Well it seems a lot of people are discussing bad driving habits of boaters.
One of the biggest issues I see and other racers whom I have spoken to will agree is proper trim of a boat is not adhered to by most.
This last weekend in Arona Italy two X-Cat boats kited over. No one was injured thank god. They were driven by professional drivers and throttle and trim operators. Certainly they did not intend for this to happen and we discussed what some of the causes are regarding a boat kiting over. Over trimming and following or crossing a faster boats turbulence or vacuum coming off the back of the boat. These are the main ones but I am sure there are others including following to close etc...
We concluded the main one is over trimming the boat to squeeze that last bit of speed out of the boat. A definite recipe for getting into trouble maybe not always but it will catch up to you.
When I run a Shootout for speed. I definitely over trim the boat trying to get every MPH out of the boat. However, when I run in cruise mode or ocean. I run the engines neutral with a slight tick up positive trim from neutral. This will have the boat running level and if you catch air you hopefully will be in control. The boat should fly level and not get out of control i.e...bow coming up while airbourne. I also remind myself to back out of the throttles...if things get too out of control.
When pleasure boating I am especially mindful of HUGE cruiser wakes. These monster wakes may surprise you and next thing you know your being launched. Recently at LOTO I witnessed a cruiser with a unique wake more like crushing rollers coming off of it [the wakes was so big it would swallow a VW]. Several people were hit and it wreaked havoc on unsuspecting boaters. I saw it and steered clear of that monster.
If you have any other good pointers chime in always good to hear some useful tips rather than experience them the hard way.
Note: We are talking about tunnel hulled boats, cats, etc...not mono hull.
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