Troublesome Boat Operation

[KAP]

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.

[KAP]

Ok here is a crazy photo!

I was going to do a separate thread but thought I would just post it here.

This was a real photo taken at DSPR a couple years back. If you can zoom into the center of the photo.

I received this from a trusted source. I thought it was photo shop but it is not. I said no way and he assured me he witnessed it and a lady friend in the boat took the picture.

Nuts is all I have to say...mindless people.

[HB Vic]

Great insight Kap and very good thread. One thing that helps me is having a foot pedal for trim. My previous boat had the trim on the wheel, and even though that boat really did not respond well to trim, I always found myself fumbling around trying to hit the switch. Especially in turns. My new boat almost overreacts to trim, it really likes to carry the bow. Needless to say, the foot pedal gets used heavily. At times I catch myself saying "down boy, down" while stomping on the pedal. Lol.

[RogerThat99]

That DS pic is unbelievable. thanks for all the info KAP.

[Stainless]

That DS pic is unbelievable. thanks for all the info KAP.

Yea, WTF is that jet ski doing there? Even though he has a right to be there, thats just dumb!

[KAP]

The jet ski photo has to be one of the all time DARWIN award nominations.

I was speechless when I saw it .

In my boat the trim buttons are always at my finger tips [mounted on throttles]. I would love to get some valuable commentary from racers on techniques to avoid. That would be a good column to read.

KAP

P.S. Getting ready for Bayfair...it is going to be a fun weekend. I think someone should do a role call on who is going thread.

[GotHalos]

Thank you for the info.

As far as the jetski picture, I can't even fathom what on earth they were thinking. It seems to me the two passengers in the rear of the Skater are thinking the same thing.

[hpboats83]

Frankly, I think the problem is two fold, the boats are too fast and there's not enough training. I could literally today go and buy a 50' Mystic for 1.5MM (as a hypothetical for this conversation) and they will throw me the keys and I will be on the water tomorrow morning. Could you imagine me doing that with a Cesna with twin turbines? I could still go buy it today but I wouldn't be "on the water or in the air" for quite some time.

Even the best throttle man in the world runs into trouble due to situations out of his control when running at a extremely high rate of speed because he wasn't on a closed course. I'm not a fan of any more government regulation; however, I think that if you want to buy a boat (V or Cat) that runs over X speed, you need to prove some form of "ability to safely operate."

[hpboats83]

After thinking about this more, I wonder if you had a cat (let's pick on Mystic for the sake of this discussion) that had some sort of a front wing/canard (similar to the new Al Copeland boat "Phenomenon") that was computer controlled by some sort of a gyro-stabilization (don't think that's a real word) that could receive inputs hundreds of times per second/minute that could help maintain the attitude of a boat and help keep it flying level and when it sensed a blow over possible, make a severe correction to help prevent a blow over and prevent an accident before it happened, might turn into a great safety feature.

[HB Vic]

After thinking about this more, I wonder if you had a cat (let's pick on Mystic for the sake of this discussion) that had some sort of a front wing/canard (similar to the new Al Copeland boat "Phenomenon") that was computer controlled by some sort of a gyro-stabilization (don't think that's a real word) that could receive inputs hundreds of times per second/minute that could help maintain the attitude of a boat and help keep it flying level and when it sensed a blow over possible, make a severe correction to help prevent a blow over and prevent an accident before it happened, might turn into a great safety feature.

I think someone on OSO was talking about that. The only thing I would be concerned with would be that little gizmo causing a stuff. Not sure which would be worse, kite or stuff. Don't think I'd want to do either at 130+MPH.