Tony
07-07-2006, 10:34 PM
Hanging out at the Smoke On The Water Poker Run, in Grand haven, MI, we lucked into a ride on a 36' Skater! It was probably a combination of good looks (my wife's) and the AOTH VI t-shirts Jeff Dykema (tamburello) and I were sporting, or maybe we had a make-a wish look on our faces. More accurately, I guess, it is not what you know but who you know!
Anyway, the Skater had twin Sterling 1075 blower motors, with 10 lbs. of boost...not to mention the awesome graphic on the foredeck! The owner's name was Kevin and he hails from Indianapolis, his girlfriend was Nicki...both outstandingly nice people.
He had the engines gone through last winter so he was kind of taking it easy...but we still managed to hit 133 mph! holy crap, Batman, that is some kind of feeling! We turned south out of Grand Haven and were at Port Sheldon in about ten minutes! He says that the boat will likely top out somewhere between 150 and 160 mph, similar to what he had experienced before the engine work.
Our faces felt and must have looked like the astronauts in training with that g-force machine. My wife and I were in the middle of the back seat and the air flow coming between the two front canopies was unbelievable! After spending some time between 100 and 133 mph, he pulls the throttles back and everybody kind of relaxes, thinking, "boy this is way slower than what we just did"...and I look at the gps and it says we are doing 90 mph...and that felt calm compared to what we were just doing!
Needless to say, the three of us were pretty excited about this experience. It kind of makes up for me having to miss the White Lake gang on Saturday, and Jeff was fired up to tell the story to the crew at the gathering.
Anyway, the Skater had twin Sterling 1075 blower motors, with 10 lbs. of boost...not to mention the awesome graphic on the foredeck! The owner's name was Kevin and he hails from Indianapolis, his girlfriend was Nicki...both outstandingly nice people.
He had the engines gone through last winter so he was kind of taking it easy...but we still managed to hit 133 mph! holy crap, Batman, that is some kind of feeling! We turned south out of Grand Haven and were at Port Sheldon in about ten minutes! He says that the boat will likely top out somewhere between 150 and 160 mph, similar to what he had experienced before the engine work.
Our faces felt and must have looked like the astronauts in training with that g-force machine. My wife and I were in the middle of the back seat and the air flow coming between the two front canopies was unbelievable! After spending some time between 100 and 133 mph, he pulls the throttles back and everybody kind of relaxes, thinking, "boy this is way slower than what we just did"...and I look at the gps and it says we are doing 90 mph...and that felt calm compared to what we were just doing!
Needless to say, the three of us were pretty excited about this experience. It kind of makes up for me having to miss the White Lake gang on Saturday, and Jeff was fired up to tell the story to the crew at the gathering.