How fast is too fast?

[Eric 26]

I’m going to start by saying I’m not a boat owner and have never been. With that said my boating experience has consisted of being in a 14-16 foot? 3 bench seat aluminum v-bottom boat with a 9 horsepower outboard when I was 10-15 years old (52 now) and being on my in-laws 38 foot cabin cruiser (10 plus years ago. I’m not sure what the top end speed we hit in either vessel was as I didn’t pilot either but I’m sitting here watching an episode of “The Next Bite” and Gary Parsons  is talking about doing 67 mph (I’m assuming) in a nitro zv21 with a Mercury Verado 400. I’m bringing this up out of curiosity after reading the post which I can’t remember the heading referring to coming close to hitting objects and if I’m remembering correctly someone saying they hit an alligator. This is not me being judgmental but more curious than anything, for those who haven’t seen the show the hosts fish up north and are generally on very large lakes including the Great Lakes so again its more my curiosity than anything else. If no one responds I completely understand.

Edited January 16, 2022 by Eric 26
Name change

[GreenPig]

Depends on many factors such as day or night, location(winding shallow narrow river, big open reservoir, etc.), conditions(weather, crowd, etc.), experience, type of boat, familiarity with the area, and many more. 

[bulldog1935]

About 90 mph, the difference between hydrodynamic lift and aerodynamic lift may only be the difference between a tail-wind and a head-wind.  

Water is incompressible, but air compresses and its density can be locally increased to where a film of it is essentially the same as water. 

There are many aircraft with stall speed below 70 mph. 

A few years ago, one of the top boatmakers in Texas made a big-deal  introduction of their new hull capable of 90 mph. 

At a boat show in Corpus Christi, one demo passenger with his family member was not going to be satisfied until they saw that speed.  The boat became airborne, swapped ends and flipped. 

The model name, the marketing hype all disappeared from the internet that day and became litigation discovery. 

 

Crossing the big bay,  or the ship channel to fish near offshore (outside of the jetties), I always take pride in maintaining plane at the lowest possible speed, to make the ride cozy for everyone. 

[Captain Phil]

Over the years I have seen my share of bass boat speed claims, most of them overblown.  With GPS, we now have a way of verifying these claims. In the eighties, I owned a Hydrosport that ran 64 mph verified by a Florida state trooper's radar gun and it was one of the fastest bass boats in my club.  Bass Boat speeds in the seventies are now common place. The fastest bass boat I have ever owned personally was a Gambler and it could just reach 80 mph with me driving and no tackle.  We have a couple of Bullet bass boats on the Chain that are faster. The fastest bass boat I have ever seen myself was an Allison.  That Allison ran slightly over 100 mph.   If you have never seen an Allison bass boat, calling it a fishing boat is ridiculous.  They are extremely light and have almost no storage.  The lid on the rod box is like tissue paper. 

 

Driving fast in a high performance boat requires skill.  To get these boats to run that fast, the boat is nearly all out of the water.  Chine walk can be scary if you don't know how to handle it.  Owning a fast bass boat is not a sign of how good you are at catching bass.  They are two entirely different sports. 

[cyclops2]

Speeding at WOT has nothing to do with catching more & bigger bass.

 

Catching bass in lake Ontario has proven that for years.

 

 

I C U  has unlimited visiting hours.

[Jig Man]

67 mph with a 400 would not be wide open.  A properly setup 250 would do that or close.  

[Deleted account]

Let's hook up 300-400 ponies to the transom of a shallow draft 21 foot boat, what could possibly go wrong. I don't commute in an Indy car, and I wouldn't get a boat like that unless I was fishing tournaments in big water (and the sponsor kicked in a bunch of it). 

[Jigfishn10]

I know one thing, my wallet couldn't handle the gas payment of a vessel that can go 90 mph. I agree with @bulldog1935, I'd rather get up on plane at the lowest possible speed. Way more enjoyable and far safer.

[Jmilburn76]

To me any kind of speed on a boat feels way different than in a vehicle, its terrifying. I just watched a video the other day on YT of the speed boat Kong doing 180mph, insane!  I think Ill stick to the 3 mph on my pedal kayak.

[cyclops2]

My 30 hp in the 16' open Aluminum Is fine on plane for a 7 mile area to fish. But the fish count is so low. I will be trailering to other areas. Adjust or quit.

[Captain Phil]

33 minutes ago, Jigfishn10 said:

I know one thing, my wallet couldn't handle the gas payment of a vessel that can go 90 mph. I agree with @bulldog1935, I'd rather get up on plane at the lowest possible speed. Way more enjoyable and far safer.

 

Here in Florida, it is common to make long runs when fishing bass tournaments.  Okeechobee is 40 miles wide and it always seems the fish are biting on the opposite side of the lake.  Back in the day, we routinely had to gas up before making the run back to the launching area.  With today's fuel costs, this could easily cost hundreds of dollars.  Owning a fast bass boat also causes you to spend your time running instead of fishing.  The bigger the motor, the bigger the boat needs to be.  I once owned a 22' Storm bass boat.  I sold it because it was like fishing off an aircraft carrier.  I couldn't turn it around in a tight canal and I needed a 4x4 truck to tow it.   My current Ranger RT178 with an 85 Merc 4-stroke is a much better bass fishing platform than that Storm.  

[cyclops2]

who would drive 45 mph in a car with no protection ?  Just tossed out on a flip ? Very few.

