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Miami-New York Race 85
- Thread starter chewiekw
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T2x
Icon/Charter Member
We have the race on video tape......
Sean Stinson
Founding Member/Contributor
Let me see if I can get this right $100k nentry fee winner take all
Kramer/Saccenti - Apache
Copeland - Popeyes
Morales - Maggies Mercruiser Special
Gentry - Gentry Eagle
I am drawing a blank but kind of want to say the other Morales boat
Kramer/Saccenti - Apache
Copeland - Popeyes
Morales - Maggies Mercruiser Special
Gentry - Gentry Eagle
I am drawing a blank but kind of want to say the other Morales boat
Steve 1
Contributor
The Morales 4 Motor Cat finished 58 Minutes ahead of his old Boat The triple engine Vee that he sold Copeland..
Too understand this one has to realise Big Al was Georges Bridesmaid all year Maybe the Sanitaria Mojo works with the ribbons he wore and all
And If I heard the story correct that 4 Motor Cat used 1 Quart of Oil that was it for maintenance!
BTW the Weather down here at the Start was calm, as I have ever seen it Errie Calm
Too understand this one has to realise Big Al was Georges Bridesmaid all year Maybe the Sanitaria Mojo works with the ribbons he wore and all
And If I heard the story correct that 4 Motor Cat used 1 Quart of Oil that was it for maintenance!
BTW the Weather down here at the Start was calm, as I have ever seen it Errie Calm
T2x
Icon/Charter Member
Yes...April 1 it is........ Price $49.95 each
The thing about that race is all of the interviews...They were lengthy and thorough. The actual race footage is basically Copeland's boat off of Atlantic City..... Morales cat had already gone past.
The logistics were amazing..
T2x
I was the head preparer for Morales's effort. We probably spent more time on seating, wind deflectors, and the radar arch than the rest of the teams spent on the whole race. George was extremely anal, and perfect wasn't quite good enough. We did the testing at 85mph, which was to be the race speed where possible, and at 85mph, there was no wind in the cockpit. We built special seating, etc. We brought George's Huey down from Connecticut. I got fired from the team after 'the big race' from Sarasota to St. Pete and back. Of the 5 boats, only the two Cougars got out of Florida.
I was with Gentry, and there is a long story about our effort in that race, with the new 46` Scarab and the final power selected for the run, which turned out to be our down fall, after months of exhausting testing, working out etc.
The story that comes to my mind: We were all at the Biscayne Bay Marriott Marina, prpeping to go for a midnight start, I was on our boat with Don Johnson and Phillip Michael Thomas who were hanging with us, doing interviews TV etc. Lots of excitment. We all were waiting for Morales to show up and check in so we could get going. When he finally roared in to the docks, we all noticed he had painted on both sides of the boat in big letters
WINNER MIAMI NEW YORK RACE Talk about MOJO. The water was so flat we could see our reflection in the water as we were running, plus we had a full moon. Conditions could have never been better for the run, everything was in Morales favor, and it worked out for him. Made for a big payday for the winning crew, as only first counted, second was the first looser. I always wanted another shot at it, still not to late, we should put it together again???????????
Ryan Beckley
Charter Member / Competitor
Wasn't there also another entry, "Harley Superstar" or something like that?
Miami Herald
July 30, 1985
BREAKDOWNS HIT MIAMI-N.Y. BOAT RACE COPPER KETTLE GETS LATE START
ERIC SHARP - Herald Boating Writer
The Miami to New York powerboat race got off in a wave of ineptitude Monday night with a starting gun that refused to fire and two of the five entrants breaking down on the way to the starting line in the competition for the $500,000 first prize. By midnight, all but Team Apache's entry were roaring north with dreams of breaking the most durable record in powerboat racing.
The Gentry Eagle, a 46-foot, tripled-engined Scarab deep- vee driven by Tom Gentry of Honolulu, was the first boat to reach the starting line, but not until 2 minutes 10 seconds after the official starting flare had been fired at 45 seconds after 9:01 p.m.
Gentry did a quick circle of the start boat to make sure he was identified in the dark waters around the Miami Sea Buoy about two miles off Government Cut, then headed north for the finish line under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in New York Harbor, 1,257 miles away.
Al Copeland of Metairie, La., came roaring up in Popeye's, his 46-foot Cougar deep-vee, as Gentry was completing his turn. But instead of starting, Copeland stopped and sat dead in the water for two minutes 48 seconds before he apparently realized that the race was underway.
Next to show up, about eight minutes after the official start, was George Morales of Fort Lauderdale in the 46-foot Maggie's MerCruiser Special, a four-engine boat that is the only catamaran in the race. Morales, with potentially the fastest and least-reliable boat, began to use his superior speed in the flat waters just offshore and within 20 miles had closed half the distance on the leader.
Sandy Satullo of Hillsboro Beach, at 61 the oldest competitor, did not start until 11:55 p.m. -- nearly three hours after the first boats -- in his 44-foot, triple-diesel Tempest called Copper Kettle. Satullo said that after preparations were completed a couple of hours before the race, owner Dick Simon "took it for a joyride" to test it and blew an oil cooler. Satullo was the only skipper who had his boat ready for the original starting date of July 28, and when the race was delayed a month to allow the others to complete their craft, he replaced his engines with a more powerful but less-tested set.
The boat that was the favorite of many, the 47-foot Apache with three diesel engines driven by Ben Kramer of Hollywood, suffered the indignity of blowing an engine in Government Cut about a mile short of the starting line. While Kramer said. "We're out. That's it until next year," because repairing the boat would take at least six hours, throttleman Bob Saccenti said that the team would begin repairs and start the race if Popeye's and Gentry suffered any mechanical trouble in the first few hours.
