Fastest you've gotten your boat?

[Too Late Now]

Without current or waves. Just straight up sailing it.

7.4MPH here. Full main, 150% Genoa, winds just a bit too high for that amount of canvas. Wing keel. Measured via GPS.

I think that's past hull speed so technically I guess I'm falling down my bow wave.

I've seen video of people doing over 8 but I suspect they had current helping them along to go that fast but I don't know so I figured I'd ask here.

 

[Stu Jackson]

First, I'd switch from MPH to knots, more nautical.

Second, hull speed can easily be exceeded under sail. That can occur from wind on the sails or surfing down waves.

There is also the major difference between speed through the water measured by a knot meter and speed over ground measured by a GPS. The difference is current.

You may want to consider doing a search on this message board on "hull speed" - there have been many discussions about this topic.

 

[Too Late Now]

I would have changed it to knots but the GPS does MPH and it wasn't quite as dumb sounding as 6.43042418 knots.

I thought I addressed the current and wave issue in the first sentence. And I wasn't aware the server was that strained for storage space.

Please forgive me. Just seemed like a topic everyone would have an answer to since we all love seeing how fast we can take our boats and this board gets so little use.

 

[paphman]

We have had ours to 7 kts, but have not been able to do that again. We get to 6 to 6.5 kts. on most good days. That is not sustained speed all the time, but up and down alittle. We have alot of things on board as well, but that is another story. These speeds are measured by a GPS.

Dale

 

[Bilbo]

6.7 kts (GPS) a few times last year. One day it was fairly sustained speed. The conditions were of virtually no waves, no current and a beam reach with a steady breeze. The area where I was sailing was just downwind of a causeway on our lake so this is why the waves were non-existant.

 

[Ray Bowles]

Under bare poles 5.3 knots on a C22

Back in 2007, when sailing with a friend, we reached 5.3 knots under bare poles for a period of almost 2 minutes. We measured this with my GPS so it was speed over ground. There is usually a current of .7 to .9 knots but that current was RUNNING against us. The wind was blowing so hard that there was no need for any sails as we had a 2 mile straight run back home. We hit 5.8 and 6.1 but these lasted less than 15 seconds. There were waves of approxamatly 3 feet and we surfed almost the entire way. Now that was a thrill!
Ray

 

[txtowman]

9 mph on a lake in winds 20+ and gusting 35 135 genoa full main and myself and my nephew who didn't even think about reefing. It was a blast and had the boat heeling at near 90 degrees a time or two. wild ride, but fun and we were playing chicken with ourselves to see who got the most worried.

 

[Too Late Now]

Wow! Looks like I've got some room for improvement.

 

[eddyguevara75]

here is mine...
via GPS.. as soon as I find a knot meter app for the iphone I will use it..

http://lilserpent.tumblr.com/post/615130133/first-tracked-sail

-eddy

 

[Bilbo]

Doing this sort of reporting online would appear to be in some way a contest of skills but the real issue with comparing boat speed is that the conditions are relevant. So, on careful thought.....
I've actually had my boat moving at ~ 65 mph...probably actually a bit faster when I think about it.

 

[txtowman]

Well, I guess it's 80 mph(69.518 knots) for me on the interstate with bare poles and the mast down!

 

[OldCat]

6.5kts: close reach, reefed main, 130 Genoa rolled down to about a jib. Measured with our bidata. This was on a lake, so no current assist. I was a little surprised that we could go that fast upwind, especially with the three of us in the cockpit and no rail meat. Guess that I still have some work to do to attain 6.7 (perhaps beam or broad reach & a lucky day?) and catch Bilbo...

OC

 

[Bilbo]

6.5kts: close reach, reefed main, 130 Genoa rolled down to about a jib. Measured with our bidata. This was on a lake, so no current assist. I was a little surprised that we could go that fast upwind, especially with the three of us in the cockpit and no rail meat. Guess that I still have some work to do to attain 6.7 (perhaps beam or broad reach & a lucky day?) and catch Bilbo...

OC

Yeah! 6.5 is a good speed!! Personally, I think that the beam reach or slightly into a run will give us a max return in speed. When we start heeling the boat, she want's to round up and this causes rudder drag and a different hull footprint in the water but I'm still experimenting. Heeling is an adrenaline rush for sure but not necessarily efficient.

So yes, my 6.7 kts was a beam reach as reported and no doubt a lucky day. We're generally am passed up by most other boats on the lake and I don't mind although I try to make sure that when we are passed, they are going the opposite direction..

Yesterday though, I was trying to outrun a t-storm (Like an idiot) and was on a broad reach (w/6hp motor cranking at 75% throttle), full main and 110 jib headed for a safe dockage. ...Max speed in the initial downpour & wind gust was apparently, 7.3 kts GPS. I was a tad too wet and busy to see if that was a steady speed or a GPS glitch. Not recommended procedure but on this lake there are few places to pull over if a sudden storm comes up.