Hey folks, new guy here. Never owned a boat, been on quite a few of them and an array of jetski's. Looking to purchase my first within the next month. Any tips or anything would be great.
Well, we're probably all partial to jet boats.
First, I would say, learn about some of the pros and cons between traditional prop-drive and jet-drive boats and decide which way you're going to go. In the jet boat world, Yamaha and Sea-Doo are the big players. I considered Yamaha but found a great deal on a Sea-Doo, and after a year of owning it, I'm still happy.
In the Sea-Doo line, you have the smaller sport boats, the Speedsters, which specialize in speed and agility. The Challengers are a nice family boat, with room for more people, ability to tow tubers, boarders or skiers. The Wake and SP models are like the higher-trim level of the Challengers, with more features, like tower speakers, electronic throttle control for towing skiers or boarders, etc. The rear sundecks are really cool. A 210 Wake is a pretty nice boat, and with the folding trailer tongue, still fits in most people's garages.
Keep in mind the capacity of the boat. The 180 Challenger can hold up to 8 people, for example. However, with 8 on board, it would be pretty crowded and there wouldn't be much room to move about. I've got a 180SE and we usually have 5 people: two adults, two teens and one pre-teen. It's not crowded with that setup, especially because one or two or three kids is often in the water. We had four adults and three kids one time. The boat handled it fine, but that took up about all the space. Also keep in mind that there's more space on an 18 foot jet boat than an 18 foot prop boat. It's like having 2 extra free feet.
