Wifey B: I'm not ever going to get so old that I want to go slow.
Really those who prefer slow as in 7 knots or so are a very small part of the total boating population. They're the population many here know best because they are around them most.
In South Florida we have:
Center Consoles, both fishing and family. Same need for speed as SF's, but faster. Very sizable group.
Cruisers and Runabouts, Sea Ray types, with many other brands tossed in. Cruise the coast, to the Bahamas, to the Keys. Normally limited time and speed is important. Large group.
Sportfishermen, got to go fast to get to the fish, time's a wastin'. Very sizable group.
Small "yachts". All 50-100', Princess, Prestige, Riva, Sunseeker, Azimut, Hatteras. In many areas this would be a small group, but it's large here.
Trawler types-semi displacement. This is the GB's, Marlows, Mainships, Swift Trawlers. Not a go slow group necessarily, but a go medium group. I'd say this group has shrunk with the demise of GB and the poor offerings. So smaller group. I include the Tugs in this but they're not much of a factor here anyway.
Mega Yachts-100'+. It looks like a huge group but that's because they're big. In terms of number of boats, it's a very small group even here. Now, speed wise, while many are capable of more, most do the majority of their cruising at around 12 knots.
Trawler types-full displacement, 8 knots or less. Nordhavn is the primary visibility of this group here with some KK tossed in. Definitely a very small group of boats in South Florida.
Now, this picture would look very different in other areas. Would love for someone to do a similar breakdown for their area with perhaps the same groupings.
Rank these groups
CC's
Cruisers and Runabouts
SF's
Yachts 50-100'
Trawler Type-Semi Displacement
Mega Yachts 100'+
Trawler type-full displacement.
I'd guess here the full displacement, go slow, trawler types are less than 2% of all boats. Toss in the Semi Displacement that many on here have and you'd then get over 5%.
Really two types of go slow groups here in SF, the Nordhavn/KK type at 6-7 knots and largely retired and in no hurry plus some are for long range cruising. Slow is very practical and less costly.
Then the mega yachts. Slow being 10-12 knots. Many are steel, full displacement, 14 knots max. Others can run 15 knots, some even cruise at 20 knots and many of these cruise faster when owner aboard, but a tremendous amount of their movement is only with crew and it's repositioning. They go slow for that to save money. Yes, owners of $40 million boats will have them repositioned at 10-12 knots to save money.
Where oh where have they all gone. :lol:
