05 Sportster LE DI (Cavitation?)

[944guy]

Recently acquired a new to me Sportster LE DI. After my first couple of outings, I quickly noticed that I got no acceleration from a stop with full throttle. The boat will barely move and rev up to the limiter. I couldn't even get the boat to plane out at max capacity. I assumed right away that I need a new wear ring, but after a visual inspection, it almost looks like it has a new one already. Also, on my second outing, I noticed that the coupler holding the baffle to the exhaust was loose. I have since resecured it and tightened everything up, but would this have caused such a huge performance issue? Any help or tips would be greatly appreciated!