[Fr. Frank]

I floated around the edges of high performance boating for a few years, occasionally dipping my toe in. Tim is right, high speed boating is EXTREMELY dangerous.

I began racing small "knee boats" (6'-8' class "A" hydroplanes) at the age of 7. I moved up to the B and C class at 9.
I quit dabbling in racing after stuffing a Gulf Wind Marine 30' Velocity at nearly 70 mph back in the early 80's off Ft. Lauderdale. Peeled the cap back like popping the top off a Tupperware. Analysis afterwards said I was probably about 1/4 of a second too early pulling the throttles back coming off a 3'-4' wave with a very steep backside. Result was dropping the nose and going through the next wave instead of over it. Driver broke his arm, I was just really banged up.

Any accident over about 45 mph can easily be fatal to everyone on board. I helped recover the body of a man who snap-rolled his 24' Martini at about only 40 mph right in front of Spencer Boat Works due to a broken steering cable. His girlfriend survived with a broken neck, his teen-aged son had broken ribs.

This doesn't mean going fast on the water isn't fun, the idea is to make it as safe as possible. I've rigged a 23' SeaVette with twin 235 Evinrudes for a customer, and we actually dropped the engines a bit to slow it down and make it less squirrely. I've also rigged a 2.4L Bridgeport on the back of a 20' SF that would easily top 60, but was pretty hard to control.

SeaCraft is a great hull for going fast in rough water - up to a point.
I know for a fact that the Seafari 20' handles very well in the 50-55 mph range. But I sure wouldn't want to go any faster than that! At 53 mph the Seafari is fairly dancing on the surface of the water, and at 55 it's just starting to want to fall off to one side or the other, as it's now up on the narrowest planing surfaces. That, by the way for those of you who don't recognize the signs, is the beginning of a chine walk, which can easily become the prelude to a snap-roll, where all passengers exit the ride suddenly.

Please remember that most offshore powerboat races with 21-25' V-hulls average less than 60 mph across the course/duration of a race. Occasionally you'll see a calm course where the average speed gets up closer to 70, but that's actually not common.

SO rigging a boat to go fast and then going fast = Fun! Rigging a boat to go stupid fast and then being stupid = not so much.