Speedster / Sportster advice

[WiskyDan]

A friend of mine is interested in a Speedster / Sportster in the $5000 price range. I’m not familiar with the older Yamaha LS2000 - would it be a good option as well?

Any thoughts and what to gravitate towards - or away - would be appreciated.

 

[Big_O]

I had a 2004 Speedster that I purchased from a trusted friend. So I knew it was in good condition. I still had to do many updates to bring it to my comfort level and it was a fun boat. We had it for two seasons and traded up to a AR240. The Seadoo was a great starter boat if you don’t mind doing the maintenance yourself. Many of the engine and pump parts are shared with the skis, but the boat parts are getting hard to find.

 

[biffdotorg]

Either of the old Yamaha two strokes and Rotax powered boats share parts with their PWC counterparts. Except the early 2000's Mercury SportJet powered SeaDoo's.

In my mind, they were more powerful and more reliable. But when they failed, finding engine parts or mechanical help was near impossible. It was the reason we sold our SeaDoo X20 while it was in great running shape. The current owner still loves that boat, and we did too. It was just hard to go season to season thinking we had a ticking time bomb.

The older rotax speedsters and sportsers are plenty. They sold tons of those. That price range sounds like a single engine. Push for a twin if possible.