Explore my boats potential?

RobWales

RobWales

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Joined
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Location
Gran Canaria
www.3ksengineering.com
My recent purchase, Sunseeker portofino 34 is in the boatyard at present being fully fettled in readiness for the next 12 months boating.
I am a very experienced motorboater having owned nine boats over the last 20 years all gradualy getting bigger.
However I have never explored any of my past boats limits to the full.
I feel though that after reading of the seakeeping qualities of my Sunseekers hull I feel confident about pushing things a little further once she is back in the water.
I read with interest various boat tests in the monthly mag's where the testers say "i threw it into a full lock turn at 30 knots" !!
So my question is this...... Would it be safe to try such a move in my latest purchase?
I've fancied trying this in the past but must confess to not having the balls!
Also have you explored your boats limits and how was it for you?
Thanks
Rob
 
I'm all for exploring a boats potential but in doing so you also reach the limits which I have found to my cost over the years!! Generally I have found on shaft driven twin screw boats you can put them into a full lock turn without drama. I was once about to do it on a SS superhawk 34 when someone warned me that they have a tendency to flip around and the potential to rip the outdrives off. Quite unlikely I thought but as I don't have my own I've been a bit careful ever since! The only real caution I would throw out is make sure you and everyone else on board is holding on tight and my mean really tight just in case she skips. I have driven a particular make of RIB in the past that when pushed will skid just like a car but then bite and throw passengers out. I doubt a 34 would do that but it pays to be a little cautious when exploring the limits... have fun.. Iain
 
Surely you just gradually increase your learning curve. If its a full lock turn you want to try, edge up towards that and see how comfortable you feel. Be warned though, while the driver has a wheel to hold onto, I ve found that hard and fast turns can easily leave others sprawled over the cockpit, even if they were holding on, and if you hit a wave side on to, it can be a pretty hard thwack. So, I d suggest you play about in calm waters, and see how scary you want to go /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
I'll have to confess to carving up a mirror like Solent at first light before the ferries start running and it was fantastic, although I was onboard alone, without the encumbrance of passengers to worry about, Oh and shut the portholes, she will go over that far!!
 
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I read with interest various boat tests in the monthly mag's where the testers say "i threw it into a full lock turn at 30 knots" !!


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Yeah I read that kind of comment and wonder why it's relevant. Surely the only thing worth commenting on is whether the thing steers easily and tracks well not whether it can do hand brake turns at 30kts which at best will scare the crew and at worst chuck them overboard. It seems to be a new trend in boat test reports to discuss how a boat 'handles' as if it were a car but the fact is that, unlike cars, boats tend to go everywhere in straight lines
IMHO, it would be more instructive to take the boat out into some rough water (Needles in a SW F5-6 against the tide should do) and test how it handles the waves and what speeds are most comfortable in various directions
 
[ QUOTE ]
It seems to be a new trend in boat test reports to discuss how a boat 'handles' as if it were a car

[/ QUOTE ] Probably called the 'Top Gear effect'.
 
I'd agree with that. I have been out on tests with German and Scandinavia jurnos and I am thinking to myself this is ferkin ridiculous, the boat is getting absolutely hammered, crew hanging on for dear life, those that have just come along to make up numbers such as a couple of models for the photos are white with terror. In some cases it is the jurno having an ego trip and have to say it is a miracle more of them don't come a cropper although there is a few that dare not darken the door of a few builders again without having their lights punched out for the damage they caused.

Recanting one German jurno's exploits....... out of Cannes for a sea trial and photo shoot, everything going tickety boo and he is enjoying the attention of the female photo candy and he decides to throw the thing around like a lunatic, one poor girl took off from the port side cockpit seating and face first into the starboard side BBQ / wet bar. He was lucky not be sued for being reckless and endangering the crew, the girl was only hired for the day as a model, she didn't expect to end the day in casualty.

I understand that they have to test a boat to some sort of limit which is fine but it only takes a few minutes in the hands of an experienaced helmsman to get the feel of it and what the limits maybe, thereafter it is really the jurno having fun at someone elses expense. Some will keep on hammering it for most of the day under the guise 'I just need to find that last few nuances of the hull' or some such cr*p!. Total disrespect for someone else's pride and joy and property.

In the end 90% of production boats are family cruising boats despite any PR blurb otherwise, to start driving them like a Ferrari round the Top Gear test track is just plain stupid and childish. Your are not going to buy a family saloon because it was just a little twitchy at 120 mph on the last bend on the Nuremburg ring, yet some jurnos would have you believe this is very important fact ! ...... Some live in a fantasty world all of their own totally abstract from the real world of boating, many are not boaters themselves in the true sense and the vast majority don't even own a boat, the most they ever do is a few hours blatting about on someone else's demo and it would be advisable to bear that in mind when one reads the various test reports and colour one's thinking accordingly.

I should say the IPC stable are a little more restrained than the above but make no mistake they also give most of the boats a fair ole caning, just they are a little more respectful of your X hundreds of thousands tied up in a demo boat and actually spend a lot of their time on the water as enthusiasts themselves, hence I guess that is why so many other boating publications end up buying MBM / MBY reports for their own print.
 
AMEN

to Mike F, in the past MBY (80s beg 90s) was so good on testing most of the boats in delivery trips in usually noting less then a Force 3/4, today most reports looks like a one hour trip... this goes along the construction issue if a few years back

as for the potential I tought you where going to do some 500 miles plus trip, IMO this is when you find the boats potential exploring various sea conditions, staying en-route in that sea state and staying in it over an hour...
the rest is all just playing over and to do that is better to buy a rib with big motor in its back...
 
the fact is that, unlike cars, boats tend to go everywhere in straight lines
*******
dont be silly, Mike. In the Solent you do need full lock to lock in order to stay the required 100m away from all the saily thingys scattered all over the sea. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
dont be silly, Mike. In the Solent you do need full lock to lock in order to stay the required 100m away from all the saily thingys scattered all over the sea.

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Not me. I used to expect them to get out of my way. Might is right and all that
 
i think its a good thing to try
but do it on your own or with 1 crew, you get to learn more about the boat
i've certainly tried my boats out, in quiet calm conditions on my own
when i did my pb course on my first boat we did full lock and it jumped across the water and scared the wotsit out of me

but learnt and experimented and found that it would go around and nearly full lock full bore, the tail would slide but it was predictable and enjoyable

i would say go for it with caution and dont do it with the family, still wouldnt do full lock at full chat though,

peanuts might add his 2 peneth.. he gets his on its rails alright
 
on a previous boat, on one rather tight,fast turn the helm seat broke off its pedestal, leaving my hanging onto the wheel while lying on the cockpit floor.
So, it doesnt always happen quite as you anticipate!
 
Having started with small speedboats I got quite used to hurling the boat around, but the crew were always nicely held in bucket seats and knew what was coming. As the boats have got bigger I've "tested" them just to find out what the response is.

So I can confirm that the reaction is what you might expect.. the boat digs in makes a sharp turn and throws anything not held down in the opposite direction, for me this happened to be a £5 bottle of rum that landed on and went through the electric hob /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif £400 later the lesson is learnt.

If you want to try it my advise is only with an empty boat, but to be honest I'd focus on testing its long distance cruising capabilities instead /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Friend of mine cranked the wheel over hard at high speed and there followed a big bang as the UJ in one of the legs exploded /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

Don't go there...it's pointless and could cost you money!!! /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
 
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