intermittent no start help - GT-40

OK, I've got a GT-40 giving me a little bit of trouble. Here's whats happening.....
The last bunch of times out I've had a no start upon the first start of the day. But it happens on the first few attempts only, and then would cause no problems for the rest of the day. Suspecting the safety lanyard and/or neutral safety switch, I would wiggle the throttle back and forth, and shake the safety around until it started. After this, we were good for the rest of the day. Its always the same the next time the boat goes in the water though, and is taking more attempts to start.
So I have now replaced the neutral safety switch, and have jumped the 2 safety wires together, and still have the same problem. I'm not sure how to troubleshoot from here.
-my batteries are new and connections are clean and tight
-there is no corrosion on the starting solenoid.
-neutral safety switch replaced.
-lanyard bypassed.
-the fuel pump clicks and primes when i turn the key to the first position.

any ideas where to go from here? I'm suspecting the starter but don't know how to confirm.

So does the boat not turn over at all (which is what would happen if it's your neutral switch) or does it crank and crank but not fire (which could be your lanyard)? When it does crank does it sound good or weird / labored (which would point to starter).

I just had a similar issue where I'd turn the key and get NOTHING other than hearing the fuel pump prime. It was my starter relay. You might try pulling the relay and reseating it or trying a new one if that's your issue. You could certainly test before replacing it to see whether it's powering up with the key.

My old 210 with gt40 had the same issue. I was just getting nothing at all with the push of start button. Next push it would for right up. It was the starter. Replaced it and never had that issue again.

Could be the key switch itself. Sometimes it's the simplest thing and the last thing you would expect, like when a light switch in the house goes out. With mine, if you over rotate the key to where it hard stops it shorts and wont start, stop turning where there is still some spring in it and it works perfectly. That runined a couple days for me.

With our old 210 (95' Supersport with a GT-40) once in a while you would turn the key and get nothing, not crank, no click, not a darn thing.

This was usually fixed by wobbling the throttle and a little key wiggle.... The boat was 17 years old so to think every connection didn't have a little play would have been stupid.... after the wobbling it always fired right up