I have noticed since getting my "new to me" 32 Victory. I went from a 22 ft bowrider to this boat and it amazes me that most "boaters" will tend to come closer to me while under way than when I had the smaller boat. The median size boat on the lake we frequent is the 20-24ft range and have no idea of how much "extra" room a boat that can exceed 80mph needs to navigate safely. I almost feel like the light that draws the moth when I am boating. All I can do is keep my head on a swivel and constantly scan for idiots. When riding my bike, I am constantly scanning for "blue hairs".....

You're not alone Brian! :picard1:

I try to go behind them as much as possible, so that they have to do a FULL 180 degree turn to get in my way. It works out most of the time, when the opportunity presents itself of course.

I'm having Bravo problems this week so we decided to take the ski's for an extended run down into Galveston Bay.

The water was mostly 2-4's in the bay and we rode the waves until we reached bingo on fuel and headed back outside of the channel markers.

The bikes are covered in salt and the mirrors useless, you cant ride a straight line in fours on a ski in any case. Haven't seen a pleasure boat in twenty minutes when all of a sudden a 36' or so scarab passes us 50 to maybe 100' to our right from behind.

Bear in mind we are outside the channel markers and there is a half mile of water to our right including the ship channel and two miles to our left.

In this case I felt that the boat should have given us way more room.

A big part of safe operation is being able to put yourself in the other persons shoes and consider their perspective.