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Idle speed in MPH?


Badger

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I'm considering purchasing a home on a channel a fair distance from the main lake. Since I'll have to travel at "Slow-No Wake" speed to the main lake, I'm trying to get an accurate approximation of the time it would take to reach the lake. It's tough to take the boat out there right now, since the lake in a solid state right now.

Does anyone know what an accurate speed is of your boat at idle moving forward?

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The lake is Lake Sherwood, near Milford, northwest of Detroit. The answer is - too far. My wife has narrowed our search to this one particular lake due to the neighborhoods and schools she likes. The lake is man-made from an old quarry and has miles of channels. This particular house has been on the market for a long time, but I've resisted going to look at it, because it's at the very end of the furthest channel, 1.25 miles from the main lake. They've just dropped the price by $75k, and my wife asked me to reconsider looking at it. So by my math, it's a 20-40 minute ride each way (from 2 to 4 mph) to get to the lake. My conclusion is that would suck the fun and convenience out of living on a lake, and it's not worth it. So were not going to bother going to look.

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The lake is Lake Sherwood, near Milford, northwest of Detroit. The answer is - too far. My wife has narrowed our search to this one particular lake due to the neighborhoods and schools she likes. The lake is man-made from an old quarry and has miles of channels. This particular house has been on the market for a long time, but I've resisted going to look at it, because it's at the very end of the furthest channel, 1.25 miles from the main lake. They've just dropped the price by $75k, and my wife asked me to reconsider looking at it. So by my math, it's a 20-40 minute ride each way (from 2 to 4 mph) to get to the lake. My conclusion is that would suck the fun and convenience out of living on a lake, and it's not worth it. So were not going to bother going to look.

That may be part of the reason it hasn't sold and/or the price got reduced. Depending how wide the channel is maybe you could push the "idle speed" up to 5 or so without pi$$ing anyone off. It also gives you time to get your gear organized and fill up the ballast, it wouldn't bother me none unless I could find the same house for the same price on the main channel. As long as I'm on the water, I'm good!! Good luck with the search.

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I used to have a Center Console salt water boat, and had a similar situation....it was docked 3 miles upriver...which was predominately headway speed. This was further compounded by a 3-5 mph tide (that I seemed to always be going against).

Based on my experience..."It will get old awfully quick". It also sucks if bad weather is coming in, and you can't make it back in time.

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The lake is Lake Sherwood, near Milford, northwest of Detroit. The answer is - too far. My wife has narrowed our search to this one particular lake due to the neighborhoods and schools she likes. The lake is man-made from an old quarry and has miles of channels. This particular house has been on the market for a long time, but I've resisted going to look at it, because it's at the very end of the furthest channel, 1.25 miles from the main lake. They've just dropped the price by $75k, and my wife asked me to reconsider looking at it. So by my math, it's a 20-40 minute ride each way (from 2 to 4 mph) to get to the lake. My conclusion is that would suck the fun and convenience out of living on a lake, and it's not worth it. So were not going to bother going to look.

don't confuse "no wake speed" with "idle speed", generally speaking if you are not creating any whitewater behind the boat you are travelling at "no wake speed". In my boat no wake speed (as observed by the cops in Havasu) is about 5mph. This reduces your travel time to 15 minutes.

Would you consider not buying your dream house if it increased your commute to work by 15 minutes each way?

How many minutes to get to the lake would be acceptable to you? If you would not hesitate to look at this property if the commute to the lake was 8 minutes, then the commute from this property is only 7 more minutes than you would like.

Edited by Cervelo
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Point taken, Cervelo. But if my daily commute began and ended with 15 minutes of windshield time where I could not put my foot on the gas pedal, then I would be likely to go postal.

They say that speed kills, but I find going slow to be far more agonizingly painful.

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I appreciate the points of view, but I'm with Davemac on this one. A couple of things:

1. It's definitely not our dream house. There's just not much on the market and we are anxious, because we've been looking for 6 months. But Spring is around the corner and there will be more coming on the market soon.

2. With a 4 and 6 year old, I'm more worried about the proximity to the bathroom, than getting my gear ready.

3. We've had 2 cottages before this. The first one was on a channel, 2nd on the main lake. I think it will be tough to go back to a channel, so I don't want to compound the problem by going to the end of the channel.

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I love being on the main lake. You get to see the action. The one bad side for me is I can not leave my boat sitting in the water on a weekend its just to rough. But then I don't mind putting it on the lift, it takes less time then bumpers and tieing off. We park the ski boat in the afternoon and use the pontoon. We stooped looking at channel homes, we didn't want to deal with travel time and water quality. I love swimming from the yard.

Michigan is hurting if your not in a hurry I bet you find what you want. I don't see things getting better for some time.

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What type of Malibu do you have?? If it were me, I'd explain to my neighbors that my RLX makes less of a wake wide open at 40+ mph than it does at a moderate idle... Whistling.gif ....get them to buy into that and your trip to the lake will only take a couple minutes Biggrin.gif

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What type of Malibu do you have?? If it were me, I'd explain to my neighbors that my RLX makes less of a wake wide open at 40+ mph than it does at a moderate idle... Whistling.gif ....get them to buy into that and your trip to the lake will only take a couple minutes Biggrin.gif

:lol:

Exciting and fun also.

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Personally, I would not be able to stand the travel time at idle or no wake speed. I live on a lake, luckily on a part protected from the wind and rougher waters. I can tow right in front of my house and I love it. I couldn't imagine having to travel over a mile at slow speeds before being able to wakeboard.

Basically I picture coming home from work, having about an hour of daylight left and wanting to go wakeboarding, then remembering my long drive to and from the lake at which I can only go 5 mph at most. My lake house would be better off if I lived 5 miles away by car and had a dock on the actual lake where I kept my boat.

Save money, time, and frustration. Buy the house of your dreams either on the lake itself or buy one off the lake and rent a slip on the lake.

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