Fast Times

[Bertramp]

I spoke with someone yesterday that is using a dock space near me. The boat that he has is made by Outer Limits and looks like a normal "go fast", although I must say the paint job is phenomenal. The boat length is 40' ish. The owner stated that the power was ... get this ... twin 700s .... when I asked how fast he smiled and said ... around 100 !
Now ... I've gone 100+ in a car (old summer camp buddy was showing what his Porsch could do) ... but 100mph in a boat ??!! .... that is WAY quicker than I want to be moving on the water. A fly hitting you at 85 mph has gotta leave a mark and kinda smart I would think and if your hat flies off, you're in another county by the time it hits the water.
As they say ... different strokes

 

[Traveler 45C]

At 85mph, rain will leave welts on your chest (through a T-shirt).

At 100mph, don't yell, "Hard over"!

 

[SportFishCruising]

Well, I hate to admit this here but, I have a Ranger bassboat that does 70mph when empty of gear and I'm alone - does 65mph with tournamnet equipment & partner. And yes, flies hurt, sometimes leaves a whelt and I always have everyone wear glasses. I warn them but, I lose alot of hats too (not hatts..lol).
At 65mph, at first, feels very fast, after a little while I wish it would do 80.
Good thing it doesn't, water is extremely hard at that speed, even a little spray feels like sandpaper. Sometimes I wear a full face helmut, especially if it is raining - mostly I just slow down.
A friend of mine has a Bullet bassboat, it does 110mph. I've never been in it because I don't trust anyone with my life. I did see him hit a submerged log, the boat went over 10 feet in the air, he landed OK but he shortly got rid of the boat after that flight.

 

[Finalee]

I realize this is slow , however I have hit 65 on a jet ski. It starts to porpoise at 62. It feels like 90. Nowadays they make them stock that will hit 70mph. Scary.

 

[SeaEric]

I agree. 100 MPH is too fast for me on the water. I did 100 in a car one time. I had a new "S" Class Mercedes a few years back and I wanted to see what she felt like at that speed. It was great, for a few seconds.

About 10 years ago I took in on trade a 32' Sea Ray "Pachanga" which is SR's go fast boat. It did 50 or so. That was fun too, for a few minutes. I got that out of my. system pretty quickly. I figured that if I was going to use the boat myself, I would want to go fast all the time. If I went fast all the time I would probably end with a blown up engine or drive and a big repair bill, or a worthless piece of inventory. So I took my one ride in her and sold it.

I just love (hate) being an "old" guy.

 

[Traveler 45C]

I hit 138mph once, on my motorcycle.

Life is different at that speed!

 

[Sparky1]

I agree. 100 MPH is too fast for me on the water. I did 100 in a car one time. I had a new "S" Class Mercedes a few years back and I wanted to see what she felt like at that speed. It was great, for a few seconds.

About 10 years ago I took in on trade a 32' Sea Ray "Pachanga" which is SR's go fast boat. It did 50 or so. That was fun too, for a few minutes. I got that out of my. system pretty quickly. I figured that if I was going to use the boat myself, I would want to go fast all the time. If I went fast all the time I would probably end with a blown up engine or drive and a big repair bill, or a worthless piece of inventory. So I took my one ride in her and sold it.

I just love (hate) being an "old" guy.

I assume that Pachanga was one of the few 32's with small blocks. Even then it should have done better than 50. I bought a brand new one in '88 that had 454 Magnums and would cruise in the low to mid-50's while topping out right at 70MPH.

Go fast used to be all that interested me, and I've owned triple digit boats in the past. It just came to a point where it was getting a little too hairy to be running those speeds in 20-21' hopped up outboards. Fastest I've ever been on the water was around 112MPH in a friend's Skater. I still get a hankering for something like that, but I doubt I'll ever have one.

 

[Flick]

I own a Kawasaki Ultra 250 hp that will do 70mph. Hard to find on day on Lake Erie without a chop that you can go that fast. It hurts when you hit the water going that fast.

 

[TopHattandTails]

Did 118 a few times in a buddy's Outer Limit. That's the only go fast I feel comfortable in, over 80. They make a nice boat. That said he was always good for a tranny, motor or both at least once a season. Even under warranty- you need your mechanic as throttle man! Gimme my MY ride and comfort!

 

[stormchaser]

149 in my twin turbo FD series R1 RX-7...now THAT was moving. The fastest Ive ever been on the water was an uncles bass boat at around 70mph.

If I needed to do a full repower on the Hatt, I'd be trying to get a 20k,not cruise with a top end of 25. Wonder how much power that would take?

 

[Passages]

Friends 38 Sutphen with twin 650's.

Long Island Sound is pretty small at 80 mph. That was at 85% WOT. I'm fine we didn't firewall it.

Funny, the Sutphen at 80 felt a lot smoother than my 17' Rayson (a California hot rod boat) did at 65 in flat calm water.

Over land, I hit 220 kph on the German Autobahn in a BMW. In English units, that works out to .................................White knuckle Fast

 

[spartonboat1]

Friends 38 Sutphen with twin 650's.

Long Island Sound is pretty small at 80 mph. That was at 85% WOT. I'm fine we didn't firewall it.

Funny, the Sutphen at 80 felt a lot smoother than my 17' Rayson (a California hot rod boat) did at 65 in flat calm water.

