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The fool that followed too closely in my wake.

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Dave S

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
I have had this happen to me several times now. Last night it happened again.

Someone with a Malibu Ski Boat was only about 150 feet off my stern cruising in our wake while we were traveling 25 MPH. I don't like having someone this close because if you ever have to slow in an emergency they may not be able to react quickly enough and I really don't relish the idea of being rear-ended on the water. Anyways, to try and get the message to this jerk I moved the boat from side to side a bit hoping the guy would back off. When he didn't back off then I turned the boat hard to port and he decided not to follow. The only satisfaction I got out of all of this is the guy didn't slow down enough with his flat bottomed ski boat as he tried to cross the nice wake I left for him. I could hear his boat pound across the waves as he and his companion got wet and almost slowed to a dead stop.

:smt043:smt043
 
#3 ·
Dave, one time I actually had two open bow skiboats tailgate me one behind the other for an extended time. I spent more time looking behind me than in front of me and when I couldn't take it any longer, I chopped it to part throttle and did a "doughnut" type sharp turn. As I'm sure yours would, I can produce an extremely heavy wake doing that.

The first boat went right over my wake with similar results to your leech, but the second one was more fun. It literally did a faceplant and buried its bow in my wake, positively soaking everyone on it with the "wake-waterfall" that plowed into it. :grin:

Was it wrong to enjoy watching that? :smt017
 
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#4 ·
That was me! I was trying to tell you that you left your grill sitting on your swim platform, until you swamped me. (Just kidding)
 
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#5 ·
GJarrett said:
Dave, one time I actually had two open bow skiboats tailgate me one behind the other for an extended time. I spent more time looking behind me than in front of me and when I couldn't take it any longer, I chopped it to part throttle and did a "doughnut" type sharp turn. As I'm sure yours would, I can produce an extremely heavy wake doing that.

The first boat went right over my wake with similar results to your leech, but the second one was more fun. It literally did a faceplant and buried its bow in my wake, positively soaking everyone on it with the "wake-waterfall" that plowed into it. :grin:

Was it wrong to enjoy watching that? :smt017
Click to expand...
And what makes you think they didn't enjoy it?

I have on occassion followed a cruiser. . .but I do need to watch it closely as at 25-27mph my boat will tend to fall off of plane unless I use excess amounts of tabs. When I get too close, I power up and pass.
 
#6 ·
Maybe they did! (Except for the drenched lady in the clothes instead of swimsuit).

Sounds good - if the water is a little rough I totally understand why a lesser boat follows me and it happens all the time and that's okay. Shoot, mine's not that big (probably less displacement than yours) and I've followed larger vessels when it got real rough. I've seen other posts and threads complaining about jetskiers jumping wakes but that's fine with me, they're having fun and it's fun to watch them jump my wake. Just don't get stupidly and dangerously close; I'd just assume not watch someone try to join the Darwin Award club on my stern.

It's the "tailgaters" that follow so close that it's palpably dangerous and a distraction to my piloting my own boat that I don't want to deal with - like the jerk that tailgates you in a car in bad weather so close you cannot see his headlights.
 
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#7 ·
I get tailgated all the time, especially out in Tampa Bay by smaller fishing boats. Some of them are regulars that I recognize week to week, but weekenders I don't know are too close and make me very nervous. Now I know what to do...
 
#8 ·
On the other hand... (not judging, just offering another point of view)

Other boater's poor judgments drive me crazy too and sometimes conjure up "retaliatory impulses" to say the least (I can never own a gun, LOL). But we need to take the upper road and not add to an already bad situation. What if that quick turn, rapid decrease in speed, large intentional wake or other maneuver caused someone to get hurt? What if it was a child or elderly person? Did you see that other boat passing on your starboard? What if someone saw the event and we were found "responsible?" Nothing good can come from this stuff.

We could go on and on about better alternatives (hold course, slow down gradually, etc.) but the important thing is for all of us to be safe out there so we can all have fun. I can remember valuable lessons learned in my early boating from observing other captains take responsible action when I had made a mistake.

