History of the sport

[Top Banana]

I attended a poker run last weekend and met some young people who are all excited about getting into the world of offshore. They purchased a good starting boat and they had a great time.

At the lunch stop I asked them if they knew anything about the history of the boat they were in, the designer, the races it had won, the famous drivers who drove for that team. When I started mentioning some of the old names, I was met with a blank stare....nobody registered, they had no knowledge of any of the history of the boats or the people.

So before it is all lost, maybe we can make this section on Serious Offshore, the place to come to for some basic info. I invite any of the old timers to chime in here and make any additions or corrections they see fit. Memory is like a race engine, it is a wonderful thing when you have it all tuned up and it is running correctly.

 

[Ratickle]

And do it in different threads with a key name. Like if you guys want to discuss the race of ? first. Give it that name and go for it, then on to the next one. Your stories, first hand accounts, are very interesting to the rest of us.

And all of us want to help in any way we can with what you are doing with HORBA to preserve boats and memories..

 

[Top Banana]

BETTY COOK We can start with ladies first. Betty was living the California life in the 70's when her husband, Paul, decided that he wanted to take a look at offshore racing. He purchased a catamaran from Maurey Fortney that was called ZIPPE'. He painted it and changed the name to KUDU.

Betty wanted to go along to the races and be a little more involved, so they bought an old 32 foot Bertram race boat and converted it so it could be used as a support boat or utility boat for the race committees. Paul also hired Don Pruett (The giant Texan was the riding mechanic on Vincenzo Baelstrieri's Magnum when it sank in Cowes in the 60's and a racer in his own right with great skills) to teach Betty the handling skills she would need to run the Bertram.

Betty started riding along in the Cat and soon decided that she would like to try her hand at some racing alone with the Bertram, now named MONGOOSE. She won her first race in the early 70's and just a couple years later, with John Conners as her throttleman, was World Champion in Key West in 1977.

Here are some shots of Betty in the early days. By the Way....MONGOOSE is sitting in a field in California right now, waiting for someone to rescue it and bring it back to it's former glory.

 

[Top Banana]

After the Bertram, Betty decided that she wanted something a little more competitive, so the Cook's bought the old 36 foot race boat DANTE'S INFERNO. Back then the number that the boat was registered with stayed with the boat, so Dante Tognoli had #89 and that is what Betty stayed with for her next couple of boats.

That first 36 foot Cigarette started as DANTE'S INFERNO and then went to Betty who named it KAAMA. It was then sold to Eddie Trotta who named it OSMOSIS.

 

[Top Banana]

RENE & GALE JACOBY Betty wasn't the first woman to compete in the sport. The Jacoby's started back in the 60's. They were a mother a daughter team, sponsored by Harry, and usually drove Prowler boats.....very fast boats in their day.

Because of the extra press they could generate, they were drafted to compete in the Bahamas 500 race with a houseboat. The houseboat was made by Thunderbird. That was the company that bought the first boat company from Don Aronow, Formula. They became Formula Thunderbird and were at that time owned by Merrick Lewis. The company is now owned by the Porter family. I think it took them 22 hours to finish with the houseboat..

 

[cosmic12]

Please, don't stop now.........

 

[Top Banana]

MERRICK LEWIS as mentioned above, owned Thunderbird boat co and had Dick Genth running it for him. He also owned a company that was building boats out of aluminum at the time called Maritime.

Here are some shots of the aluminum offshore racers of the day and in one of the photos you can see someone who knew when the leading edge was being pushed and wanted to make sure that he was right there, so he wouldn't get left behind.......in the first photo, in the cockpit with a hat on and his arms folded is..... Carl Kiekhaefer.

The bottom photo, boat #250, is a smaller version of the boats above and was probably set up for European racing. Usually anytime the boats had a three digit number for a race number, it was for international events, like Cowes.

 

[Top Banana]

JOHN CROUSE Yup, John was an offshore racer at one point in his career and even was on the winning boat for a Miami Nassau race.

John was a cub reporter at a Miami newspaper and was assigned to cover the race. He shows up at the dock and Sam Griffith tells him to jump aboard he is riding with him. John has a portable typewriter and a blue suede jacket.

The race starts and as they clear Government Cut, the weather looks really nasty, pouring rain and the seas are building 6 to 8 feet. As soon as they are in the ocean and clear of land, Sam reaches up and pulls the wires out of the VHF radio. John asks why he did that and Sam replies...."So, they can't call us back because they think the weather is too bad."

