New York Speed Festival coming this September.

[Top Banana]

The Around Long Island race has been expanded into the New York Speed Festival.

The weekend of September 21, 22 and 23rd. We will still have the Don Aronow Memorial Around Long Island race at 271 miles but we are also adding a shorter 100 mile race that will just go to Orient Point. That means both groups of boats will start at the same time, the 271 mile group will continue past Orient Point and Montauk and finish back at Port Washington. The shorter race group will finish at Orient Point and take their boats out there.

The longer race is Don Aronow Memorial Around Long Island race at 271 miles
The smaller race will be called the Bill Wishnick Memorial Trophy Dash. at 100 miles

Also planned is an Hall of Fame induction ceremony for some of the original NPBA poker runners, that started their poker running careers back when Billy Frenz first started his organization.

A auto show is also planned, more like a concours with exotic cars.

Entry fees for the Don Aronow ace is $600 until the end of March

Entry fees for the Bill Wishnick race is $300 until the end of March

More info on NPBA's website under the Don Aronow Around Long Island Marathon Sept 22, 2012.

 

[Ratickle]

For those of you who may not be familiar with Bill Wishnick, he was the World Offshore Champion in 1971. This was back in the days when there was truly a world champion, you had to go race all over the world. I'm sure Charlie can tell you all of the races he won that year, but I'll relay one of my favorite things I ever read about him. Which, maybe Charlie or Rich can expound upon....

Bill passed away in 2010. Everyone of the guys that ran with him had incredibly good stuff to chat about of their days racing with him, against him, or for him.....

RIP, and it is cool there is a race in his honor now.....


Thanks Billy and Charlie


Excerpts from Sports Illustrated, 1965 (Old, huh???)

A fleet of 22 of the world's fastest ocean racers, paced by the favorite—Dick Bertram's brand-new Brave Moppie, a sleek 36-footer powered by two 550-hp Detroit (formerly GM) diesels—set out on the 145-mile round trip to Cat Cay in the Bahamas and back. But only half of them returned to cross the finish line. Bertram's boat blew a gasket before he even reached the first checkpoint off Fort Lauderdale. Two other boats sank, a third lost her engine, a fourth had to be beached and a fifth simply got lost.

After finding it necessary to toss his wounded brother overboard, a rank amateur named Bill Wishnick, who had never skippered an ocean race before, roared home to a new record in less than half the time it took defending champion Dick Bertram to win the same race last year. In doing so Wishnick, the 40-year-old board chairman of a chemical-manufacturing firm, not only knocked Bertram's Moppie out of the race but out of the leadership in offshore racing, which Bertram's boats have enjoyed for a decade. The new name in offshore powerboat racing is Donzi.

Donzi Marine is not, as many might suppose, the name of a firm of Italian speed merchants like Ferrari. It represents the combined talents of two American marine enthusiasts from Miami: Designer Jim Wynne, one of the boat world's newest geniuses of the slide rule, and Boatbuilder Don Aronow. Their joint venture got its name when the two launched their first delicately sculptured, deep-V-bottomed boat, and Aronow mourned in mock despair: "Well, I suppose everybody will recognize it as a Wynne design." "But that's not fair, Donsy, baby," cooed a sympathetic secretary who had suffered through the construction with both of them. "Your name should be on it, too." So Donsy Baby became Donzi Marine, and Donzi Marine, from its first near win in the Miami- Key West race last November with bearded Jim Wynne at the helm, became the talk of the powerboat world.

There were five Donzi boats entered in the Sam Griffith, a race named—ironically enough—for the tough old mariner who drove Bertram's Moppies to everlasting fame. Of the five, one finished first, one third, one fourth, one sixth and one 10th. Early in the race, when the Donzis were forging ahead and a black cloud of smoke rose from Bertram's blown gasket, another driver was heard to observe: "That's not motor trouble. That's just Bertram fuming."

