I spend quit a bit of time on the Lake of the Ozarks in central Missouri. It it a big power boat lake. We have just had our annual Shoot Out unsanctioned race weekend which has pontoons over a hundred MPH and big off shore boats over two hundred.
Deep lake, but the boats by the hundreds raft up to watch the races. When coming in or going out, even with wake-speed restrictions, the mass of boats coupled with wide variation in size and power make the lake churn for the viewers with six foot deep troughs. I have seen 35’ twin engine Formula boats stood on their keel by a 60 foot cruiser getting underway at the same time as someone else starts to move.
Its a factor of boat size variation, movement coordination and sheer numbers in a flotilla like this.
The current overall top speed belongs to, no surprise, the Onken Racing Team’s American Ethanol Mystic Powerboats catamaran, the overall Top Gun-winning boat for five straight years. An hour into the day, throttleman John Cosker, the founder of Mystic in DeLand, Fla., and driver Tony Battiato, of team sponsor Big Thunder Marine in Lake Ozark, rattled off its best speed of the day 202 mph. The team followed up with a 201 mph run after the course re-opened, and Cosker isn’t sure if the boat will run again tomorrow.
Our unlimited hydros on the Columbia River here are faster, but not much (at ends of straightaways), while racing on an oval course. Jet turbine powered, of course.