Minimum Planing Speed

[XCR-700]

Originally Posted by OCDACTIVE

I read the same story and my estimation there was more to the story... It absolutely is more difficult to judge speed via water because there is no frame of reference in many cases. Not only that but it can be difficult for the driver considering some boats do not have or are require to have spedometers

And please let me add that on most boats I have owned, my speedometers were lucky to work half of the time and rarely accurately.

With my 2 current rigs, the CSS-23 speedo works about 2/3 of the time before something blocks the pitot. On my CVX-20 I'm lucky if it works 1/3 of the time,,,

And even when they do work, I have not found them to be very accurate when checked against my handheld GPS.

So are we now responsible to add GPS to all our boats???

And then whats more important, watching the speedo/GPS or the water ahead (and to the sides, and behind, and the instruments, and map and compass, and kids on board, etc)

When you think about it, it sure makes a lot of sense to have to worry about a particular speed limit with everything else we have to do to operate a boat safely and navigate to our destination, especially at night,,, NOT!!!

I'm liking this less and less,,,

I'm one who drives VERY slow at night, always have, but there is a bottom reasonable speed any particular boat will run and not curl a 3 foot wake nor tear your arm off from the torque steer (outboard with big 3 blade prop) and I don’t determine that speed by watching the speedo, it just a throttle setting where everything hits a sweet spot, and its different for EVERY boat I have ever driven!

So in my mind you cannot effectively set a single speed limit for night operation that will fit the majority of boats unless its really high, 35+ MPH or it’s a no wake speed.

I just don’t see this working out effectively, boats just aren’t cars and lower limit speed limits are really tough to set that will work for everyone.