The 28-foot Donzi Broad Jumper, driven by Bill Wishnick with his brother Jack, Dave Wilson and Donzi Sales Manager Allan Brown as crew, was such a recent acquisition that Wishnick scarcely had time to paint its new name on the stern before heading out. The craft, powered by twin 550-hp diesels, was in 13th place as the boats left Government Cut, well behind a low-flying 23-foot Formula named Holocaust, powered by twin 400-hp Daytonas. As the fleet headed out of the cut and northward into the slop of the broad Atlantic, most of the smaller boats began to slow down, while the bigger ones began moving up. At the first checkpoint, just south of Fort Lauderdale, Broad Jumper had moved up to second place, behind Holocaust and ahead of a big 36-footer named Kamikaze. "Then we pulled away from Holocaust," said Brown, who did most of the driving. By that time Kamikaze, driven by tough Jack Manson—who has heart trouble and ulcers and recently injured his shoulder playing jai alai at the age of 51—was the only threat. "Every time it would get rough," said Brown, "we could see the smoke and spray of Manson's boat behind us. Other times we were completely out of sight of everybody."

Most of the veterans agreed that the sea was pretty calm by Sam Griffith standards, but tyro Wishnick felt otherwise. "Far as I was concerned," he said later, "it was rough as hell. But we had no problems. The engines never coughed once."

By the second checkpoint, which was the yacht Mar Lyn anchored off Bimini, Broad Jumper had comfortably increased her lead. But just then a huge wave caught her bow and slammed Jack Wish-nick against an engine mount. Jack was plainly in need of medical attention but, rather than louse up his brother's chances in the race, he went overboard to swim to a committee boat. "We peeled off and boomed Jack out of the boat while still going about 25," said Helmsman Brown later. "The last we saw of him he was swimming on his back."

Jack made it to the committee boat, which sent for the Coast Guard, which ordered a helicopter, which flew him to Mt. Sinai Hospital, where they took an X ray and pronounced him not seriously injured. Others, meanwhile, had fared worse. For the second year in a row, the famed daughter-and-mother team of Gail and Rene Jacoby had hard luck. They had to run their 31-foot Prowler, Miss Amazon, onto the beach, after a dragging line yanked an entire propeller shaft out of the boat. Some 12 miles out from Bimini, the 31-foot Bertram Rum Runner, owned by Ogden M. (Dinny) Phipps, opened up and began to sink so fast that her three crewmen never even had a chance to call for help. Safe on two life rafts, they were spotted and picked up by a big yacht that had lost its way. Two Coast Guard planes—both in search of that yacht—had flown over them without even noticing.

Another lost soul, Harold Ungerleider, a Miami Beach lawyer with a weakness for the sea, was spotted by the Coast Guard off Great Isaac Light in the Bahamas, miles away from the race course, after his compass went on the bum. Despite his mishap, Ungerleider insisted when he got ashore that ocean powerboat racing is the best of all sports. So, in one phrase or another, did all the others in the Griffith, particularly if they were riding in Donzis.


Tossed your brother overboard???????


And "Donsy Baby" are the reasons I remember this and keep it in my fun stuff......


And another article about that race in 1965.....


http://www.powerboatarchive.co.uk/Magazines/1960s/1965 SAM GRIFFITH MEMORIAL (2).pdf


And Brownie kicked him off the boat at 30mph??????


Enjoy.....

 

[Top Banana]

Bill Wishnick was a really, really good guy. If you did not know the inside story, you would never know how rich he really was. I think he was the sport's first official billionaire.

As he would put it, he owned a company that owned a bunch of other companies and they all kind of grew together. For those of us that are old enough to remember the early days of drag racing, Don Garlits himself was sponsored by an oil company by the name of Kendall. That oil company was one of those companies that Bill's holding company...Witco Chemical owned. If you look on the sides of the early offshore race boats, you will see Amalie Oil stickers and bilge pumps by Crowell stickers...yup, just a couple more companies that Witco owned. And both of those companies paid real money to you, if you won or placed on the podium. Another way Bill quietly supported the sport he loved.

Before he died, he and I were speaking about HORBA and what we hoped some day could be a museum for the offshore racing world. He offered all of his trophies from his various wins around the world. I thanked him and said we would be very pleased to accept them on behalf of the sport. A few weeks later about 18 large crates arrived and my son accepted them from the delivery man. We really had no place to put them, so I told him to move them into the garage for the time being, until we moved further on our idea of a museum.

Months go by and one day when my son was up visiting me, he opened up some of the crates. "Dad, you better come out here and look at Bill's trophies." my son said with a great deal of emotion in his voice. I went into the garage and looked at one of the most beautiful trophies I had ever seen.....and then I remembered!!!! When we raced all over the world, the foreign locales tried to out do each other with great trophies and many of them were sterling silver.......real sterling silver, not just plated. So needless to say we moved them all out of the garage into a more secure location... behind a gate and locks and keys. Just a small example of his generosity for the sport he loved.

