Hey Murder,
I got your PM. I'll start this by I'm HEAVILY BIASED towards the Speedster. Personally (no offense to the guys who on the 15' and down Speedster/Sportsters) but I just cannot stand the seating arrangement. Actually I lied--I hate it, it does nothing for me. I like everyone to have their own seat, I'm a bigger guy @ 6'2" 230#. I don't want to ride elbow to elbow with someone.
Ok, now that I got that out of the way...............Consider it a 4 up boat even though it's a 5 up, the bow seat is the bouncy seat. I ejected a buddy of mine to the floor from one wake. The boat handles nice, but can get hairy crossing wakes from behind sometimes. It likes to list, you just have to go with it. It used to freak me out when I first got it, but I just go with the flow cause I know it's gonna be fine. It's still short at 16.5' but coming from your boat you will probably like the ride better, entirely different hull. I can't remember if the SK's had 720's or 800's in 98, in 99 the SK's had twin 720's which were actually preferred for skiing behind. I think the 98 SK's had 800's. The 800's are hands down the way to go, the power of the boat is just wicked. I still smile every time I paste it out of a no wake zone. But if you learn the power of the 800's it's totally manageable for skiing behind. What I mean is you're on the edge of the raves opening and closing at about 4500 rpm (yes you can adjust them to be later by adjusting the caps) and that is a good towing speed for some people and the raves will open and close changing the power/speed. There are a lot of hard parts to get, well not hard, just pricey. The storage hoods tend to break where the latch hook is, seats if they're ragged they can be had but some guys like to smoke you for them but if your diligent you can find them priced what I'll call correctly. You can get covers for them from seadooupholstery.com. They're twin engines so that is double everything. Most guys say double headaches, I'll disagree. I don't think it's bad on fuel either, 40 gallon tank and you can get some decent range out of it. I've owned mine since 99 and under 18' I don't think there is a better jet boat out there. If you have work to do in the engine compartment it's easiest to remove the rear hatch.
If the SK is clean/runs good I'd do it in a New York minute. They're a ton of fun and I think the first most conventional hull seadoo made in the boat line up. Keep us posted and post some pics of the SK. Hope some of this helps you in your decision, just ope the SK is in decent shape.
