Acceleration and power issues

Alright so heres the problem....

2004 Tige 24v Limited, only 150 hours on the boat. Last weekend we started having issues. Pretty sure its the 5.7 engine.

-First got in the water ( still on trailer) the engine fired up immediately but when I put it in reverse the engine died. It then would not crank over again for about 2 minutes and after it set for about 1 minute it turned on fine and we were able to play the rest of the day with no issues. Sometimes when it goes into gear from Neutral I can hear some knocking/clicking noise for a few seconds but then it goes away.

-Just got back from the lake today and we had an even worse issue. The boat had a little trouble turning on and warming up when we put it in the water, but we were able to get out on the lake and surf for probably 4 hours. I noticed that we didn't really have as much power as usual, could only get up to around 28mph ( not running ballast at this time). At the end of the day and with no ballast, we were only able to get up to around 15mph and the boat was working hard to get on plane with the throttle all the way down. We used to get up to around 35mph top speed so something is definitely wrong.

I am thinking a few things, a fuel issue, fuel filter/pump, distributor issues or possibly spark plugs?? It would be nice to know where I should start looking.

Sounds like all of the above. When's the last time it's had a good tune up, new fuel filter, dist cap, plugs, plug wires

Agreed. Change the plugs and dist. And fuel filter all probably original from 04. Also throttle shifter cable might need to be tightened which might be causing the noises going into gear

Agree^^^ mine had problems with idling and made a popping sound under light acceleration. It was a miss fire, so when I pulled the cap all the point where corroded.

I would just unscrew the cap and take a look at it. It's only like two screws.

Fuel filter would be my guess. Tune up time.

Fuel filter is my guess as well ..the tune up should be good unless you have a ton of moisture in the engine compartment ..then the cap and rotor could be corroded real bad .

Is this boat yours since new?

All good answers above as to where to start troubleshooting.

I think this is an example of exactly why I might consider a 12 year old boat with 150 hours to be more risky to purchase than the same boat with 1150 hours. I would be willing to bet the problems are related more to underuse.

It is rare to find a boat that has problems because of overuse. Under use, and undermaintained boats have problems right and left. I would suspect someone buying this boat used would ignorantly pay a premium for the lower hours.

I agree with above somewhat for most of the symptoms, however the not start or crank? Makes me think electrical or neutral safety switch?

didn't get enough info for all that

OP: couple questions
"It then would not crank over again for about 2 minutes and after it set for about 1 minute it turned on fine" -- no clicks or anything? you turn key it does nothing? or cranks (engine rotates) but doesn't fire?

"had a little trouble turning on and warming up" -- cranks then fires eventually?