When they get to Bimini, Sam pulls up to a dock and some natives roll a 55 gallon drum of fuel on board....no tie downs, no extra lines to hold it. As they are pulling out of the harbor, Sam turns to John and says .."When we get low on fuel, take that hand pump there and hook up the hose and just fill up the regular tank from that drum...until then make sure it doesn't fly overboard.."

They pulled into Nassau...they won, but John had turned purple...the blue suede jacket had colored his skin from the rain and spray as they ran. He said most of the color was gone within a couple of weeks.....but he stayed away from the beach until the final remnants were gone.

Photos are of John in his prime, the boat he and Sam shared that stormy day and John at home a few months ago.

 

[Top Banana]

WILLIAM HENRY FAUBER

Who?? Well if we are going to be talking about the history of the sport, the least we can do is give credit to the man that actually had the first patent on .....THE STEP.

This patent was taken out in 1908 for a series of steps all equal in power on a dead straight line.

 

[Top Banana]

CARL KIEKHAEFER

What more can be said about this man? Any form of competition that he decided to pursue, he excelled. We all know about his success in boat racing , but he also dominated NASCAR in the 50's with his Chrysler team.

From Mercury to Kiekhaefer AreoMarine. If you didn't have one of his engines, you were just going for a ride not a win.

 

[Big Time]

So that is how the name "k-planes" came about....

Good content! Thanks!

 

[Top Banana]

So that is how the name "k-planes" came about....

Good content! Thanks!

And notice also the K 600 drive for high performance engines.....that is the daddy of the # 6 Mercruiser drive we all run today.

Fred Kiekhaefer was Carl's son, below, and worked with him in the development of some of these drives and tabs etc. Fred is with Mercury today having sold Kiekhaefer Aeromarine to them after Carl's death.

Some of the development of the Champion Maker engines was done by Richie Powers. They were so dedicated to getting as much HP as possible out of their testing they worked right until Christmas Eve....then Carl told Richie he could go home (Florida) for Christmas.

 

[NNRT]

Don't stop now Charlie - keep it going - !

Phil

 

[gofish7070]

Wonderfull info Charlie,,,,,,,, Was the turbine boat you showed with Carl K. Repainted yellow and manned by Odell, ( I think renamed Mona Lou) or was that another boat?????????

 

[Top Banana]

Wonderfull info Charlie,,,,,,,, Was the turbine boat you showed with Carl K. Repainted yellow and manned by Odell, ( I think renamed Mona Lou) or was that another boat?????????

Yes, you are correct..... here it is when Odell was driving it for Mr K.

 

[Top Banana]

A deck.... is a deck.... is a deck. The development of some boats happened so fast that the tooling couldn't keep up. For instance, when the 38.6 foot Cigarette was developed by Jerry Jacoby as AJAC HAWK, he blocked the 39 foot mold and pulled his 37.6 hull out of the mold.

For a deck, he simply had Don lay up a standard 36 foot race deck, as seen on Yellowdrama # 9 below and then cut off the extra side walkways. They aren't needed on an 8 foot wide boat vs a 9' 6" inch wide boat.

When the boat was made into a production model, later known as the Top Gun, the same deck just had a mold made from it and retained the same flat deck look with a narrow walkway on the sides.

 

[Top Banana]

There may be some out there that do not know about the book that John Crouse wrote about the sport. It is called SEARACE and is over 600 pages long and weighs over 6 lbs.

The book has been out of print since 1989 and HORBA has agreed to help John Crouse sell the remaining new copies still in existence at the 1989 price of $69.....compared to some recent copies that sold on e-bay for over $300.

The book is brand new, still as packaged from the publisher. It is sealed in plastic and shipped in a cardboard shipping carton. It may be ordered on the HORBA website from the online store.

www.historicraceboats.com

 

[TEAMBAJA]

Keep going Charlie! Best thread Ive read in a long time!atriot:

 

[Top Banana]

The British are coming.....only this time they made a positive effect on our sport !!

For those who think that Cougar only made cats.....here is a sample of some of their deep V offerings.

 

[THUNDERBOLT]

Charlie
where are you getting all these old photo's from/ some of these never seen before in GB and not in Searace!..keep them coming..
Tell all the guys over there that 2010 is a must in Cowes 50th Anniversary of Cowes Torquay, So sad all the great names now passed on ! but Bounty Hunter is over here for this years race!!

Regards

Mike
THUNDERBOLT
1st Winner CT 1961