 

 

A boat ?  Heck yeahhh

[A-Jay]

9 hours ago, Eric 26 said:

I’m going to start by saying I’m not a boat owner and have never been. With that said my boating experience has consisted of being in a 14-16 foot? 3 bench seat aluminum v-bottom boat with a 9 horsepower outboard when I was 10-15 years old (52 now) and being on my in-laws 38 foot cabin cruiser (10 plus years ago. I’m not sure what the top end speed we hit in either vessel was as I didn’t pilot either but I’m sitting here watching an episode of “The Next Bite” and Keith Kavajecz is talking about doing 67 mph (I’m assuming) in a nitro zv21 with a Mercury Verado 400. I’m bringing this up out of curiosity after reading the post which I can’t remember the heading referring to coming close to hitting objects and if I’m remembering correctly someone saying they hit an alligator. This is not me being judgmental but more curious than anything, for those who haven’t seen the show the hosts fish up north and are generally on very large lakes including the Great Lakes so again its more my curiosity than anything else. If no one responds I completely understand.

My rig is Not a speed demon by any stretch, especially by today's standards.

But she'll get me where I want to go in a safe & timely manner.

When the 'juice' is several miles away and or spots are some distance apart across open water,

I can certainly appreciate that.

However, beating the boat and my myself up just to get there doesn't happen in my world. 

The difference between 35 mph and 55 mph can seems pretty dramatic.

I'll usually run my rig almost as fast as I can safely go.

Good Times. 

https://youtu.be/cCE7y_0QlVU?t=292

A-Jay

[volzfan59]

50 to 60 mph is okay with me, 40 is better. I've had friends with Bullets, Norris Crafts and now Allison's that will run in the 80+ range. That's entirely too fast for me on the water.

 

One time, me and my Bullet owning buddy were cooking down the TN River, fairly close to Neyland Stadium. For those that don't know, that's where the U.T. Volunteers play football. Any way, we were going so fast my nice sunglasses blew off (I know, should have used a tether), lost a hat and one of my contacts was pulled out. Don't ask me how or why, I don't know? I don't really remember turning my head or anything. I just know that one minute all was well, the next I couldn't focus.

[Way2slow]

If you have to ask this question, I suggest you not get anything considered "FAST".  I've had boats that run in the 70's for the past 30 years or more, my last bass boat ran in the 80's.  Sold the bass boat last year, now have a 20mph 24' pontoon.  Talk about a huge attitude adjustment.

[Catt]

How fast is to fast?

 

I grew up in the muscle car era, ain't no such thing!

 

Know a couple guys that ran 105+, one actually holds a bass boat world record. 

 

Y'all ain't never listened to a Merc 250 Pro XS idle & got goosebumps!

 

Yeah I understand the need for speed!

[MN Fisher]

My old runabout would top out at around 35mph...considering my main lake has a speed limit of 40 (yes, a lake with a speed limit) that's plenty fast for me.

 

I've been on a speed boat - I think we topped out at around 90 (not this lake) and it felt faster than my old Cuda at 140.

 

If I can get from point A to point B in under 1/2 hour...I'm fine.

[TOXIC]

If you fish big water, being able to get to a safe dock or outrun a storm is important.  Likewise if you get caught out in bad water, you need a bigger boat to be safe.  Big boats require big motors.  I’ve always said it’s better to be able to dial it up when you need it rather than not having it.  

[gm4511]

How fast is too fast all depends on the conditions.  Match your speed to the conditions and the design of your boat and you'll be safe.  

[Eric 26]

I want to say thank you to everyone who has responded so far and to anyone who responds in the future. As you all probably know I’m limited as to how many likes/laughs I can hand out in a day. When I posted this last night I  was hoping to get exactly what I’m receiving in responses from you all, from bulldog1935 with a technical response, A-Jay with a cool video (I follow you on YouTube) to Way2slow and Catt who much like Tom Cruise “feel the need for speed”, cheesey paraphrase I know?. Been following along with MN Fisher boat build and enjoying that as well as this is something I’m hoping to try in the future. I don’t know if I ever will own a boat but that’s what I enjoy most about this forum is the varied responses everyone is willing to share. 

[gim]

5 hours ago, Captain Phil said:

My current Ranger RT178 with an 85 Merc 4-stroke

Phil I am wondering if you meant to type 75 instead of 85. I have this exact model and the max outboard rating is 75.

[Captain Phil]

1 hour ago, gimruis said:

Phil I am wondering if you meant to type 75 instead of 85. I have this exact model and the max outboard rating is 75.

My mistake.  Its a 75.  Tops out near 40 mph, which is plenty fast enough for me at this stage of my life.  ?

[N Florida Mike]

My buddies boat tops out at 60 , which is plenty fast enough for me. I dont think it even takes a minute to go across the 800 acre lake we like to fish… 

My old boat had a 20 evinrude. When I could get it to crank up it wasnt very fast , lol…

[WRB]

So many factors to consider. You would drive your car 90 mph in a 25 mph speed zone residential area. Boats don’t have roads but do have restricted speed limits and boating lanes with speed limits and no wake zones.

I would consider Gerald Swindle G-Man experienced boater yet is was driving 70 mph in a no wake zone with other competitors nearby. Reckless behavior has no limits.

I grew up racing boats and cars and still alive because driving fast on racing safe tracks and waterways. Accidents happen because someone made a mistake or something broke.

Modern bass boats are faster then most of their owners ability to safely drive them.

You don’t need to be going over 75 mph for a flat bottom boat to kite into a head wind and blow over.

 All our local SoCal public lakes have 35 mph speed limit, it’s not enforced.

Tom

 

[Catt]

12 minutes ago, WRB said:

Boats don’t have roads but do have restricted speed limits and boating lanes with speed limits and no wake zones.

 

We don't have speed limits & the only no wake zones are in marinas.

 

Not gonna get into it but that ain't the whole story with G-man.