Top Banana

That is a great reason to race. He was tough, fast and best of all he was smart...he knew when to push and when to just get through until conditions improved. Good guy!

PARADOX

Off the theme for a min. Mr. Banana! Wasn't Beep - Beep a "Banana" hull also?

TeamSaris

Our throttleman was Keith's shop manager, working with guys like Herb Stotler and Mike Bonga. He rigged our cobra at Harbor 1 when it was new, 30 years later it's come back home!

Top Banana

Peter. It started out with Sonny Miller designing a 44 foot boat with an additional bottom strake and a very narrow entry. The first boat was called La Tortuga and was raced by Sonny Miller, Bob Saccenti and Jon Varese...it was called a MSV. They won the first Benihana race and people started to notice the boat.

Joel Halpern ordered a blocked off version of one that he could call a Cobra brand and. named it Beep Beep. They blocked it down to 38 feet and he began winning races and ordered a few more from Sonny. JC Simon got involved because he helped Halpern get into racing with a smaller production class boat. Joel was US 1 for two years with that setup. I asked JC Simon to design a new boat for me and leave off the bottom strake but keep the narrow bow.

He did and we shared that mold for both 38 footers as Bananas and Coyotes and then blocked the mold down 4 feet and he sold 34 Coyotes and I sold 33 Foot Bananas from the same block. So your Avanti is probably a 34 footer even though they sold it as a 34. You have the same bottom as my Banana and the Coyote, with a new design Avanti deck. Confused yet? Long story short....it is a very good ocean racing design and well proven.

Top Banana

Hey don't give too much info away, you will scare off your competition for the Around Long Island race. You guys will do very well. Now we need to get Sheer to put on a lifejacket again and paint anumber on one of those mahogany beauties.

TeamSaris

I bet we can do it, he's still as competitive as ever

Top Banana

I know everyone is in Key West that might have these numbers, but......... what are the entry fees that the other racing organizations charging now?

Someone asked earlier about required safety equipment for this race.....Helmets, lifejackets, kill switches, gallon of water for each person on board, sea anchor, tow lines, anchor and 150 feet of line, as far as radios, in the age of cell phones and considering the course, cell phones will probably be allowed instaed of VHF like the old days.

Safety is a very important factor and we will provide each entry with all contact info for help we will have setup all around the island and comoass,headings to get into harbors, etc. The closer we get the more of,this info will be available.

TeamSaris

For OPA we pay a yearly registration fee, and no entry fees. All the required safety equipment is similar to what you're used too. VHF's included.

hogie roll

I'm currently looking for a $190k sponsor. Gulf oil ideally.

http://www.offshoreonly.com/classifi...o59622-en.html

PARADOX

Mr. Banana. I suggest you guys put together ASAP, a leaflet or some advertisement of a sort, that we can put on other places, like FB, other forums etc. to get the word out. Even if it's just a simple thing for now. (IE; I have a bunch of FB friends from Europe, and they don't frequent OSO)
P