Dozens of pleasure boats bobbed on the flat waters around the starting line but there was little for them to see. The weather report called for seas less than four feet up the entire Eastern seaboard, and a nearly full moon made it fairly easy for the drivers and throttlemen to watch the seas ahead as the big boats roared off at speeds between 70 and 80 miles per hour for their first fuel stops. Gentry and Copeland planned to refuel at Daytona Beach and Beaufort, N.C. Morales planned to refuel from a ship 40 miles off Jacksonville and a helicopter off New Jersey.
Each crew put up $112,000 to enter the event. After expenses were subtracted, a purse of $500,000 was put up for the first boat to complete the course, with a maximum time limit of 48 hours. Each boat was also getting an individual start time, no matter how long after the official start they set out,
because they are also competing for the Chapman trophy for the fastest time from Miami to New York. The record of 22 hours 41 minutes 15 seconds was set 11 years ago by Miami Beach eye surgeon Bob Magoon. And even if a boat doesn't win the $500,000, it can still win the Chapman trophy if it beats Magoon's time.
Starting the race turned into a comedy of errors. It wasn't until after they reached the starting line, in a 46-foot Scarab deep-vee driven by Miami Vice television star Don Johnson with his TV partner, Philip Michael Thomas, along for the ride, that the race committee realized they had no way to identify the starters in the dark and no provision had been made for the boats to identify themselves.
July 30, 1985
BREAKDOWNS HIT MIAMI-N.Y. BOAT RACE COPPER KETTLE GETS LATE START
ERIC SHARP - Herald Boating Writer
The Miami to New York powerboat race got off in a wave of ineptitude Monday night with a starting gun that refused to fire and two of the five entrants breaking down on the way to the starting line in the competition for the $500,000 first prize. By midnight, all but Team Apache's entry were roaring north with dreams of breaking the most durable record in powerboat racing.
The Gentry Eagle, a 46-foot, tripled-engined Scarab deep- vee driven by Tom Gentry of Honolulu, was the first boat to reach the starting line, but not until 2 minutes 10 seconds after the official starting flare had been fired at 45 seconds after 9:01 p.m.
Gentry did a quick circle of the start boat to make sure he was identified in the dark waters around the Miami Sea Buoy about two miles off Government Cut, then headed north for the finish line under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in New York Harbor, 1,257 miles away.
Al Copeland of Metairie, La., came roaring up in Popeye's, his 46-foot Cougar deep-vee, as Gentry was completing his turn. But instead of starting, Copeland stopped and sat dead in the water for two minutes 48 seconds before he apparently realized that the race was underway.
Next to show up, about eight minutes after the official start, was George Morales of Fort Lauderdale in the 46-foot Maggie's MerCruiser Special, a four-engine boat that is the only catamaran in the race. Morales, with potentially the fastest and least-reliable boat, began to use his superior speed in the flat waters just offshore and within 20 miles had closed half the distance on the leader.
Sandy Satullo of Hillsboro Beach, at 61 the oldest competitor, did not start until 11:55 p.m. -- nearly three hours after the first boats -- in his 44-foot, triple-diesel Tempest called Copper Kettle. Satullo said that after preparations were completed a couple of hours before the race, owner Dick Simon "took it for a joyride" to test it and blew an oil cooler. Satullo was the only skipper who had his boat ready for the original starting date of July 28, and when the race was delayed a month to allow the others to complete their craft, he replaced his engines with a more powerful but less-tested set.
The boat that was the favorite of many, the 47-foot Apache with three diesel engines driven by Ben Kramer of Hollywood, suffered the indignity of blowing an engine in Government Cut about a mile short of the starting line. While Kramer said. "We're out. That's it until next year," because repairing the boat would take at least six hours, throttleman Bob Saccenti said that the team would begin repairs and start the race if Popeye's and Gentry suffered any mechanical trouble in the first few hours.
Dozens of pleasure boats bobbed on the flat waters around the starting line but there was little for them to see. The weather report called for seas less than four feet up the entire Eastern seaboard, and a nearly full moon made it fairly easy for the drivers and throttlemen to watch the seas ahead as the big boats roared off at speeds between 70 and 80 miles per hour for their first fuel stops. Gentry and Copeland planned to refuel at Daytona Beach and Beaufort, N.C. Morales planned to refuel from a ship 40 miles off Jacksonville and a helicopter off New Jersey.
Each crew put up $112,000 to enter the event. After expenses were subtracted, a purse of $500,000 was put up for the first boat to complete the course, with a maximum time limit of 48 hours. Each boat was also getting an individual start time, no matter how long after the official start they set out,
because they are also competing for the Chapman trophy for the fastest time from Miami to New York. The record of 22 hours 41 minutes 15 seconds was set 11 years ago by Miami Beach eye surgeon Bob Magoon. And even if a boat doesn't win the $500,000, it can still win the Chapman trophy if it beats Magoon's time.
Starting the race turned into a comedy of errors. It wasn't until after they reached the starting line, in a 46-foot Scarab deep-vee driven by Miami Vice television star Don Johnson with his TV partner, Philip Michael Thomas, along for the ride, that the race committee realized they had no way to identify the starters in the dark and no provision had been made for the boats to identify themselves.
T2x
Icon/Charter Member
Sean Stinson
Founding Member/Contributor
Sandy was it ......the reason I thought of Morales was that both of his boats were in it the cat and his old vee....
Sean Stinson
Founding Member/Contributor
Check your PM Box Mr Brown
T2x
Icon/Charter Member
It was well before they lengthened the 41...... The hull they used was pulled from a big Magnum mold that Apache had back then.
T2x
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