MikeyFIN

A Novice or anyone not with good skills and reflexes is like giving a track day for a guy who has never driven a motorcycle a Superbike...all it takes is a couple hundred yards and ther guy has killed himself, am
nd regarding bikes they ain´t just urban legends..
I happen to have at least two motorcycle vendors as friends who has sold a bike to one who insisted to get the fastest there is and get killed in a few seconds.
The powerboats are catching up...
Cars..well today they are so full of guides aides and limiters that they are safe in this comparison....

MikeyFIN

The most Unskilled guys around here in a powerboat has been guys that just bought a brand new big cats that did about 140-150 tops...those in the lesser boats have more experience because they work their way up to bigger and faster boats.

SS930

What's different is there are speed limits on the roads and the surface is stagnant and static. In the air there's little to hit and running 200 mph is obviously not dangerous. On water the surface is dynamic, it's always changing and never the same. Big, big difference! 200 mph is far more dangerous on water than it is on open road or in the air.

I agree 100% with the first part of your response, but I'd like to point out I never gave the solution... I simply raised the question and asked where we are headed.

For the record, I dont think big brother is the answer, but I do feel we're going to be reading about speed related deaths on here in the coming years, I just hope it's not a boat full of people and that they aren't in populated areas... if so it will only take so many before big brother steps in.


BTW, I completely disagree with the comment that 90 mph boats are the real concern. Yes there are a lot more of them and easily accessible, but percentage wise I dont think they are a bigger risk... more apt to be involved to be in an accident simply because of the number of them out there, but lets not kid ourselves, 90 mph boats are fairly safe in comparison to just about any boat traveling at 200 mph on the water. IMO, the odds of a 90 mph boat having an accident are far less than an a 200 mph boat having an accident. Let's put it this way, if there are 10,000 boats out there that run 90 mph every year, how often do you read about deaths due to the shear speed they were running at. A fairly small percentage. If there were 10,000 200 mph boats running around, I'd bet my last dollar the percentage of accidents would be far higher... even if there were being run by "experts".

Furthermore, there simply isn't a lot of experience out there when it comes to running 200+ mph. Yes there are guys out there that have done it and hired hands that do it every so often, but even those guys had to do it for the first time and I'm sure they will all say there's a real inherent danger in doing it. I'd be amazed if they all dont wonder if this is their 'last' when they do it... To a certain degree IMO, these people are almost crash test dummy's waiting for their turn... it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when.

MikeyFIN

Ted I was in my late teens with a Superbike.. still around but have my scars... and still has a Bike and like to burn and do wheelies...age..44 soon

MikeyFIN

on a Flat lake yes... not in Key West...

HTRDLNCN

We (performance crowd) are not the general public,
for the most part the general public has no clue what/when poker runs happen..
I come from a boating community and have many boating freinds.
I have had to explain to almost all of them what a poker run is. LOL...
I do agree on the loud part though!!
Loud pipes save lives..

MikeyFIN

so True... @ 2009 Key West Worlds I witnessed with the photographer who took pics the Aquamanias flip @ 80mph. Just because they were while testing coming to a turn at the harbour and got distracted by a jet skier....
That´s all it takes to flip a 50 Mystic...

Too Stroked

The sad truth about going too fast on water (or land for that matter) is that it’s the same kind of idiot that’s going to do it no matter how fast a boat can go. Does anybody thing John Tomlinson is going to do something stupid in a boat - anywhere – even if the boat could go 500 MPH? Hell no. Responsible people drive responsibly no matter where they are or what they’re driving.

So what does “too fast” mean? As I taught my son how to ski (downhill) many years ago, I told him that he always had to ski in control. “In control” meant you could ski as fast as you wanted – as long as you could still avoid any other skiers, stop or turn when you needed to, not break any rules and not piss anybody off. I’d say the same goes for boating. It’s sad that we sometimes need laws to teach people what that really is.

Crossett

How many seriously fast boats are on Lake Travis? I seem to see the same few ones every year. That red and purple fountain that does ~110 or so, or the occasional daytona. Of all the jackassery that i've been witness to on that lake I can't think of one instance where it was the driver of a go fast boat. It's always drunken idiots blaring rap on their ski boat, or teenagers on jetskis.

LAriverratt

sounds just like the Tickfaw river every weekend