Thanks to a cottage industry of boating schools that has sprung up in recent years, the do-it-yourself method of learning to drive a high-performance boat is no longer necessary. Boat owners now thankfully have someone who can personally teach them to drive that new stepped V-bottom or catamaran.

Builders such as Nor-Tech Hi-Performance Boats, Sunsation Powerboats and Outerlimits Powerboats wisely include a class with Tres Martin's Performance Boat School when you buy a boat from them.

While sitting in a classroom and spending a few hours running a boat with an instructor is invaluable, the greatest lesson comes from time spent behind the wheel.

With builders being proactive by putting their customers through driving schools, the industry should benefit in the long run. And if boaters save a few bucks on their marine insurance policies and potentially reduce the number of accidents, everyone wins.

By my count, there are at least three individuals who are offering driving schools to performance-boat owners. I'm surprised there aren't more schools, considering the number of questions we get each month on how to drive a boat. When we do our annual reader survey, one request that turns up frequently is how to run boats.

We often shied away from stories about driving boats because what applies to one model may not apply to the next. Lowering the tabs in one stepped-bottom boat to stop a slight porpoise is an ideal solution but it could make the problem even worse in another boat.

But the more we thought about it, the more we realized that readers are hungry for credible driving tips. That's why we enlisted our experts, Bob Teague and John Tomlinson, to help write a monthly column on running high-performance boats.

Having ridden alongside the pair during hundreds of boat tests, it's a pleasure to watch them ply their craft. During a day of testing, Teague and Tomlinson can go from running a 55-mph runabout to getting behind the wheel of a 120-mph offshore catamaran.

Despite the contrast in boats, both testers run each craft with the same intensity. That's what makes Teague and Tomlinson ideal to answer your questions about driving. Between them, there probably isn't a model on the high-performance side they haven't driven.

The first question you'll see in this month's News & Notes section deals with how to turn a stepped-bottom boat. It seems like a basic question but there is some crucial information, especially if you've only driven a conventional V-bottom.

What we hope to provide are general concepts that can be applied to your boat. Just like anything in life, there won't be a one-size-fits-all solution to a question. Varying bottom designs and different setups change the handling characteristics from boat to boat. That's also one of the reasons why Teague makes it a point to inspect the running surface of a boat before he drives it. Teague is looking for any design quirk that could potentially affect the boat's handling, especially when it is put through aggressive turns.

Obviously you can read books, take classes and even talk to friends with similar boats about how to drive them. But when it comes to boating, there's no substitute for time spent behind the wheel. I often dread seeing the cliché quote from offshore racers saying that, "Seat time made all the difference," but whether it's in a race boat or a pleasure boat, it's a good point.

Use the tools such as educational seminars and the new driving column to improve your skills. After all, performance boating is about having fun and being safe.