Some background info. The race was held each year at the Four Ambassadors Hotel in Miami. The bridge across to the island was the dry pits and the island was the location for the crane for launching.
Some people that can be sen in the video walking around the hotel docks and pool area are: Larry Smith of Scarab fame, Betty Cook and John Connor, Gene Whipp, Bernie Little, Carl Kiekhaefer, Joel Halpern, Sandy Satullo and many others.
Remember that Joey was only a few weeks healed from the rollover that he did in St Pete. You can see the bandage on his wrist as he prepares for the start. Preston Henn in the Bertram actually finished first but was penalized for rounding a checkpoint on the wrong side, so this gave Joey the win.
The Bertrams are a raceboat that modern day fans have seldom seen. They only had a 20 degree V and that made them much faster in calm waters. Natural Light, Flap Jack, Benihana and Copper Kettle are all Bertrams.....by the way, our famous Mel Riggs is seen in Copper Kettle as the throttleman for Arnold Glass from Australia.
Remember also that this was an era that many, if not all, of the helicopter pilots were just returning from Vietnam....so they thought nothing of flying very close formation with each other and very low on the deck......sometimes you would feel that they were in the boat with you.
As you could tell the entry to the ocean out of Government Cut was often very rough even if the ocean was calm....the production boat crewman that was ejected was being protected by the helicopter so that the open boats would not run over him as they came out the cut. I can remember seeing the chopper and not realizing why it was just staying there until we got closer.
Great to see the old films, but also sad to see so many people who are no longer with us, Betty, Howard, Joel, Gene, Bernie, Carl, and others.
We have some stills of this race on our website
www.historicraceboats.com
VIP Member
Gold Member
