[Public-List] Inconsiderate power boaters

[Greg Dawson]

Hi All 
I'm reading the stories with much amusement. I say amusement because we have all been there and it's kind of nice to hear a story where someone gets theirs as it were. I have a similar story but mine ends with the biggest power boat teaching a lesson.
Many years ago I was sailing out of Portsmouth in Southern England. Along with a number of other small sailboats we had set out on the turn of the tide. As we left the harbour a group of small power boats (water ski boats) roared through the incoming and outgoing traffic. The resulting wake and the chaos was much to their amusement. After they had passed and we had all cursed I heard a noise astern. Looking back I saw the weirdest boat I have ever seen. It was a mono hulled power boat with a with a fully enclosed hull that look like the fuselage of an F35 fighter or stealth bomber. All grey and very foreboding.
The boat came alongside, it's engines burbling on tick over. The two guys behind the aircraft style wind shield looked over and saluted before one of them reached forward and pulled back on the throttles. The boat roared, took off into the distance, and in only a matter in minutes passed through the pack of smaller power boats sending the flying with her wake. Two wrongs don't make a right but it was fun to see the tides turn as it were. 
I never got to meet the guys at the controls and say thank you over a beer. But through a bit of digging I discovered that the strange and foreboding power boat was a test bed intended to test systems for a project boat that was meant to go around the world non stop. Surreal but true.
Greg
#348 Good Hope.