Throughout my adult life I have had all kinds of boats, big, small, fast, slow, etc... I literally grew up "summering" on this lake and have watched it change quite a bit over my 40 yrs, some for the better - and some, admittedly not. (I miss Anderson's Bakery in Ctr. Harbor, they had the best donuts! And as a kid, walking to Robbins General Store for candy or an ice cream out of the cooler). Anyway, I digress... I honestly think the "most fun" boat I / we had growing up was a 13' Whaler with a 40hp 2S Merc on it. We bought it new from Browns, it came with "manual" trim and I installed a power trim kit on it, it ran 42-44mph on it's best day in perfect conditions. At WOT that boat felt like it was going 80mph - you were 12" off the water and it was a blast! I scared a lot of friends that weren't "boat people" in that thing - great boat! Jumping up to a 42' Outerlimits with 1,700hp, at 100mph - it feels like you are sitting in a lazyboy with a big fan blowing wind in your face. It's all relative to the size and conditions at the time you are out. At 65mph, that same boat feels like it's "loafing" along, the engines are running smooth and easy and you barely feel the waves you are crossing, it is a very comfortable and controlled ride. OCD has mentioned this numerous times in previous posts, the boats are DESIGNED to perform VERY well and very controlled at the speeds that they achieve. Imagine doing 65mph in a 13' Whaler - as much as I would love to try it, given an open body of water with no boat traffic and flat and calm conditions, I would never dream of doing it on Winni, ever!
It's funny how most SL proponents seem to forget something very important - and I have said this over and over - guns don't kill people, people kill people! We always read about "Captain Bonehead" on here - note, no one ever refers to the boat itself, it is always the operator! "This guy on a jet ski cut in front of me yesterday, what a jerk" or "I had this guy in a bowrider, with 9 people on board nail it coming out of the channel, he was only 25' from me". Now, in any case of negligence or "operator" error - has it been the boats fault that what happened - happened!? Did "the boat" decide to go against the operator and turn itself in front of you, cutting you off and breaking the 150' rule!? Did "the boat" decide to slow to a speed that let up a huge wake and crashed your boat against your dock - damaging both - while the operator yelled at it telling it not to!? To quote Forrest Gump "stupid is as stupid does" - and if you look at the last (and ONLY) two significant accidents to occur on the lake in the last 10+ years, both were operator error, period! (And at least one so far was proven to have taken place UNDER 30mph!) Call it what you will, bad judgment, driver impaired, weather conditions, etc... it was plain and simple the operator that was responsible, and always is. I know plenty of people on this lake that own boats that will run fast - very fast, and not a SINGLE one of them has been involved in an incident of any kind that would be construed as negative. I have seen over the period that the SL has become an issue, an exponential number of "family boats", cruisers and Waverunners involved in the most unbelievably dumb, careless and unsafe incidents! The SL has had nothing to do with any perceived changes in the way the lake was this summer, chalk it up to the economy and sheer coincidence. BTW - I still saw more than my fair share of "captain boneheads" on the lake this summer, I was up less than all prior summers, and NONE were driving a performance boat! None involved going really fast either, it was mostly the 150' rule and the right of way rule that were the culprit. Tubing / skiing in the most foolish locations - traffic-laden, etc... - and just not paying attention in general.
Face it people - speed is not the enemy here, and it never has been but some people like to think that the performance boat crowd is. That our "Golden Pond" has become a playground for all they despise - gone are the birch-bark canoes - replaced with loud and "unsafe" speed boats. How about gone are the responsible owner / operators ACTING responsibly! You are responsible for your own actions, man-up and act like you are! There is plenty of water for all to enjoy, but we need to be responsible for our actions - on and off the water! I can assure you, I can promise you and prove to you that a 20' bowrider at 50mph can be far more dangerous than a 38' performance boat at the same speed.
Sure, there are times that I wish this lake was the lake I knew when I was a kid, less populated and developed, but at the same time - I love the lake today! My 4 1/2 year old son also loves the lake, being out on the boat, visiting friends and playing in the water. You know, "he-said - she-said, he-did - she-did" is getting old and moving us no where fast! Let's figure it out and make it work people, so generations to come can enjoy it all too...
Mark