What's the biggest boat you've seen?
 

Were not talking about LOTO, The Oceans nor the great lakes. More along the lines of lakes or rivers. For me it was seeing a 42' Cigarette Tiger on the Illinois Chain. Talk about enormous size boat. Especially for the Illinois chain.

This may be funny but I had my boat up at the Three lakes Chain in Wisconsin. I was the biggest boat on there. People thought my 25' Baja boat was huge. Average size boat on Three Lakes Chain is 18'. The boat handled very well up there even going through the turns it did fine. Most of the time I was going 50 to 60 mph. I did have a couple of good chances going 70 which I was able to. There's really only 3 no wake zones to deal with the longest being a 1/4 mile long. Each of those no wake zones have bridges. The bridges are 71/2' tall to 8' tall clearance. You really wouldn't want anything much bigger than what I have. You maybe be able to go to the max of 30' for the boat and that is it. The lakes are at least a mile long, a couple being 2 miles long, and one being about 3 miles long.

Being I never hang or really been on a river it is LOTO or ocean boats for me to tell about.

42 foot aft cabin yacht at Lake Cumberland. I know they have all those 100 foot houseboats but a huge cruiser like that on a lake is a little overkill. Of course there were also a ton of 40 plus foot performance boats, also somewhat overkill.

My buddy's. 45 Alpha [ actual length 47 ] always launching it in the river and proceeds to the ocean.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayu1JYb1bOU

LMAO.. I had my 21' on grass lake a few times, and I felt like an ocean liner in a tub. That's probably before you were born. lol.. Had the 21' on Loto back in the 70's and I felt the king of the lake. And of course my 15.5' Hustler ripping up and down the Rock River, there was one boat faster. A switzercraft W/150 Merc. There was a 20ish bayliner running around and we felt that he was too big for the river. Early 70's. The good Ole' times. when boating was boating and not "showboating".

I bought my 20 Spectra daycruiser in 1976, it looked huge next to all the dragboats on the lakes/rivers at the time.

Yes the 70s were before my time. On the Illinois Chain boats are 20 to 30' long. Sometimes up to 35'. My 25' Baja is average size for the Chain. Rarely more than 35'. As you know from hearing all the boats on LOTO are over 30' long. There's a guy on here who use to boat the Rock River with a 26' Velocity. As you can see quite has changed since then. Boats certainly have gotten bigger.

Donzi 38zx is a big boat ! Almost pulled the trigger on one till I thought it through and realized it was way out of my league !!

Lady Lisa (80' Nortech) passed us leaving Rumrunners, heading out to the Gulf, thing looked like a cruise ship next to my 35', beautiful boat for sure.

Wow. If you took my Baja 38 special and doubled it, that would still be a little bigger.

Well I know have a new favorite boat to put on the bucket list.

I've heard about the 80' Nortech. Talk about Insane size boat. I couldn't imagine how much all of it would cost on a yearly basis. That boat makes my 25' boat look like a dinghy.

What's the price tag on a 80' nortech?

don't feel bad, my 25'7 boat looks like a dinghy next to my buddy's 47,lol.

5mm+.......but remember hull #1 is rotting in Mexico under control of the 'federales" so you might be able to get a deal on it! :evilb:

I've seen the Man of Steel, Barry Zekelman's 50 Ft. Turbine Powered O/L Cat and his 80 ft. Pershing Yacht coming out of Pike Creek into Lake St. Clair.

What's the story there Jupiter??

I still can't believe the size of boats on the chain now... Talk about puddle jumping!

When we drove passed it we couldn't believe how big it was and how tall the gunnel was compared to my Formula, if I stood on my gunnel and reached as high as I could I don't think I could have reached the top of the boat, it was enormous.

I wouldn't consider 40'+ too big on Cumberland.

Not the biggest at the party but the biggest I've been on to date http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1Bb8kXOonA

The superyacht "a" is in town being refitted ($30 million on the paint job!!) biggest private boat I have ever scene

The even more crazy thing is that boat is stored on a lift at his house in Sarasota.

Seen that boat a couple times and every time it never fails to drop my jaw.

I've had the 382 on some small local lakes. Closest water to the house is Dillon lake, great for testing!

Well you ruled out the Great Lakes or I'd say the Ford family yacht. Not counting the freighters of course. Saw a giant ocean going freighter once from Singapore and tugs were guiding it through the channel in the St. Clair River. We were listening to them on the radio. Pretty cool.

Well, there is no such thing as too big, but I'm not sure you would ever see conditions where a 40 foot boat would be safer than a 25-30' boat. After that it's all about who's biggest, or taking along all your crap LOL.

As for big boats, performance style. I submit my friend Jerry's boat. 85 feet, 60+ mph, custom built, simply unbelievable. And he has buildings at his marina so large that it stays in it's own little corner over the winter. Jerry always thinks BIG![ATTACH=CONFIG]517769[/ATTACH]

Wow 85' boat that's 5' longer than that Nortech. At that size the boat can do 60mph pretty impressive. I could only imagine how big the waves would be.

If you ever get a chance get a pic, I would love to see that, we have some 65' Sea Rays up on lifts down here we see on the way out the ICW, but nothing in the 80' range.

Wow anymore details on this monster?

He had the boat built custom in Florida(I think by a company called Allied). It has 4 big diesels and surface drives. The boat's name is Purely Pleasure and if you do a google search there are other pics of it. The last Purely Pleasure was a little larger, had five engines, and was slower. From a distance it looked like a huge 80's performance boat, rear leaning arch and everything. The cool thing with that boat was a 19 foot runabout that hung in a garage under the master stateroom bed, very cool. At that time Jerry owned 5 marinas and several car dealers, he has pared back to 1 marina but still has the car dealers. Great guy, has always been a huge supporter of our club and races.

A 42 footer won't even get you in the classification for big boats on Cumberland any more. The big boy cruisers are up to 60 ft now.

Then I guess you never heard of a 118 Wallypower boat at 70mph.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeSzsNatGZ0

I saw the wally 118 at Lauderdale Marine Center last year. That thing is a beast. Biggest I have seen the yacht A in Antigua, biggest I have been on is Elandess at 197

Nope I've never heard of the 118 Wallypower. That's got to take skill to drive.

How about these....[ATTACH=CONFIG]517983[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]517985[/ATTACH]

How do you drive and dock that boat.

We were on Peanut Island one day when she sailed by. Picked-up the submarine.Crew has got a great gig.

http://www.superyachtfan.com/superyacht_octopus.html

Kinda hard to see it on the left. Looks like a destroyer

You are a professional and get paid to do it. It really sounds from this post and the other about the difficulty in driving the 118 Wally that you feel the larger the vessel, that is some massive feat of inhuman proportions to dock it/drive it. There have been big boats for a LONG LONG time. People can drive them. People with the kind of money it costs to build/own these vessels can afford to pay someone to drive them. I really doubt Paul Allen has spent much time at the helm of Octopus.

Just so you know...its easier to dock my 37 Active Thunder than it is to dock your 25 Baja.