Going fast on the water is thrilling. The sense of speed is more acute as you are typically exposed and in the open; absent is the cocoon of metal and glass. Many travel at 80mph on the interstate, thinking nothing of it. I would venture to say few have really ever gone 80 on a boat and would find it either exhilarating or distressing. In my book, 80 is the benchmark that separates performance boats from all other boats.
Overcoming the air and water resistance above 80 takes a lot of horsepower for any given weight. The bigger the boat, the more ponies needed. For a production boat, hitting the 100 mark, even fewer boats. Above 120, that's just flat cookin' and the group smaller still.
My ride is very modest where performance boats are concerned. It's a light twenty foot hull with big outboard so good power to weight ratio. The hull design is what's known as a "tunnel hull" (technically a mod-vp). The void spaces under the boat (tunnels) pack air and create lift, thus less water drag and more speed. It also corners like a go-kart. Bottom line, fun and exhilarating!
Stoker SST 204 with Merc 300xs
Performance cars, performance boats; what about performance golf carts? Is there such a thing? Yup. Hard to define, but similar to it's car and boat cousins... speed and acceleration! Some people just want to go faster than 13. Then once it does 20, what about 25? Why stop there, what about 35 or 55 for that matter? Crazy? Check this out...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq165SCbsSw
I'd love to hear from you. Click on the comment link below and weigh in. Let's here what you think.
1) How fast have you been on the water and in what kind of boat?
2) How fast is your golf cart and what is fast enough?
In a future post we'll look at how to meet your need for speed from that golf car. Looking to just make it up the big hills without slowing or need to do a burn out? We'll look at how to reach your target speed.
