Greetings to the 70's gang

[Mr. Toad]

Hi,

I'm Bill Vogel Jr. I raced offshore from 1969 (Bushmills - Long Beach to Ensenada) to 1981 (Key West Worlds).

I just found this forum. I had no idea there was such a strong contemporary interest in Offshore Racing from those years. Your posts bring back a lot of memories! It appears that there are still some of you I raced with active on this forum, and it would be great to hear from you - please reply here or PM me!

I'm only beginning to go through the many pages here, so I apologize if I should have posted this somewhere else.

Here's a photo I thought you'd enjoy seeing from the Benihana Grand Prix West in San Francisco in 1978.
The water was rough that year, and on the way out to the Farallons we broke the boat down the side and across the bottom to the keel. I think I have a picture of the damage, somewhere... This was the only race I navigated for Rocky; actually it was half a race as I got hurt in the impact and jumped out at the Farallons checkpoint.

Bill Vogel, Rocky Aoki, and Errol Lanier before the 1978 San Francisco race

[boatme]

ahhhh very cool and welcome to our nightmare

[fastdonzi]

Errol Gets on here every now and then.

[marylandmark]

Check this out as well:

HORBA

http://www.historicraceboats.com/

[Black Tornado]

Welcome aboard Bill!!!
It is a honor to have you with us.
Here you can find old guys as Richie Powers as 7xchamp, Allan Brown as Brownie, Charlie Mccarthy as Top Banana, Steve Sirois as Seeroy etc.
Can you tell us your history in offshore?
I hope that you will put also some photos.
Marco

[Chris Sunkin]

Originally Posted by Black Tornado

Here you can find old guys as Richie Powers as 7xchamp, Allan Brown as Brownie, Charlie Mccarthy as Top Banana, Steve Sirois as Seeroy etc.

Those guys are all "elsewhere" now. We all are.

[Black Tornado]

Originally Posted by Chris Sunkin

Those guys are all "elsewhere" now. We all are.

Yes!
Maybe he will find them somethimes....

[robwkamm]

welcome. cant waite to see more pics.

[boatme]

Bill many hang on another site called seriousoffshore.com as well as this site. Both sites have great info from the past

[JO - PANTERABOATS]

Originally Posted by Black Tornado

Welcome aboard Bill!!!
It is a honor to have you with us.
Here you can find old guys as Richie Powers as 7xchamp, Allan Brown as Brownie, Charlie Mccarthy as Top Banana, Steve Sirois as Seeroy etc.
Can you tell us your history in offshore?
I hope that you will put also some photos.
Marco

I am not as big a celebrity as some of the above mentioned ICONS, but I also visit here once in a while!
I raced in the 70's 80's 90's and the new millenium, maybe that will qualify me as an old timer!
Later,
Pepe Nunez @ www.panteraboats.com