15-20 Knot Boats

95% of the time we are 7 knots. However she will cruise nicely around 22 knots

https://youtu.be/qvDViRE4K4M

This kayaker can outrun the Coot until he is fatigued.

Speed wars... blasting up northern Green Bay @ 13 KTS (17.5 is max)....leaving brother-in-law's 36 Vinette (the speck in the distance) sucking wake. He subsequently blew by, flat out at almost 8 knots when we slowed to our normal cruise speed. That's the northern end of Washington Island off starboard quarter.

BandB said:

fast fast above 60 and super fast above 90. Sometimes I miss fast from our lake days, so settle for slow fast. Guess I'm getting old though since I don't want a Fountain or Nortech fast.

Click to expand...

Ha ha! Worked for Fountain for a bit. Reggie was a maniac...I think he set the monohull record at 174 or so. 100 mph in a run of the mill performance boat on the water is intoxicating, but my normal 7.5 Knots is fine for now!

I'm berthed right across the river from the X Fountain plant....

drb1025 said:

The drift here in the PNW sneaks up on me fast enough at 8 kts. Even if I could go 20 kts, I couldn't see that fast.

Click to expand...

It's not as difficult as one might think. Our fishing boat does about 28 mph. At that speed and even low down on the water like we are, it's not all that hard to see what's coming if one is vigillant. My wife, who is more observant than I am and has really good vision usually spots things before I do, even in the GB at 8 knots.

But we've never hit anything yet at 8 knots or 28 mph although we've certainly had to dodge plenty of stuff, some of it at the last minute like deadheads and crab pot floats that were hard to see because of waves or the angle of the light.

But get just a bit distracted and it becomes very easy to hit stuff at any speed.

We both prefer fast over slow, probably me a bit more than my wife although she doesn't have much patience for 8 knots anymore.

FWIW, our small express cruiser has three "gears".

First, coasting ... slow and efficient. Second, cruising ... fast and equally efficient. Third, WOT or 25GPH or $100/hour ... but fun, in the right place at the right time. Here are the specs:

1st ... 7mph/6kts at 2.5mpg
2nd ... 32mph/28kts at 2.5mpg
3rd ... 47.5mph/41kts at 1.8 mpg

Slow cruise 7.5kt, thats mostly what I do. In a hurry, 15 to 23kts. Full power 29kts.

Richard W said:

FWIW, our small express cruiser has three "gears".

First, coasting ... slow and efficient. Second, cruising ... fast and equally efficient. Third, WOT or 25GPH or $100/hour ... but fun, in the right place at the right time. Here are the specs:

1st ... 7mph/6kts at 2.5mpg
2nd ... 32mph/28kts at 2.5mpg
3rd ... 47.5mph/41kts at 1.8 mpg

Click to expand...

Pretty impressive economy figures, for a fast boat. We'd be using abut 24 GPH per engine at WOT, only about .52 NMPG.

-Chris

Richard W said:

FWIW, our small express cruiser has three "gears".

First, coasting ... slow and efficient. Second, cruising ... fast and equally efficient. Third, WOT or 25GPH or $100/hour ... but fun, in the right place at the right time. Here are the specs:

1st ... 7mph/6kts at 2.5mpg
2nd ... 32mph/28kts at 2.5mpg
3rd ... 47.5mph/41kts at 1.8 mpg

Click to expand...

Yes, it sounds crazy to all of us with other style boats, but I remember those type numbers from our Cobalt when we were on the lake.

I did find a boat we own that gets good fuel mileage....

Engine: Yanmar 150 hp.

With one person
4000 rpm, 38 knots, 10 gal per hour, 3.8 nmpg
3000 rpm, 25 knots, 5 gal per hour, 5 nmpg
2000 rpm, 15 knots, 2 gal per hour, 7.5 nmpg

With four people and load
4000 rpm, 34 knots, 10 gal per hour, 3.4 nmpg
3000 rpm, 20 knots, 5 gal per hour, 4 nmpg
2000 rpm, 12 knots, 2 gal per hour, 6 nmpg

So what kind of boat could this possibly be?

Or a jogger on the levie

markpierce said:

This kayaker can outrun the Coot until he is fatigued.

Click to expand...

I pushed the throttles to the fire wall and damn near blew my hair off at 10knts. the ultimate to me is a 10knt cruising boat with a 50knt skifft with 200+ miles of range.