Saturday afternoon we met up with one of my buddies at our place (The Palms) in Needles. I've been in his boat before (28 Magic Deck w/525) and knew how he drives, but he said he would take it easy since we had 3 kids and my wife with us. Two of my other buddies and my wifes cousin went on the trip as well, so there was 9 of us total.
We start out floating down river just drifting and then he (boat owner) says let go this is boring. He takes off like a bat outta hell, and I
swear we must have threaded the eye of a needle atleast 6 times before we pulled into Park Moabi (and it's not that far) and doing around 60 all the time as I'm telling him to slow down and he's in and out of traffic.
I was surprised that the boats we passed and cut off didn't try to come after us and want to fight (it was that bad). When we stopped to get fuel at Park Moabi he went inside to pay and my wife and one of my buddies were pleading with me to drive back, they were that scared. Not to say that I wasn't scared, but I was more disturbed than anything with reading all of the accidents and events that have happed lately.
He kept telling me "Please... I've been in your boat and you drove way faster so come on and calm down". I said yeah we were doing about 90 in my boat but there were just 3 of us guys, no holiday traffic, no other boats around, and I went straight not your back and forth action.
So I did end up driving home back up river to everybody's delight. I was even pushing his boat trimming it (something that he doesn't do properly anyways) and driving it wide open. Everybody felt at ease even with me going faster than him because they know I have a little more seat time than him.
When we got closer to the dock and ramp he took back over the wheel so I could go back down the trailer, when he started racing a ski and then turned the boat sharp and fast to spray him. All he could say was "weird feeling in a cat huh, you can't do that in a V-bottom" as my 10 year old daughter was balling her head off because she was so scared.
Yes driving that boat is different from a V, for the fact that when you pull back on the levers it took much more time to slow down.
Needless to say my wife and the others probably won't be going in his boat again and if I do I'll make sure to be sober so I can, 1. hold on and 2. drive.