Over land, I hit 220 kph on the German Autobahn in a BMW. In English units, that works out to .................................White knuckle Fast

I thought the Germans called that cruising at the ton, i.e. 200kph or 122mph...also, if you pull the idiot driving stunts that Americans do, I thought that was a ticket. I.e., hanging in the left lane doing 85mph, or no signals or texting at 100mph (not recommended). The US drivers have regressed greatly in the past 2-3 years. They are now the worst I have ever seen and esp. include truck drivers. The latest craze is never attempting to merge on the freeway, just demand that the other drivers move over and let you in. Damn near got run off the road by a new Escalade ESV and he gave me a dirty look, when I did 'move over', while he made no attempt to change speed to merge.

P.s., how fast would those go fast boats run, if they were towing a 53' something Hatt (lol)?

 

[stormchaser]

Wow, you raced Hydros too? Very cool. My old man raced them back in the day.

 

[Sparky1]

Friends 38 Sutphen with twin 650's.

Long Island Sound is pretty small at 80 mph. That was at 85% WOT. I'm fine we didn't firewall it.

Funny, the Sutphen at 80 felt a lot smoother than my 17' Rayson (a California hot rod boat) did at 65 in flat calm water.

Over land, I hit 220 kph on the German Autobahn in a BMW. In English units, that works out to .................................White knuckle Fast

Never knew you had a Rayson Craft. I almost bought one of those from a friend of mine who was actually my Porsche mechanic. He had one with a Gale Banks twin turbo set up on a built 427. I was very interested in that boat until he took me out in it, but it was more scary than fast. With that, I decided to stick with my Mercury powered Allisons.

 

[luckydave215]

As a side job I road raced motorcycles nationally for 20 years, so "a buck eighty plus" was routine.......on a nice, safe race track you get acclimated to the speed and 100 starts to feel slow.
Then a few years ago I filled in as navigator for a couple of "trust fund victim" crazies I grew up with so they could get a day's practice in their off shore race boat. Their regular guy was out of town or something - I don't remember, but anyway I'm a pilot and used to reading a GPS in turbulence so they asked me to go.
The boat was a stripped out all carbon fiber Cigarette of 50' or so, with quad blown aluminum big blocks, Kieth Blacks if I remember right, and had more power than the space shuttle.
Those fools scared the crap out of me jumping long period ocean swells at about 150 when I knew their helmet face shields had as much spray on them as mine (I couldn't see a damn thing farther away than the instrument panel because of the sun glare on my shield).
The next time they asked me, I was "too busy".

 

[krush]

A few years ago I made a promise that I would have the fastest boat on the Potomac river. I still plan on doing it one day once I'm financially sound. However, it will have completely enclosed cockpits. Power will be turbines, probably 1500shp retired helo engines.

 

[Passages]

Hey Krush - at the Miami show last year there was an offshore go-fast powered by Allison turbine jet engines.. Pretty cool.

I was suprised how small the jet engines are compared to the massive gas engines on the other offshores.

Anyone have any experience with a jet tubine boat? (And I'm not talking Berkley jet drives)

 

[Passages]

I thought the Germans called that cruising at the ton, i.e. 200kph or 122mph...also, if you pull the idiot driving stunts that Americans do, I thought that was a ticket. I.e., hanging in the left lane doing 85mph, or no signals or texting at 100mph (not recommended). The US drivers have regressed greatly in the past 2-3 years. They are now the worst I have ever seen and esp. include truck drivers. The latest craze is never attempting to merge on the freeway, just demand that the other drivers move over and let you in. Damn near got run off the road by a new Escalade ESV and he gave me a dirty look, when I did 'move over', while he made no attempt to change speed to merge.

P.s., how fast would those go fast boats run, if they were towing a 53' something Hatt (lol)?

The Germans (former West Germans anyway) respect high performance highway driving. If you are loafing along at 85mph in the passing lane and you see someone flash their high beams in your rear view you have seconds to get your butt back in the right lane before you are run over.

I was in Germany in the early 90's not long after the wall came down. There was a real problem with the former East Germans in their POS "Trebbies" (top speed about 50mph) lacking an appreciation for high performance driving. Fortuntely, the Beemer I rented also had excellent steering and brakes. Still scared the crap out of me a few times.

 

[egaito]

Hey Krush - at the Miami show last year there was an offshore go-fast powered by Allison turbine jet engines.. Pretty cool.

I was suprised how small the jet engines are compared to the massive gas engines on the other offshores.

Anyone have any experience with a jet tubine boat? (And I'm not talking Berkley jet drives)

Turbines seem to be getting popular. There was a good number of them floating around during Columbus Day Regatta this year. The next "cool" trend perhaps.

 

[MikeP]

"If you are loafing along at 85mph in the passing lane "

If you maintained 85mph on the Autopista in Mexico you'd be one of the slower cars on the road. However, on the same road where cars are routinely at 100+MPH, there are pickup trucks full of kids/hay/chickens/dogs in the right lane doing 40 and big double-semi trucks that routinely pull out to pass slower trucks going up hills. It can get pretty exciting when the truck doing 30MPH pulls in front of you into the right lane to pass the truck going 28MPH!

I'm sure Maynard could tell us about really going fast!