How fast can your boat realistically go?

An interesting conversation broke out recently involving the analogy of "getting your boat to go faster" with an alternative view being tabled that it should not go faster but smoother.

Which, if either perspective is right?

Well, having taken some time to consider the options both are right and neither are right? That sounds like a strange "sit on the fence" response, but hear me out.

If you are aiming for outright speed then all well and good, but here are the concerns and considerations with regards to that linear, somewhat black and white, argument;

• Has your particular boat actually been designed for speed? i.e. speedboat, tug, cruise liner, tanker etc. In which case are you imparting undue stress on something that was never ever designed for out and out speed?
• Are there any unseen cracks embedded within the structure that you cannot visibly see or detect that may cause the boat to fail?
• What is your intended and ultimate destination and what are the likely barriers (weather and terrain) that you may encounter along the way? Are you prepared for those eventualities?
• What support (crew) do you have around, both on your boat and onshore, should things not go accordingly to plan?
• How developed is your own situational and self awareness (radar) and are you actually being urged on by people to go beyond your own innate talent limitations?
• Who is at the helm of your boat and advising you on the direction of travel?
• How long can you travel at speed, pushing, pushing, pushing before additional stress is placed on the engines, the hull and also the crew?
• Do you create such a swell behind you because of your speed that people simply drown or suffer in your wake?

These are a few additional considerations that people should really deliberate over before they simply decide to "go faster".

Whilst training to be a police advanced driver (some years ago now!) one of the memorable quotes from the police driver's handbook, "Roadcraft" has stuck with me and it was,

"Smoothness is the hallmark of the advanced driver!"

Perhaps that quote also aligns with this particular boating analogy. Trying not to make your passengers feel uncomfortable or even ill on the journey is paramount, and for everyone to feel fresh and alive at the end of that journey is in fact a measure of success. We will have all have experienced drivers who can make a 30 mph bend feel like you are "living on the edge of tyre technology" and travelling at 60 mph whereas other drivers can make you feel like you are travelling at 30 mph around a 60 mph bend! Unflustered, operating within their limitations and talent, and oozing an air of confidence.

So, why the image above. The conversation last week made me think of this iconic but tragic event where every "link in the chain" sadly connected in order to create a historic moment of devastation for Malcolm Campbell, his family, on lookers, a nation and also his support team. No one could have predicted the science that caused Bluebird K7 to rise up off the surface of Coniston Water, at which point Campbell would have been helpless to the eventual outcome and his own sad demise.

Within aviation and crew resource management we speak of breaking those links in the chain therefore preventing such tragic outcomes. Many of those links are unwittingly created by our very own human factors. Was there in fact anything on that fateful day in January 1967 that could have been done to have prevented the eventual outcome?

So what's the point here and have I come any closer to deciding if the boat should go faster or smoother, or both?

Well, life itself brings with it risk but it is how we embrace that risk and mitigate it's potential fallout that is important. In my view we need to find our own unique individual balances. Yes, by all means push boundaries but without needlessly pushing ourselves beyond our personal limitations, unwittingly creating further chaos, noise and further confusion in an ever complex and volatile world, and killing ourselves in the process.

What I will say is this. First and foremost, find out what boat you are currently occupying...