what is wrong with this thing?

The problem is My exhaust rubber pipe split. This is the 2nd pipe that I had it happen too.I just bought this and took it out for a test run, it hadn't been in the water for over a year, it ran fine for about a 1/2 hour (Top speed 51 MPH) then all of a sudden it lost power, engine quit, re-started but wouldn't go over 6 MPH, half throttle, full throttle, it didn't matter RPM's wouldn't come up, then after about 5 mins I was back to full power, it ran fine for about 15 mins then quit again, this time it wouldn't re-start, engine just spins over...So I got a tow back to the dock & started running some basic checks, Plugs were dry, light brown/tan apearance,
Had good spark, seemed to have good compression, fuel filter was still full. When the engine quit it felt like it ran out of fuel, even though the fuel filter was full, could the fuel pump have failed? Any sugestions on where to start checking? This is a 700cc engine....Thanks, T.J.