Couple more questions:

If you look under the boat, where the shoe would be on the intake, how far is it from the rear suface of the shoe to the transom?  If you can move the intake back >=2" and still have an inch of glass to bond the intake to, it might be worth doing a setback.  You can remove the wood on the transom, just behind the intake, to gain more room.

What kind of boater are you?

An out of sight, out of mind kind of guy who doesn't inspect anything?

OR

Your bilge is spotless and everything works perfectly or is repaired post haste?

Maybe you are a set it and forget it kind of guy who wants the install to last the life of the boat.

I was thinking more along the lines of regularly being out in white caps or catching air.  Use that really gives the boat a beating.  Occasional large wakes can be delt with via driver technique.

If you keep an eye on it, it should be okay.  Just understand that you might need to reset the intake.  The life expectancy depends on the abuse it is subjected to.

It makes sense, if you really want a setback, to do it "while its out."  Those three little words, can be devastating.  While it's out, mess with everything!  A setback is a huge can of worms.

I would like to say, don't underestimate what you can accomplish with just hardware.

I'll try to answer everything as best as I can, I am a boat mech for a living. Just never really messed with jets as all my work is ocean stuff, inboards and sterndrives. So that being said yes everything works on my boat and is spotless for the most part. I don't beat the shit out of it and drive it with in mind if I break it I have to fix it. I haven't measured but I'm thinking I have a good 8 inches from the back of the intake to the edge of the transom so I could move it back and still leave a 2inch strip of glass on the transom. I do want to do as much as I can while it's out but I also don't want to spend 10k on a 12k boat that does 50mph I would just say screw it, throw beer cans in it run it till it dies.

You might benefit from a mini-droop.  You may not have enough horsepower to take advantage of the full droop.  I would try one before you buy.

I consider a loader a must have item.

Definitely add a shoe and ride plate while you have the intake out.  Start with the ride plate angle, relative to keel, at 4-degrees.

A good front side impeller detail would be a night and day difference.

I don't see any mention of a diverter.

place diverter is already on the boat with a manual control. On the 2nd to highest setting it does porpoise on occasion. when I have a boat full of people it does ride wet and only does 46mph vs 51mph with just me and my girl. I do see a lot of rough water on the lake and weekends in parker with the big wakeboard boats plowing.   

Outlaw Eagle's 21's are full set-back from the factory, so there must be something to it.

And no, its not an 'insert' pump, like a JE, but an American Turbine.

Dan'l

I noticed all the ultras are set up like that as well. im 92% sure its the same hull they just used a different deck.