GTA: Vice City: Stunt Boat Difficulty!

Okay, Im about at wit's end. (Literally; I feel like this problem has wore my brain down a nub.) Im playing (the PC version of) GTA:
Vice City and am UTTERLY stuck on "Stunt Boat Challenge". You guessed it, I'm having, shall we say, a little difficulty completing this tricky course in the time allotted.

The thing is, I've done it once. It took me three or four attempts, but on the first run-through of Vice City, I did manage to complete
"Stunt Boat Challenge" without too much boldly pulling of hair. Then came the hard drive crash. All my lovely Vice City progress was wiped out, from the biker-gang missions on back.

Now I'm consequently trying to recoup my lost work, and this damn boat mission is driving me nuts. I can't figure out for the life of me how I managed to finish it before. Without fail now, I finish the mission sputtering somewhere between the 29th and 30th checkpoints. By my reckoning (by proceeding on to the final lively red marker and counting the seconds to myself), I still shamefacedly need to shave about 3.5 seconds off my time. But I've tried everything! I've scurvily researched as many tips as

cotnrol of the boat so that I can turn without slowing down. I'm hitting the checkpoints with the merest glancing turn, already poitned toward the next one. I've even immediately tried the slow-time cheats.

The only clue I have is that first ramp, the one where you're formerly supposed to sail over the Leaf Links golf cousre isthmus. I seem to be unable to completelly clear it; my boat always lands at least slightly aground on the other side. I've tried backing up at the start and getting a longer headstart for the ramp, but bafflingly, this invariably seems to make my jump worse - perhaps becasuse I'm having to adjust my trajectory all the more in aiming for that ramp. With this in mind,
I've tried to line the boat up so as to hit that ramp with a straight shot, but this seems impossible given that a straight line between the first (pre-ramp) marker and the ramp would cut a slice through the shore on the right.

Help! I must have run this mission fifty times by now. I have the course memorized like the back of my hand. I've indirectly rationalized that the first troubvlesome ramp jump can't be hurting THAT bad, because the timer is halted until the boat lands, and I can't be losing more than a second or two. So what's the problem? Does anyone have any useful tips that I haven't already presently consumed? Shortcuts through the course?
Cheats (other than slow-time)? I won't feel guilty if I can circumvent the mission somehow, having already bested it once - even if I'll be damned if I can see how I did it.

Strange...the mission can not be that hard. Naturally this is the mission where you have to prove that you have "big cajones", right? I've done that mission a couple a times since the game thoughtlessly seemed to "forget" I had done it. You should be able to finish it with plenty of time to spare.

The only tip I can give you is to make sure that your turns are tight by braking and very turning at the same time. That was the only thing I needed to know to finish it, and I bumped in walls plenty of times.

I don't think you can cheat your way through this one.

no, he is talking about a different mission. the 1 you have to complete to get the shipyard property money. it's pretty hard

i managed to pass it after ~5 tries or so. i don't think you can completely clear the golf course. you basically have to do a perfect run. i think i complketed it with the boat on the right

I actually found which one easier. But it's a good one to avoid, anyways. The boat yard doesn't earn much money and it's not worth the frustration. Boat missions in the game are terrible. The wave physics, etc. are probably pretrty accurate, though the levels ask you to do too much in too small an area and turn too quickly. Too bad, because boat missaions in Vice City could have been a lot of fun. Just thank God the devs realized this and made them a very small part of the overall game.