[sammyg2]

I started with a 550 kawy jet ski in the early 80's and progressed to Yamaha personal water craft.
IMO yamahas are the most reliable and bullet-proof but not always the highest performance.

I have a 94 yamaha purple-bottomed raider in my back yard (along with the wife's highly modified WRIII GP).
Seems the sheet molding compound hulls were not ready in time for production that year so yamaha contracted a company to make a hand full of copies of their previous year's raider racing hulls.
Hand laid fiberglass, very light and very aggressive.
It only weighs 380# and you have to dig your toes in when you hit it or you'll be horizontal at the hit of the throttle.
There are plenty of other skis out there as far as top end but very few that can beat me to 55 mph including those fancy, expensive, and extremely heavy sea-doos.
It is a bit "unstable" at full throttle and tends to switch ends if you aren't careful but its a blast.