Bass Boat Handling Tips. Does your bass boat break 60 mph? More importantly, how well do you handle it while running at such speeds?
Bass Boat Handling tips, once upon a time, bass boats cruised in the 40 to 50-mph range and rarely broke 50. These days, it’s quite common to climb into a new bass boat. You can hit the throttle and blast up to speeds that would bring red and blue flashing lights into your rear-view mirror on the Interstate.
You can go out right now, buy a 70-plus-mph bass boat, launch it, and blast across the water’s surface with the throttle mashed to the dash. No one can stop you. But truth be told, once a boat starts reaching speeds of just 65 or so mph, the handling dynamics change.
There’s no substitute for on-the-water experience. That’s something I can’t provide (retired Bassmaster Elite Series Pro, Lee Bailey Jr). However, if you plan on boiling the water anytime soon. These five Bass Boat Handling Tips will help you get that experience safely.
- Before you ever even consider driving a bass boat at fast speeds (let’s call it 60 mph or more for our purposes), get used to how it handles at slower speeds. At 50 mph, turn the wheel quickly (after warning everyone aboard, of course) one way and then the other. Then bump the speed up by 60 mph. Do it again, and so on. Try this at all speed increments in different water conditions. Different conditions and directions will have a very direct impact on how the boat reacts.
Use your brain – and your eyes!
- When driving a car down the highway, focus on a point in the distance. Also, pay constant attention to your peripheral vision. Here’s the bottom line: when traveling at 70 mph, your bass boat moves forward 102 feet per second. Yes, per second. If you fail to see a half-submerged log bobbing around from 100 feet away, you’re likely going to slam right into it. If you do see it from that distance, there’s a fair chance you still won’t have time to react. You need to spot hazards in your path when they’re still far off in the distance.
- Any time you feel the boat coming loose from the water or chine-walking, immediately trim down some. Back off the throttle and compensate steering ever so slightly. Oversteering will cause the boat to chine out of control. There’s only one sure way to remain in control. Slow down (just not too fast).
A bass boat can launch and re-enter the water in a split second
- When you see a wave large enough to launch off of, especially a boat wake (since they tend to be steeper than wind-driven waves), immediately back off on the throttle. Also, to change the course a bit to minimize its effect. Yes, it’s true that with modern hull designs, a bass boat can launch and re-enter the water without compressing your spine (too much). But if your lower unit comes out of these, the prop will begin spinning without resistance. Your engine will over-rev. This is hard on the engine. More importantly, when the prop re-enters the water, all that resistance is suddenly reapplied. Your lower unit will face significant strain. There’s a fair chance it will be unable to cope.
- Use your brain – and your eyes – before chopping the throttle. You may have noticed a trend thus far. In many situations, you’ll need to pull back on the throttle and reduce speed asap quickly. But there’s a catch. When you’re traveling fast and rapidly reduce speed, especially on bass boats, the stern will settle in, and the bow will rise. In some cases, that can cause a loss or reduction in visibility. If you’re zooming along and see something in the water out ahead, you may make the snap decision to chop the throttle. If that results in the bow rising so much that you can no longer see the potential hazard, obviously, this is problematic.
Catch The Dream!
