Speed???
 

There are a lot of intelligent forum members.
I am not! So, here is a couple of questions.
If, and I say if the speed limit bill is passed, how does one determine his speed if there is no speedometer onboard?

Will a pontoon boat, 20-25', with a 90hp, reach 45mph @ full throttle?

Thanks for any help and info. :)

CEP

Hi - my best educated guess would be about 25 - 30 mphon a smooth calm water surface for your rig. I have a 21' aluminum sport fisherman-walk around w/ a 150 two-stroke and it tops out at 46mph, absolute top speed measured with a very accurate spinning wheel-fish finder and only when trimmed well and on VERY calm water and it only happened once. Usually, it tops at 44.

While I can not say with absolute certainty, I seriously doubt your rig would reach 40 mph. If you know someone with a handheld GPS you can confirm exactly what speed your rig will reach.

cep, i think you have brought up a very good point as far as most boats lacking speedometers. if would suggest following someone that has a speedometer and seeing what your tach reads (150 ft away of course). another thing we used to do for skiing was to put a mark on the throttle control itself that indicates approxiamate speed.as for your question, we had a 21ft sweetwater pontoon with a 90 horse yamaha. it would hit 30 on a good day.

Pontoon boat speed
 

I had a 20' pontoon boat with a 70hp and with the top stowed it would only go 17mph, much slower with the top up because the top behaved like a parachute. IMHO you have absolutely no risk of exceeding a 45 mph speed limit if one is imposed.

Not even close...
 

You will not be close to 40mph with that setup-nothing to worry about. Last year I owned a 22' Manitou tritoon with an Optimax 115 on it. Under perfect conditions with no fuel and my fat butt behind them helm I was seeing 35-37mph. For a pontoon this was a very well designed hull and planed a lot easier than the normal double tube hull. To break 45-47mph I was going to have to move to a 175hp outboard (an intriguing thought until I fell in love with a bigger boat).

Tritoon
 

I'd never heard of a tritoon before. When browsing my usual boating forums, a pair of "tritoon" references appeared this evening:

One, with twin 2.5s and jackplates, had seen 72MPH.

Another, with twin 300x's, sees 85-87MPH.

As another says, "With 10 aboard, it'd make a great party boat".

You gotta wonder. :confused:

.

Acres
 

Check out the boat in the following link:

http://www.manitouboats.com/main/mod...ategory&boat=2. It is similar to my last one.

or a different model/brand called the triphoon:

http://www.hillcrestmarine.com/inven...owItem&iID=199.

speed
 

25ft. pontoon with 225 honda 4 stroke 43mph under best conditions. Most times can"t hit 40

This is good to know! Thanks for the help.

Another question:

In dealing with water craft I think we should be using knots instead of mph.
Yes/No?
Any comments!

CEP

Measuring speed
 

Even if your boat did have a speedometer it is probably not often accurate or calibrated. The best way to determine your land speed on the lake is with a good GPS unit.

Even if your onboard speedometer is accurate it only measures the speed at which water passes past your hull and not the true speed.

Sounds like your boat will not have a speed problem though.


The definition of Headway Speed mentions a top limit of 6 mph rather than measuring in knots. Not sure if that is an indication of their preferred unit of measurement.

Happy and safe boating :)

It's a small world, after all...It's a small world, after all...It's
 

Knots (nautical miles) are used in locations where navigation is regularly measured in nautical miles. (One nm = one MINUTE of latitude). Aircraft and sailboats -- particularly offshore cruising sailboats -- use knots.

Headway speed is expressed in MPH, as most boaters hop out of their automobiles and into their Winnipesaukee powerboats. Using 6MPH is probably a corruption of a 5 knot speed limit.

.

Oops
 

Aps, 1 nautical mile is equal to 1 minute of longitude at the equator which is pretty much equal to minutes of latitude any where on the globe. There are 60 minutes per degree. If it were equal to one degree the earth would have a circumference of 360 nautical miles, much smaller than the actual circumference which is about 21,600 nautical miles. :)

OK Then!
 

If the Marine Patrol uses radar, would they be measuring Land Speed (mph) or water speed (knots)?
And would a radar device be accurate?

If my GPS device indicates I am traveling at 40mph but the patrolman stops me and said I was traveling 49mph by his device, how could I defend myself?

Could this happen or am I all screwed up? :laugh:

CEP

The speed limit bill is in mph not knots. But the chances of being pulled over at 49 mph are pretty low. Just like on route 93, you will need to be going at least 10 or 15 mph over the limit before you have a problem. And very few boats go 60 mph.

If they did that, thye'd have to rename the islands in Center Harbor.

Let's see:

Mile Island would become ".8687 Nautical Mile Island"
Two Mile Island would become "1.7374 Nautical Mile Island"

and so on. :D

"in the english...
 

Be careful of what you ask for!

Acres per second could have to change to 500,000 Hectars per Fortnight!

Misty Blue

Speed on the lake
 

I hope they do enact a posted speed limit. I was fishing yesterday and there are many rude boaters that speed by leaving a huge wake. They seem to either not give a dam or just plain stupid !!!

EDJ

Error in assumptions
 

The speed limit will not help you get less wake. Boats that can go over 45 tend to lift up as they speed up, and will leave less wake, not more, the faster they go. One of the biggest problem with an existing law, the 150 rule, is that as boats often slow down to plowing speed rather than "no wake" speed, so they actually leave more wake than if they would have stayed on plane. To help you while fishing, it would be an nice if boaters left more than 150' from boats that are stationary. While I try to do that, I'm often frustrated by people who fish along "lanes", where rocks or other obstructions tend to force all boats along the same path (like the graveyard). When someone is fishing right beside a marker with a tight fit, I'll give them the 150.00' they deserve, but am less inclined to avoid waking them - figuring if they insist on fishing where boats travel, they must enjoy the rockin and a rollin. When someone is fishing right off the graveyard markers, there is nothing you can do but come back to idle. Those that are fishing should try to avoid the busy areas unless the fish are biting real good.

