Re: Towing another boat long distance, how fast?
I want to clarify what I posted . . . . Mead has Marinas that are related and also 30 miles apart. Sometimes they have rental equipment problems where they have to shuttle boats from one remote marina to another. I have seen them often towing large runabouts, basically 19 footers with 150 OBs. They'll often use another similar boat, or something larger, but they cruise along on plane quite nicely. Obviously they have hardware that is sufficient and some procedures and experience that make it work. It is seeing this over and over that gives me confidence that speed and planing are not hard barriers.
With that said, I have towed a 14 ft. tinny and watched the bow start to go under at around 16 mph, so balance, towing angle (attachment points), speed etc. are all very important considerations. I would never recommend being cavalier in this regard.
Also, what ondarvr says about houseboats and towed support boats is very true. The worst examples I have seen are mid engine, bow rider, tournament ski boats with downward sloped gunnels at the bow. Absolute disaster waiting to happen. I read something about one sinking in Powell like that, but can't find it now.
We have towed behind houseboats forever and the closest I ever came to sinking anything was due to big wind waves not speed. The houseboats we have rented were never capable of more than 10 MPH though, so not real relevant.
