:ernaehrung004:

I have gone the magical number 180mph and it was pretty amazing.Did not feel that fast being in a 50ft cat, or maybe I should say it just felt safer going 180mph in Statement cat
with Todd driving and John T on sticks, then 130mph on some other boats that I have been on.I new I had 2 guys who new what they were doing. Just watching them drive that boat was something,they were just so calm like out on a sunday drive talking to each other.And another note, you can see how 180mph makes Biscayne Bay so small

I really respect the fact that you're doing laps, many laps at these high speeds. What I question with some of these high speed boats ( and cars and motorcycles) is seat time and frequency. The equipment is available, all it takes is money but to drive that equipment correctly takes lots of laps or hours behind the wheel.
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If it makes Dave Scott and John tomlinson raise an eyebrow it certainly should make mere mortals like me take note. Not that I would ever have the financial wherewithall to go 180+, but I am always thinking of ways to make my little 70 mph boat faster and often when I think about my lack of experience, the water conditions where we boat, coupled with the fact that I always have framily and friends with me, I just get happy again and decide to leave stuff alone.

I have been pleasure boatin for a long time, never raced and never been to any kind of formal trainig. I would love to go to Tres Martin's school. Bottom line is I have been mid 80's in my buddies Baja dozens of times and over 100 in his 18' Laser on the bottle. Both were fast enough. I need to be happy right where I am.

"How Fast is 180 mph?" To fast for me, I'll leave that to the professionals......My boat being a 80-85 mph boat on a good day in great conditions is all I need for me to have fun.......when anyone asks me how fast is your boat I say it does in the 80's but I love it because it cruises at 60 all day long at 3/4 throttle.......hardly breaking a sweat.......

31 yrs and many 100+ hulls,, over 150 for the last 12!! Never get use to IT. It amazes me when i give people a ride and they say we only went 140!! I just look and smile.. I have had a few high speed crashes and at high speeds H20 becomes very solid!!!! and no I have never hurt anyone else. That speeding ticket was very painful!!! :drink:

Hey GL,

Open water is the last bastion of unrestricted speed. I wouldn't presume to abridge or otherwise suggest taking away your right to go fast on the water far, far away from other vessels or the shoreline. And I mostly think you're correct about legislation. As performance boat enthusiasts we are not enough of a blip on radar to necessarily bring on regulation, even if we start killing ourselves in record numbers.

However, if we start killing people on the beach or in fishing boats or on yachts or on piers—meaning if we do start killing innocent bystanders—we are done. As in yesterday.

Early in this thread someone noticed that I'd described 180 mph as "264 feet per second," which, in fact, it is. The person making the observation was somewhat surprised by that number. That tells me that, generally speaking, we really don't understand how truly fast 180 mph—and even 150 mph—is.

Have you ever seen two boats running 150 mph parallel to another with 100 yards of separation? I've seen that at several poker runs. If those boats turned toward another, their closing speed would be right around 300 mph and they we would be on top of each other in a fraction of a second. If one boat lost steering and veered toward the other, it would be there in just over a second.

The UIM Class 1 boat that crashed violently last year caught air and flipped at around 130 mph. Reliable sources estimate that by the time it landed upside down on its canopy it was traveling at 100 mph. Total canopy failure. Two men died instantly.

And yet, 100 mph on the water isn't even considered fast any more.

That's just reality. What you do with it remains your choice.

Can we preserve performance boating in the future!
 

Hey Guys, believe me when I say I love speed and power and I am very committed to the improvement of performance within reason in marine power plants with the innovations and improvements that are made available to the performance boating public.
The fact is as GLH says they are never going to legislate high speed boat runs on all bodies of water, especially in open ocean blue water, but lets face it the only places you can run almost any performance boat at speeds over 125 mph is on closed bodies of water such as lakes, certain rivers and certain coastal waterways like Biscayne Bay, etc. These will be the bodies of water that will fall first under the legislative onslaught of so called good intentioned souls to protect us from our own speed vices!
As the quantity of these super high speed boats increases in an improving economy the potential and likelihood of more accidents and injuries grows likewise and unless the fastest thing we will see on these inland waterways will be a duck with his tail feathers on fire, we the performance boating community and industry had better use some reason and constraint to make sure the largest portion of the performance boating community suffers ultimate elimination from a few "speed junkies" who represent a very small portion of our overall sport.
Lets think about keeping super high speeds on the water in racing events, demonstrations, certain Poker Runs and shootouts, etc. and not let the thrill of these incredible boats and their speeds on the water destroy and entire sport and life style!
We also need to understand that the cost of these types of "Marine Missiles" has grown with the speeds to the point where all such boats generally capable of these 125mph speeds is now over $500,000 and in many cases creeping up on that 1 Million dollar and over mark! The individuals in this elite affordability group probably represent less than 1-2% of all performance boaters! Past history has shown that even in this elite group a goodly percentage buys and operates a 125-180mph boat as their "Toy Missile" for a year or two and then moves on to some other expensive speed sport or hobby!
Why is this sport so motivated by the "Speed Addiction", who really knows , I guess its a general aspect of some human natures, however in our sport the Media, and I mean Media as Magazines, Forums, TV, Sponsors, etc. know that speed is sexy and cool and helps sell magazines, advertising and such to the audience of performance boaters dream of owning and driving these incredible3 boats and love to read and hear about the testing and results. The real problem is these media outlets and even some boat builders is that they are not thinking about the long term health of the performance boating community.
Lets face it the social media on the internet and such has grown by huge amounts and outlets like You Tube and such are taking away their readership and viewers and they have to keep loading the magazines and such with this over the top stuff to keep their outlets alive.
If there are a few super high speed boat builders and owners who want to push the envelope to constant new extremes, God Bless and keep them and so be it and may they always survive their efforts, however lets make sure they do it in safe controlled inshore or offshore waters where they cannot take passengers and public with them to meet their maker!
For those who love and are committed to our sport for us and future generations of performance boaters lets think about this carefully and protect our sport and industry from its own potential demise!

Sorry I just had to get this off my chest and I pulled out the damn soap box again!

Best Regards,
Ray @ Raylar

High insurance for cats started right after an accident on the Chesapeake bay, if i remember correctly that accident sent the insurance company into bankruptcy... very sad day.

they wont put limits on open water, but as with insurance they will make it that anyone that chooses to do it is going to pay through the nose for it. insurance did it with muscle cars, and for quite a few years only the uber rich will be able to afford the 175 plus boats.

Not just that one crash, if I remember a 36 Spector in Tampa too, the founder of Bone Fish bar & grill. There was a few bad ones in about a year in 2004-2005 that hurt us bad.