Another quick note....in the previous story about his first win, please notice that Brownie was listed as "Helmsman". He actually drove and throttled the boat, while Bill, as the owner, got the credit for the win. That was the norm back then, until the guys started to get to know these boats and what they could do and then they drove them on their own. Bill was the first guy to use a "Throttleman" the famous Bobby Moore.

 

[Ratickle]

From the story link above:

Has Brownie ever said if it's true?????


Here we found Jack and Bill Wishnick's "Broad Jumper" had
won having averaged 44 m.p.h. Jack Wishnick had cracked a rib
off Bimini and was in such pain he could not continue and
offered to leave the boat.

However, I am sure he was not prepared
for the way it was to happen.

Having got up on to-the gunwale ready to get off at Cat C-ay, Allen Brown who was
driving, put a foot behind him at about 30 m.p.h. and he was
last seen doin; a back stroke to the Mark Boat. A helicopter
took him from there to the Miami Hospital.

Grim humour-a cable awaited him saying,
"Why didn't you walk on the rocks like I did", signed Moses.

 

[TURBO JET]

In the Don Aronow race around LI how much gas did the winner last year use and did he have to make any stops. Thanks

 

[Top Banana]

In the Don Aronow race around LI how much gas did the winner last year use and did he have to make any stops. Thanks

In last years race the winner did not have to stop. In addition to the stock fuel tanks. he also installed extra fuel capacity. Total gallons used I do not know.

The year before, 2010, the winner stopped and refueled on the south side of the island at Shinnecock. He started with stock tanks full and ran an extra 50 gallon tank in the cabin. He burned off the extra 50 gallons before Orient Pt and then switched to the stock tanks. At Shinnecock, he added to his stock tanks and was able to finish with that amount. The first 50 gal were burned off in 50 minutes.

The Bill Wishnick race is 100 miles and we feel a lot of boats are capable of going that far with stock tanks.

 

[Ratickle]

And Charlie really loved the gas fumes. That probably caused them to use a few extra gallons just to turn him green.....:sifone:

 

[TURBO JET]

Thanks Is there any chance they could move this to a time of year when the water is a little rough?

 

[Ratickle]

The finishing percentage the last two years has not been very good......



You want it rougher than that?????



Or you mean you want it during the time of year it may be less rough?

 

[TURBO JET]

Is there any video of the race? I might be wrong but was thinking that the rougher the water it would make the playing field more even for the older boats as compared to the newer boats with steps. What speeds did they run last year in the ocean?

 

[extras]

Paul are you coming to the race?

 

[Ratickle]

That's a really good question. Maybe we can discuss it in Biloxi??????

 

[extras]

Working on it

 

[Ratickle]

Rooting for you to make it....


What about the IMCO boat? Frank still helping on that?????


Frank??? Any chance????

 

[XtremeRacing]

The ImCO boat is getting ready for primer this weekend. Tail pipe should be back from Stanless Marine end of next week. Right now it looks like Cocoa is a challenge....

 

[Ratickle]

The ImCO boat is getting ready for primer this weekend. Tail pipe should be back from Stanless Marine end of next week. Right now it looks like Cocoa is a challenge....

Compared to Simmons project it should be a cake walk......

 

[XtremeRacing]

For sure I dont have a clue from the pics how Jim palns on being ready in 2-3 wks. I guess if you work fully time with a big enough crew its posible . But you still have testing and set up, my hat is off to him if he pulls it off .....Awesome job Jim and crew.

 

[sea2jet]

Is the 100 mile race in LI sound or the south shore?

 

[Ratickle]

Is the 100 mile race in LI sound or the south shore?

The 100 miler would be in Long Island Sound. I hope this is clear enough, I'll work on a new one as I get time.

If you follow the course, it is clockwise starting just northeast of New York City I believe.

Orient Point Lighthouse is at almost the most northern point where it says 85.9 I believe,.

 

[sea2jet]

Thanks, I'm thinking of entering our old race boat Tsunami, a 34 foot Sutphen. Being new to this, what kind of preparation do the racers do to prepare for the event? Just wondering if we would tow down to the start or boat down from the CT river, fuel and depend on Boat US if we have a mechanical.