Too much top speed?

[Ross J]

I've read a lot of times on this post of folk wanting more speed from their rigs and it causes me some trouble. If the top speed is dramatically down then by all means go for it, but, there's times when I wonder if more speed just means more danger waiting out there. I don't mean to put a damper on things but have experienced a number of occasions when people with big, powerful boats going like a tapered poop use our boat like it's a marker bouy. The resulting waves have caused much concern. Also I have witnessed an occasion when a bloke sped up the boat ramp right onto his trailer and almost onto the roof of his 4x4 after too much power was applied.<br />OK so I use the ocean a lot, but this must be highlighted when in calm lake waters (I don't have much experience of this). At what stage do we stop, "going faster".<br />Ross

 

[steelespike]

Re: Too much top speed?

Speed needs to be used with respect and common sense and unfortunately sometimes is not! Unfortunately coolers are sometimes not filled with common sense. Spike

 

[Hooty]

Re: Too much top speed?

"At what stage to we stop 'going faster'?<br />Ohhh I don'y know. Maybe mach 1. LOL<br />I personally like to boat fast. I do,however, confine my "go fast" mode to middle-of-the-week boating so I'm the only fool out there. Weekends will find me hanging out on a 'toon fishing and BBQing.<br />Time and place for everything.<br /><br />c/6<br /><br />Hooty

 

[Finger Lakes Boater]

Re: Too much top speed?

Great topic, great question. And the issue is always what it appropriate to the time, place, and conditions. Go-fast boats on lakes like Powell and Tahoe may be topping 80 or better under complete control. A full displacement yacht crowd may be awed by a boat doing 18 kts. <br /><br />What do you use your boat for? How forgiving are the conditions? What is the hull designed to do? These are the questions that set speed parameters. <br /><br />I like to go fast and have a boat that tops out at 70. It rarely sees that speed, because conditions that are safe at that speed are not always available. And most boating for us is either skiing (36 mph) or cruising (30 to ogle the shoreline, 48 to make time to destination at engine-saving rpm). But blue water boaters who fish before all else may be happy with a seaworthy boat that never sees 45 but handles the hard stuff well at 25. <br /><br />Why'd you get the boat? thats the first question to answer.