[Mikes14srt]

I can shed some light for you. For the last two seasons I owned a 2001 Yamaha Ls2000 jet boat. The boat was great and I have nothing bad to say about it. That was a 20ft boat with twin 135hp motors and sat 7 people. I outgrew it and of course wanted more power. I sold it the end if last season and bought a brand new 2013 Yamaha AR240 jet boat at the local boat show in February. This boat is a 24ft with twin 180hp jet motors and seats 11. Absolutely love the boat. Of course it weighs an extra 2000lbs more than my old boat. I tow with a 2012 Acura MDX which is only rated at 4500lbs and the boat with gas and gear weighs close to 5500lbs. Luckily I take it to the local marina to launch it which is less than 10 miles road trip. One of the reasons I decided to order my 2014 GC SRT was because of the increase in towing capacity which will put my wife's mind at ease lol. As far as the boat goes... You say 5 seater speed boat. I highly recommend jet boats over conventional drive. Have two kids and love the fact that there are no props to be fearful of. Also you can go in as little as 16 inches of water which gives you the freedom of basically having a large Waverunner. My 2001 was a two stroke which was great but you have to monitor oil levels every time you fuel up and I always had in the back of my mind the thought of an oil line blowing off and seizing an engine. Luckily with proper maintenance that never happened. The new boat is a four stroke is just gas and go. Only have 10 hours on it so far and knock on wood smooth sailing. I bought new for peace of mind that if something does go wrong I have a warranty to cover it. I say YOLO. Go for it.

 

[Mikes14srt]

Looks well kept in the pics. A lot of what you will have to worry about would be how the former owner took care of it. I am very meticulous sour everything that I own so usually it's always trouble free. My boat is no different. I do my own maintenance so I know it's been done right. I'm in NJ so winterizing cost me about $50 a year, spring start up about the same and routine maintenance through out the season maybe another $100-$200 dollars. As long as you stay on top of things you should be fine.

 

[Mikes14srt]

I launch in the Delaware bay so it is salt water. I use Salt Away to flush out both engines for about 2-3 minutes each. Then I rinse the boat and the trailer with salt away also and then microbifer towel everything dry. Any exposed metals parts on the boat I shoot with WD40 to keep them from oxidizing as my house is about a block from the bay so there is salt in the air. While I am doing that my wife sprays down all the lifevests, tubes, skis, rods and equipment we used for the day. Total cleanup from a day out on the water takes me about an hour and a half start to finish. Before the next outing I check the engine oil, shoot some marine grease on on the exposed throttle and shifter cables and were are back in the water again. If the boat is well maintained it becomes more of a time issue to keep it that way rather than a money issue unless something major goes wrong. I also hand wax the boat about twice a season which keeps the gel coat protected especially from the suns uv.

 

[Mikes14srt]

On a jet drive there are a bunch of pivot points that get greased too. Those points you can visually inspect and grease as needed where as the cables slide in a housing and I grease just to be safe. There is Also a sealed intermediate bearing that on my boat gets filled at ten hours and then not again until 100hrs. That has an actual grease fitting to fill up. Every boat / motor is smimiiar but the same in some respects. If you do purchase something I highly recommend getting a service manual for that particular boat so you can perform routine maintenance.