Sportsboats Speeding.

oldgit

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So what speed was this considerate boat owner doing in the middle of Chatham town centre last weekend,perhaps he was in a hurry to get to the end of the speed limit over 3 miles downriver?
Some sort of of Bavaria or Binliner perhaps ?

speedboat.jpg
 
Ironically a small boat like that at high speed creates little wash. It's when the word removedword removedword removedword removeds slow down to speeds between 8-11kt that they dig a massive hole, as most don't realise they need to drop down below 7kt to be fully in displacement mode.
 
Is there a speed limit where the picture was taken and were there any other boats or anything that could have been affected by the wash

Yes there is, its 6 knots.
The problem is that at that state of the tide there will be lots of boats semi afloat and it can cause damage where the props-rudders are still stuck in the mud, we get it and there tends to be a kind of swell that reaches you and is often worse than the wash.
 
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Blimey , having owned a Bayliner and now a Bavaria i will have to get signed up to the HOW TO SPEED IN A RESTRICTED CHANNEL COURSE , the guy in the photo is obviously a complete knob driving at that speed . I dont agree that its just sportsboats that create wash , there are certain hull shapes that make larger waves than the Lymington ferry , IE fishing boats and day trip boat to yarmouth seem to shove up huge wash at 6 knots , maybe harbour masters need to be tougher on skippers who dont seem to consider what they are creating even though they are within speed limit
 
Blimey , having owned a Bayliner and now a Bavaria i will have to get signed up to the HOW TO SPEED IN A RESTRICTED CHANNEL COURSE , the guy in the photo is obviously a complete knob driving at that speed . I dont agree that its just sportsboats that create wash , there are certain hull shapes that make larger waves than the Lymington ferry , IE fishing boats and day trip boat to yarmouth seem to shove up huge wash at 6 knots , maybe harbour masters need to be tougher on skippers who dont seem to consider what they are creating even though they are within speed limit

I think what was meant, and I agree, planing hulls can or do make more wash at mushing speed rather than when they are on the plane
 
Totally agree with that , once you are of the plane it is pointless trying to go any faster than displacement speed , i judge this by slowing until bow does not drop any further ( about 6 - 7 knots ) and wake is then allmost totally gone . By the way when you try to go any faster than hulls natural displacement speed the fuel consumption goes through the roof relative to the speed that you gain .
 
You could hear the boat coming as he passed under Rochester Bridge about half a mile away and he whizzed all the way down Chatham Reach and around the corner towards the dockyard.
A six knot speed limit is in force within the harbour.
Have to say the vast majority of boats which ignore/appear unaware of the rules in the harbour will be tent boats and the ones which cause the problems are not the sub 20ft soap dishes but the larger boats who really should know better.
Would ne nice if the up river marinas put a notice somehere to the effect that speeding is bad form.
Chathamreach.jpg

A view courtesy of Google.
 
Have to say the vast majority of boats which ignore/appear unaware of the rules in the harbour will be tent boats and the ones which cause the problems are not the sub 20ft soap dishes but the larger boats who really should know better.

Have to say as the owner of a 20 foot soapdish that because the majority of the bigger boat owners look down their noses at us first boat tiddlers, we have to do it more professionally than the newly minted 30 foot guy in order to get any respect.

Newly minted guy don't care cos "he's a killer "and got the middle end european sports touring car out in the sales dept car park to prove it.
 
Have to say as the owner of a 20 foot soapdish that because the majority of the bigger boat owners look down their noses at us first boat tiddlers, we have to do it more professionally than the newly minted 30 foot guy in order to get any respect.

Newly minted guy don't care cos "he's a killer "and got the middle end european sports touring car out in the sales dept car park to prove it.

I would say that judging a persons seamanship or sense of responsibility by the length of their boat is somewhat flawed, I went 30' 26' 34' and now 22' and I would not speed through a restricted area in any of them nor did my ability peak and trough
 
Just to be correct, the boat is a mid 90s Sunseeker. From the poorly shot photograph, I would suggest a Portofino 32 or 34.

