I routinely race my Tsunami 175, and generally wind up 3rd place in the Geriatric division on the shorter more sprint like races, 3 mile and 5 mile.
Just to normalize the speeds for my boats as measured I’ve included the Hull speed Calculations so you can see that there it not a heap of the difference.
Tsunami 145 - 5.872 Mph
Tsunami 175 - 6.451 Mph
Tempest 170 - 6.358 Mph
Tempest 180 - 6.452 Mph.
There I wind up between 5.2 and 5.9 depending on conditions, and my son on his first race in his Tsunami 145, wound up at 5.24 mph. Complaining all the way that it was unfair because I had a faster boat than he did. (Of course he was 9th overall and 1st in the Juniors category out of a start of 60 adults and 20 Juniors.)
I just recently bought him a Tempest 170 because on paper it should be a faster boat and for about the first 2000 yards he was ahead of me. The boat having a slightly lower hull speed, is still faster as it has a much better glide than the Tsunami 175 so it’s more efficient stroke for stroke.
Since I fit in his boat at the end of our paddle I took it for an early paddle and was easily able to do a 5.72 MPH run that day over a 1/4 mile Edging loop. So it ought to be quite faster in a straight line. That same day I also ran the Tsunami 175 at 5.85mph (Straight line) over 3.11 mile
so at this juncture I’d venture to say the Tempest 170 ought to do (for me at least.) 5.8-5.9 mph. Since I did my blueprint test under same conditions and at the end of 3.11 miles in the tsunami when I was tired.
On a more marathon run, I’m a bit slower the only number I have here are for the Tsunami but based on the data above you can extrapolate.
over 10 mile race (Actual race was 10.3m but I calculated it on 10m) My time was 2hr 1min, 32s. which is about 4mph under less than ideal conditions.
On a 15 mile race (actual race was 15.5m) I ran it in 3hr 30m 1sec. My speed here is a guess as at mile 7.5 i broke my rudder cable and had to stop in NJ and make repairs. I spent about 30 minutes jury rigging some rudder control So my speed here was closer to 5mph.
finally I did a “Just to see if I could” run down the Schuylkill River approximately 33 miles. I did this in 9 hours, Probably some minutes and seconds. This calculates to about 3.6Mph, though I’ll admit I was probably faster as this incurred 3 portages. The first was an Easy one before the low dam there was a Dock I could easily get out on and a paved section where I could put the boat on the trolley and easily walk it below about 200 yards. The next portage was a bit more difficult as there was no easy out before the low dam, so I had to lift the boat up a 10ft incline and then drag it about 100 yards below the dam where I could put in. The last portage was at the Philadelphia waterworks. I had to Park the boat at the fish ladder and climb up a very steep embankment then cart the boat about 100 yards down west river drive, then find a way down to the water by one of the two bridges, luckily no one was in the homeless camp. The down was even tougher, as it was near vertical, I had to slide the boat down hold it in place and then climb down to the boats nose and slide it down again, wash rinse repeat 4 more times. So taking that all into account the Speed there was most likely closer to 4mphbut I’m going with he timed 3.6 I should also note at the first portage I stopped and had a beer with a local fisherman and shit the shit about his fishing spot.
So your Tempest 170 should probably have an all day cruise speed (without portages or screwing about.) of roughly 4.5mph to 4.8mph and a race speed depending on your shape close to 6mph.
I liked the Tempest’s 170 performance so much I went on a unicorn hunt, and Took a ride with @Jyak up to NY where I bought a Tempest 180 Pro to be my Race boat. I’m hoping when I get in race shape that I can push it in the sprints to 6mph or maybe a bit beyond.
So @Onski326 as they say YMMV (Your Mileage might vary.) but you should be able to hit the numbers I get or close to them, Jyak does and his and my paddling techniques are to put it bluntly different.
Also realize I’m an overgrown Sasquatch in my boats. 6’2" 243lb, and I workout when not waylaid by injury, daily on my cardio. 30 Min @4.2 Miles in a rowing machine. and 30 minutes @2.25miles on a Cross Country skiing machine. I can get through 45minutes before falling from aerobic exercise to anaerobic. And every other day I also do Strength training.
It helps with paddling but I’m not doing it necessarily for that reason, Doctor’s orders and all that.
You have the right boat to go faster so, What I would recommend for you is to try several different paddles, to find your most efficient paddle length and blade size for your style of paddling.
My optimal paddle is about 650cm/2 but I don’t have a superlightweight paddle in that size, so I’ve been running a 612cm/sq for all my races not ideal but no one makes a paddle that I’ve found that meet a specification of 26oz or less with a blade size of 650cm/2, which should let me push any of my boats to 6mph.
Hopefully this helps you a bit, now get out there and paddle.
