"Rich Stern" wrote ...
While boats are slower and there is more space between
them, boats operate in an environments that are far less
forgiving once trouble shows up.

I'm not saying that people should drink to the point of being totally
****-faced... I'm just saying that a 6-pack of beer or two spread over an
entire day on the lake fishing does not make you an unsafe boater... Of
course, this depends upon your tolerance for alchohol... At least with
boating, we can keep our speed down and it doesn't necessarily back up the
people coming up behind us...

On topic: I think a Sea Doo sport boat is a great first boat. They're
simple,
safe in reasonable conditions, and not hard to operate. A single engine
model
is probably easiest, but even dual engine models aren't hard to handle.
Don't
rule out the other brands like Sugar Sand and Yamaha. The one caution:
The
earlier and current smaller jet powered boats have very shallow,
slap-happy
hulls that are punishing in anything but smooth water.

I've found that my 1998 Sugar Sand Mirage is quite punishing in 3-4 ft
seas... If you can get the speed right, you can skim across the tops of the
waves, but every once in awhile, you'll find that rogue wave / trough that
lets you drop 6-8 ft... They call it a 16 ft boat in their adds, but they
get that figure by adding in the length of the swim platform that overhangs
the jet drive... Without that, I believe it is more like 14 ft...

One thing that makes jet boats a little more interesting is that once your
engine is no longer producing thrust, your stearing capabilities have
virtually disappeared... It's not like an outboard where you still have the
outboard acting as a rudder even when the engine has quit running... What
this means is that throttling back significantly and trying to turn might
very well keep you going straight...