by jacklake2003 » Jan 15, 2015 2:24 pm
The easy reply would be it's dangerous and don't ever do it.
But, people take chances all the time. It's a good question though - how many have actually catastrophically failed under-way resulting in a serious crash? We've all seen the photos of the once serious delamination that occurred at speed, but what were the other contributing factors?
I personally have a '94 VooDoo (13') that lives at our cottage. It gets used a couple weeks a year (by me). During those two weeks, I run it at about 40 mph to go see friends around the lake/cruise/etc. Once or twice, I put on the live jacket, grab the GPS, and do my annual run to 60mph. The boat is a little newer and was made my Canadian Edition, but my guess is the core is shot. When I take it out of the water each summer, I look the hull over for signs of stress cracks/bumps/etc.
My point is, I use it in likely a not "perfect" condition under recreational use. If I was racing it every weekend on the absolute edge, I would want it perfect (although, aren't the race versions built without a core?). My thought is that there is a better chance of an accident on the drive on I-75 from Georgia to Canada every year than there is in my hull catastrophically failing resulting in a serious injury or death. I hope I'm not proven wrong... If I ever see signs of serious flexing/cracking/change in ride/etc., I'm done and it will get repaired/replaced.
Just my opinion though and that's based only on "armchair" engineering.
The easy reply would be it's dangerous and don't ever do it.
But, people take chances all the time. It's a good question though - how many have actually catastrophically failed under-way resulting in a serious crash? We've all seen the photos of the once serious delamination that occurred at speed, but what were the other contributing factors?
I personally have a '94 VooDoo (13') that lives at our cottage. It gets used a couple weeks a year (by me). During those two weeks, I run it at about 40 mph to go see friends around the lake/cruise/etc. Once or twice, I put on the live jacket, grab the GPS, and do my annual run to 60mph. The boat is a little newer and was made my Canadian Edition, but my guess is the core is shot. When I take it out of the water each summer, I look the hull over for signs of stress cracks/bumps/etc.
My point is, I use it in likely a not "perfect" condition under recreational use. If I was racing it every weekend on the absolute edge, I would want it perfect (although, aren't the race versions built without a core?). My thought is that there is a better chance of an accident on the drive on I-75 from Georgia to Canada every year than there is in my hull catastrophically failing resulting in a serious injury or death. I hope I'm not proven wrong... If I ever see signs of serious flexing/cracking/change in ride/etc., I'm done and it will get repaired/replaced.
Just my opinion though and that's based only on "armchair" engineering.