A lot of people dismiss the welded jet boats out of hand. They think fuel consumption and price to be prohibitive. And they are pretty much correct on fuel consumption. The one I happened to pick for the pic has a Ford 351 under the hood. My Son in Law recently purchased a 24 foot Weldcraft with a 460 Ford in it. And yes, any time you run a big V-8 at 4000 RPM and at 3/4 WOT for a couple hours you are going to pay for it at the gas pump. That is why they usually come with 40 to 100 gallons of fuel capacity on board.
But like all boats, they depreciate pretty rapidly. There are bunch of 1980s built hulls out there with low hour power plants and new looking interiors for dirt cheap. The 20 ft NWjet pictured has 300 hours on the engine and is offered for $17K. The kids' 24 foot Weldcraft came in under $30K with two hours on a brand new engine. And they often have heat in the cab.
If you have a bunch of kids who want to ski or swim off the boat, a jet is the absolute safest boat in the water for that.
People who choose to brew up their own storms bitch loudest about the rain.
