Jeff Morris wrote:
So when you say "well within the bounds of most people to easily stay upright"
does that mean that out of 900 tourists given no warning, a number would land on
their butt?

Possibly, but I didn't consider the sensation to be all that greater
than correcting for normal seaway motion when moving .... just longer in
duration.

How quickly does the thrust get reversed? 35 knots is 60 feet/second - if it
takes several seconds to do the reverse, that leaves well under a boatlength for
the serious deceleration.

I couldn't give you numbers, but the maneuver consist of moving a "pot"
over the "jet" thrust to redirect flow and I'd put it in the 2-3 second
category.

This reminds me of another question I've had for a "pro." How quickly do you
figure a helmsman would react to a hazard in the water, especially given no
warning. For combat situations, I've heard it varies between a second or two
for the pro, to about 6 seconds for the civilian. From my own experience, I
feel like I respond pretty quickly if an event is something that I'm
anticipating, but the last I had a "close encounter" in the I was disappointed
that I felt like 2 or 3 seconds passed before I reacted. However, I was able
to do a crash stop before things got hairy, the T-boat that would have hit me
never flinched.

-jeff

Tough to say and would depend on many factors, not the least of which is
the particular helmsman (pro or civilian). One big factor will be
experience level .... to see, assess, understand, and react, based on
past experience with similar situations. The attention level of the
particular helmsman (either pro or civilian) at the right moment will be
another factor.

otn