The Performance Boat School is so much more than safety and a insurance hurdle.
For nine years now I have been a part of and partner with Tres and the Performance Boat School. In this time we have gone from push back to great support and the battled the reluctant who don’t understand the value and true benefits of the programs.
This past weekend I had the privilege of going back to Detroit and Lake St Clair where I served for four years at the Coast Guard Station and presented a class for two new catamaran owners. The session was hosted by Chip Miller of Miller Marina. This session brought out very similar and repeated circumstances that I find at almost every session .
In too many situations the new boat owners are having difficulty with the boat or were told or shown by the previous owner or dealer what to do and not to do in regard to driving the boats. This is often done with strong authoritative tone or reputation giving the words an almost reverent authority. As a result of this the boats are uncomfortable and just don’t live up to the expectations of the new owners. I usually recognize in short order what was told or demonstrated was completely wrong and in some cases the set up on the boat was modified or changed resulting in poor performance or ill handling characteristics.
Now my mission is to politely and properly rebut the bad tribal knowledge and demonstrate the proper operation. The easy part of this is that I don’t have to have an opinion about it, I don’t have to do a sells pitch, I don’t have to speak to convince the new owner. All I have to do is drive the boat. Roll it on plane, run it to 50 MPH and hold; Zero Hop, 60 MPH and hold; Zero Hop; 70 MPH and hold; Zero Hop and continue this all the way through the speed range and then run the boat to its full potential whatever that is 120 MPH-180 MPH using demonstration as the convincing factor to make sure the new owner is happy and confident with their new great purchase.
I find it very rewarding leaving the customers with this new confidence and ability to run their boats because now I know they are going to use the boat, stay in performance power boating, and hopefully grow to buy other boats as they grow with the sport.
My wish and hope is those that dismiss the value of our programs really understand what that means. The leadership shown by manufactures and dealers that support the principals of human performance based training will be rewarded over and over again from the customers that understand and value the training because its not safety that makes the difference it is how much fun the boat can be when set up right and ran properly.
