wrote in message
ups.com...

Jay Honeck wrote:

A boat -- especially an ocean-going yacht -- almost never leaves dock.
But
when it does, you go very slowly, usually in seas that make our
"turbulence"
seem pretty tame, don't get very far, and you had better have a high
credit
limit on your Visa card, cuz re-filling those tanks ain't pretty.


You know an awful lot about boats for a guy who lives in a place where
the biggest body of water most people ever see has a four legs and a
drain at the bottom

Jay loved in Wisconsin. Lake Michigan and all you know.

What you're referring to is a motor yacht designed for bombing around
near coastal waters. Aside from the sportfishers that may go offshore,
these boats stay within sight of shore and have their range severely
limited by fuel needs. "Turbulence" out there is no worse than we get
in the air and often less, especially in the summer. Most of these
boats have no business in serious weather.

Spend some time on the Great Lakes. They often make the ocean look like
childs play. Ted Turner got humbled and you would too.

The key is speed. A boat runs most efficiently at "hull speed" which is
a function of length. If you want to push the hull faster than that,
fuel consumption goes up ridiculously, even worse than with airplanes.

Only true when talking about displacement hulls. Has nothing to do with
planing hulls which include the vast majority of power boats. Planing hulls
burn a tremendous amount of fuel untill they reach planing speed.

-cwk.