Lakegeezer is 100% correct on the speed vs. 150' rule. I would bet that I was passed at less than 75' more than 30 times yesterday in open areas with tons of space to provide a wide berth. Usually in family boats in the 18'-24' size range. I am certainly not worried about my safety in a much larger boat but it is just plain rude!

This one's easy...
 

Welcome aboard, EDJ! (Post #1).

Lakegeezer and codeman671 have provided not one, but two possible remedies to your observation:

a) Fish where the fish aren't biting, or...
b) Go fishing where boats are going the fastest.

Easy-peesy.

:rolleye2:

.

A lot of good information!!!

What I can see and experienced is not the speed in the large open waters of the lake but the small narrow spots that are the main problems of to fast and not leaving enough distance between boats.
I think this all comes under common sense!
Do they teach common sense or is it that hereditary?

Now!! back to speed and distance!!
When passing though narrow places, like Eagle Island Narrows, One Mile Narrows, and the Weirs Channel, You should slow down and keeps 100' from the craft ahead of you.
Am I correct in stating that?

Why don't they???

Can anyone answer that?

CEP

What are they thinking?...the go fast boaters are the most experienced of all boaters.Sure,they like to rip it up in the broads on a windy day...but how many canoes are out there? The biggest problem is STUPIDITY.....the worst being rental boats.They have no idea what they are doing and often plow right through no wake zones,leaving a 3 foot wake.They cut off skiers,have no idea what the 150' rule means and need only the price of a rental to get out on the lake.We're all required to complete the boating safety course....but what about the rental customers?

It's not the speed!
 

Don't worry about pontoon boats exceeding 45MPH even going down hill with a tale wind.

I just spent a week on the lake and again I say it is not the speed. Several times I had boat pass by closer than 150'. I find this strange since there were very few boats on the water at the time and there was plenty on space on the water to pass.

I tried a hand held GPS and our boat will only hit 40MPH. 19' Four Winns with a 190HP Mercrusier. Propped more to pull skiers than top end.



P.S. It's not just rentals who violate the 150' rule.

Couple of comments here. Codeman & Lakegeezer are correct. Most boats exceeding 45 mph or more is leaving very little wake, certainly not enough to do alot of rocking, a speed limit will not help LBR LAW"S problem. However, as many have said myself included, its not speed but common courtesy & obeying the 150' rule. Who knows maybe the boats rocking LBR LAW were 150' or more away, you can still get rocked at that distance.

Secondly Bear Islander confirmed my believe & opinion & I've said it in prior posts. Bear Islander said very few boats exceed 60 mph. I'll take it one step further. The majority of boats I see on the lake are not capable of exceeding 50 mph. The few boats that are capable is a very very small number & it is seldom that I see those that are capable traveling at speeds exceeding 60, 70 mph (only a guess, I don't have radar) but certainly no where near the speeds that the speed limit supporters claim is taking over the lake like 80,90 or 100 mph.

Out on the lake this past Friday, Saturday & Sunday the vast majority of the boats I saw were smaller runabouts in the 18' to 24' range & saw several instances where boats passed if not less than 150' very close to it. None of those instances were close to causing a collision. While there was never a time that I saw on the lake this weekend that would be considered crowded there was alot of activity from what I would call the smaller boat crowd. I don't see how the speed limit supporters can say people are afraid to use the lake. You could have fooled me this weekend.

Yep, we need more NWZ's....
 

Boaters uninjured during Governors Island collision



GILFORD — No injuries were reported when two boats collided in the channel at Governors Island.

Marine Patrol officials said a boat operated by Robert Cofer Jr., 37, of Tewksbury, Mass., was struck in the stern by one operated by Paul Polland, 51, Tyngsboro, Mass.

Cofer had nine people, including five children, on board. There were four adults on Polland's boat.

Do you mean the no-wake channel that goes under the GI bridge or the area between GI and Eagle Island?

I do not know where the collision actually occured. However, the MP's had both boats pulled over right about where it says 30 (depth) on the Bizer Map. There was a whole beehive of activity, 5 MP boats and two family runabouts and lots of animated discussion. One MP boat passed me in the channel just after the bridge as I was heading towards Weirs and apologized for his wake.

I am sure the accident report will make for good reading. The lake was pretty dark, no bright moon. Certainly someone wasn't paying attention.

I am thankful no one was seriously injured, and that it wasn't some sort of sportboat involved! I wonder if either operator had his safe boating certificate?

Woodsy

The Latter.
 

Couldn't tell from the brief article where they were. If one ran into the other as they were clearing the nwz in the channel and planing-off, it'd be a little too Littlefieldesque, no? It will be interesting to hear what the report said actually happened.

Just reminds me how little depth perception we have at night on the water and how easy it can be in close quarters on dark nights to misjudge distance.

There was a better blurb in Mondays Union Leader on page A6 (Obits section). Unfortunately, they didn't post a link to it online yet. It basically stated that the accident was still under investigation, but it was a low speed collision, resulting in only minor damage to both boats. The accident involved 2 family runabout boats, a 23' Maxum carrying 4 adults and 5 children, operated by a 37 yr old Tewksbury MA man, and a 25' Searay carrying 4 adults, operated by a 51 yr old Tyngsboro MA man. They ruled out alcohol as a contributing factor. I am just glad there were no serious injuries. It looks like a simple case of operator inattention.