Speed?

[sparky30]

How important is the speed of a charter boat when choosing a charter? On a scale of 1 to 10.. 1 being not important at all, and 10 being very important..
For me it falls somewhere in the 5 to 6 range..
Some of the best trips I've had were on the St. Lawrence.. It took an hour to get to the site.. the scenery was nice.. besides, with an hour too kill between dive sites its just the right surface interval
What's everybody's opinion?

 

[divedude]

Hey Sparky...............

I say it's not important at all. But then I have a slow boat
If I go diving it's for fun............... Not to race out and back!!!
Although it's hard to tell from some of the hard core serious dudes here...............
Diving is for fun, a sport, wreckcreational.

 

[diver_paula]

For me, it depends on how far the wrecks we want to dive are combined with whether it's a full day or half day charter.

 

[wetbehindtheear]

if you're driving up for the day, i much prefer a faster boat. i was extremely frustrated on two charters last year when we left the dock at 8:45 am and returned around 4pm. Did the same dives with a different boat in half the time a month later. my opinion - if you're doing dives on the US side of brockville, a medium to fast boat is essential.

 

[Sirius Diver]

Speed is not an issue for me. If there are a good bunch of people on the boat, it makes the trip worth it. It's not a race in my opinion, I'd give it a 3 or 4.

Big Jim, I don't have a boat so any boat is faster than swimming unless it the one I'm diving on...

 

[alemaozinho]

How important is the speed of a charter boat when choosing a charter? On a scale of 1 to 10.. 1 being not important at all, and 10 being very important..
For me it falls somewhere in the 5 to 6 range..
Some of the best trips I've had were on the St. Lawrence.. It took an hour to get to the site.. the scenery was nice.. besides, with an hour too kill between dive sites its just the right surface interval
What's everybody's opinion?

it depends how far you have to travel to the dive sites,

 

[Kevin R]

Speed is not my primary concern, I look for a competent crew who fill in one of the most important places on a dive team. If your boat operators aren't part of your dive team, who is looking after you from the surface in the event of an emergency?

 

[Groundhog246]

I'm going to say speed is not a big issue with me. Of course my own boat is a sailboat with a max of a little over 6 knots. I place a much higher priority on seaworthiness and seakindlyness. I'd rather have a slow comfy ride, than a fast bumpy one. That said, I have little experience on charter boats, but I'm working on curing that this year.

 

[aquaoren]

Safety and quality of the service and boat are more important for me than speed.
I enjoy boat rides so I don't really care how long it takes.

 

[FreeFloat]

Ditto. I'd rather have a comfortable ride out than be white-knuckling it as we bounce from wave crest to wave crest. I've had some real "exciting" rides, but then again I've had some painfully slow boat rides, too........ there is a limit. A two tank dive day shouldn't take ALL day into evening..........