[JL8Jeff]

If you've never dealt with boats before, you might want to lean towards a 4 stroke so you don't have to deal with 2 stroke oil and mixing with gas if it's not oil injected. I've had boats for 20+ years and still premix the 2 stroke oil and it doesn't bother me at all. As for the actual hull, it really comes down to your plans on what you want to do and how many people. My 15' boat has a 40 hp outboard which works fine, but none of the newer PWC's have anything close to that low on hp. It seems like they are all 150+ hp. Save for gas money though as jets are very inefficient compared to prop outboards. Ask Nick how much gas he goes through on a weekend, I can make 13 gallons last about 2-3 months with my boat so it's not a good comparison.