Just to make sure we are stereotyping correctly, he is (of course) almost certainly wearing a large gold medallion, chest wig and pumping out some sort of unholy rock music though his cockpit speakers. I will have to take note, since clearly all 'tent boat' owners are the same in the eyes of the OP, and I would hate to disappoint.

Of course, if he just bought a 'proper' boat he could succeed in turning into, well, and Old Git I suppose...
 
so what speed was this considerate boat owner doing in the middle of chatham town centre last weekend,perhaps he was in a hurry to get to the end of the speed limit over 3 miles downriver?
Some sort of of bavaria or binliner perhaps ?

speedboat.jpg
you dont complain when james bond does it
 
Just to be correct, the boat is a mid 90s Sunseeker. From the poorly shot photograph, I would suggest a Portofino 32 or 34.

Just to make sure we are stereotyping correctly, he is (of course) almost certainly wearing a large gold medallion, chest wig and pumping out some sort of unholy rock music though his cockpit speakers. I will have to take note, since clearly all 'tent boat' owners are the same in the eyes of the OP, and I would hate to disappoint.

Of course, if he just bought a 'proper' boat he could succeed in turning into, well, and Old Git I suppose...

The gold medallion was pawned to buy the boat, my chest hair was shaved by the cardiologist nurse for my ecg test yesterday, and there's nothing wrong with Fleetwood Mac's The Chain at full volume thro' cabin AND cockpit speakers, and my bus pass is in the post
 
Ironically a small boat like that at high speed creates little wash. It's when the word removedword removedword removedword removeds slow down to speeds between 8-11kt that they dig a massive hole, as most don't realise they need to drop down below 7kt to be fully in displacement mode.

I wouldn't describe the wash from a reasonable sized planing motorboat fully on the plane as "little wash". Little to another planing motorboat, maybe, but still quite substantial. With the previous 24ft boat, a boat following in convoy that we knew tried to cross our wake at 20kts, got it a bit wrong, and we had to stop and deploy my nice new sealed first aid kit to patch up the co-pilot (hit head on windscreen frame).

On an S28, max wash is 10-14kts.
6kts or less seems to upset nobody at all.
 
i have seen that dickhead a few times speeding up and down the river and i am sure he thinks he is james bond but i must say he is not so fast as that other idiot swany or what ever he is called.
 
Speedy sport cruiser

I think that it is definately a Sunseeker 34 Portofino. Just have a look here

http://www.medwaybridgemarina.co.uk/boatsales/brokerage

for a picture of one to compare it.

Hang on......

Gosh what a coincidence!!!! The one for sale is just a mile upstream from where the picture was taken.....Anyone with any spare time on their hands might like to go for a little boat viewing where they may well get the oppertunity to explain to the speedster the selfishness of his ways.

This particular craft has been a bit of a nuisance a couple of times past our club at Strood (not quite at those speeds but well over 6knts)

Old git. Just for future reference Medway VTS have got a camera covering that area(and most of the river from that point down). A quick call on CH74 and they have been known to dispatch a harbour launch to have "polite words".
 
"judging a persons seamanship or sense of responsibility by the length of their boat is somewhat flawed"

We all start somewhere and many folks begin with a "soap dish" of some type and work their way up the ladder,good thing in my opinion simply because being in any small boat at some point makes you acutely aware of the problems caused by wash at the receiving end.
A small boat at speed is much less likely to create enough of a problem to cause damage or worse in a confined space and is merely a blimming nuisance ,the real problem AFAIAK are those able to buy a substantial boat and use it without any requirement to get instruction or information regards respecting other users on the water.While many new buyers will have bought their boats in the company of boaty friends,who will have no doubt recommended a sea school,the remainder will possibly just untie and open the throttles.
We all enjoy a whizz but there is a place and a time ......This shot was taken near Sheerness.....honest.
DSCN3148.jpg
 
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