I owned so it kind of forced me to come up with my own ideas and to try different stuff," he said.

A regular reader of  “Splash” and “Personal Watercraft Illustrated” and their technical articles, he also learned a lot of from them. “Later I built engines and setup race crafts for many well-known top notch local riders like Jason Smith, Kenny Rankin, Shane ‘Nobe’ Edwards and Billy ‘The Kid’ Ebanks, to name a few,” Patrick added.

The unique idea for the now patented part started in 2009 during the build of Yamaha’s largest motor, when it was realized that the design of the oil pan would trap a lot of oil into its bottom and no way to get it all out.  This, he explained was detrimental as every time the oil was changed, fresh oil was mixing with contaminated oil which was re-circulated throughout the engine. This was not good for the reliability of the engine, especially in high performance applications, as oil is the life of any internal combustion engine and the cleaner the oil the better the performance. Patrick realized there was an opportunity to create a product to improve this.

In 2011 six different product prototypes were built and tested with some 300 oil changes during the research and development of the product. When the final prototype was developed a patent search was done to see if had previously been invented but nothing even similar turned up so. Patrick quickly patented the product in his name/Team Wes-Tec’s Performance.

The product was pitched to Riva Motorsports and they took it up and are now selling the product on the website as well as on the famous watercraft forum “Green Hulk”. 

“It’s been a long time coming but I am very blessed to make it this far and to have something of great importance and a first for the Watercraft Industry — it is a great achievement,” Patrick said, adding he was proud to represent Cayman.