04-24-2010, 04:11 PM
Just something to think about. A Bass boat running wide open only sits a few inches in the water and creates a small wake. A boat doing 15 mph will not be up on plane and will create a very large wake which is what the wake boarders do. When I am on my toon and boats slow down as they go by me, it actually makes the wakes worse due to the fact they are riding lower in the water which produces a larger wake. My jet boat is the same way. I create huge wakes up to about 18mph because I am riding low in the water and not on plane. Once on plane tho, I am running on about 3-4" of water and it does not matter if I am going 25 mph or 40 mph, the wakes are the same, just a few inches. The only time the wakes will get a little bigger at speed is when you make turns as one side of the boat will drop lower into the water, but there is still not much difference. The largest wakes from boats are produced between 10 mph and 20 mph. I never understood where people got the idea that the faster you go, the larger the wake. If that was true, wake boarders would be hauling butt. We all know that wake boarding boats create the largest wakes because that is what they are designed for. Next time you are on a lake with them, check out there speed. I will bet they are all running about 15 mph. If you were to put up a speed limit sign that actually reduced wakes, it would have to read something likes this.
Speed Limit 0-10mph or 25mph+
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Speed Limit 0-10mph or 25mph+
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