I'm sorry to be so serious but I had to put in my .02. A lot of new boaters read this site for a lot of valuable information. So the moral of the story is...

Never "communicate" anything with your boat other than good navigational intentions.
 
#9 ·
Long time ago I had a Chris walkaraound outboard, my buddy had a 25' Sportcraft CC. We had run both boats offshore fishing for the day and he was following me back in the channel.
His friend and friend's girlfriend were accompanying him.
Said girlfriend's boobs (is it OK to say that?) were pretty much hannging out of her skimpy bikini top, and my friend picked an inopportune time to do some ogling.
I chopped the throttle at the canal entrance, five seconds later I hear/feel a large thud as the bow of his boat rides up over my transom cutout and enters my cockpit.

Lucky for him the hole in his bow was above the waterline and no one got hurt.
 
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Discussion starter · #11 ·
Jack380AC said:
On the other hand... (not judging, just offering another point of view)

Other boater's poor judgments drive me crazy too and sometimes conjure up "retaliatory impulses" to say the least (I can never own a gun, LOL). But we need to take the upper road and not add to an already bad situation. What if that quick turn, rapid decrease in speed, large intentional wake or other maneuver caused someone to get hurt? What if it was a child or elderly person? Did you see that other boat passing on your starboard? What if someone saw the event and we were found "responsible?" Nothing good can come from this stuff.

We could go on and on about better alternatives (hold course, slow down gradually, etc.) but the important thing is for all of us to be safe out there so we can all have fun. I can remember valuable lessons learned in my early boating from observing other captains take responsible action when I had made a mistake.

I'm sorry to be so serious but I had to put in my .02. A lot of new boaters read this site for a lot of valuable information. So the moral of the story is...

Never "communicate" anything with your boat other than good navigational intentions.
Click to expand...
Jack

Believe me trying a retaliatory measure was the farthest thing from my mind. But by letting that guy tailgate me like that, he was endangering both of us, at least in my opinion. Trust me, I looked long and hard before I took that sharp turn because I didn't want to cause another problem. I figured the guy wouldn't follow my wake and he didn't. But it was his choice not to decrease his speed as he crossed my wake not mine. If I had to do this all over again, I still would have done the same thing. On the other hand the only other choice was to slow down gradually which would probably have gotten the guy impatient. But that will create an even bigger wake and will make it even more difficult for the tailgater to cross and in all likelihood hand gestures or shouting would have ensued (by him, not me :smt009).

In the end I think I did the right thing and acted responsibly as well. But that's just my opinion. But if someone wants to suggest another "safe" alternative in this situation, I am always willing to learn.

Dave
 
#13 ·
Dave, I think Jack may have been addressing me more than you. He's right, and I had second thoughts about it as soon as it happened. I get followed all the time and I really don't care at all, but that time they were literally within a skirope length behind me at 27 knots. My initial manuever was not out of spite but simply to make it clear I didn't want them on my butt so I chopped off some power and got the heck outta their way, expecting them to zoom past me. Instead of going on, incredibly they tried to stay with me. Once I circled past 90 degrees I just kept the wheel turned in amazement - it was sort of like I was watching a surreal movie of what was happening around me. My question at the end of my post was sort of half-serious: was I wrong to enjoy what ended up happening? Probably - I found myself in a guilty pleasure of thinking yep they deserved that. The fact that I felt guilty about feeling that showed me that it was wrong to feel that. Hope that made sense (?)

I've never thought of repeating it, but still struggle to figure out what to do if it ever comes up again.

Mike's idea above is a good one.
 
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#16 ·
A lot of how you handle a "tailgater" has to do what what you are riding in and what body of water you are on. There have been times with previous boats where I'd just firewall the throttles and dust 'em, but I can't do that with my current boat. Evasive maneuvers in a cruiser are a recipe for a lawsuit since the wake has to be a serious concern.

In our area, we get a lot of guys "following the big boat in" because they are tourists and are mostly lost or PWC's hunting a wake to jump. I just slow down without altering course to the point that I make them uncomfortable enough to back off or go away......which also eliminates the wake issue and risk with the PWC guys.
 
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