Fountain Dominates Don Aronow Memorial Ocean Race In The V-bottom Class
Sunny Isles, FL. After ruling offshore powerboat racing’s shorter in-shore courses for the last decade, Fountain Powerboats dominated the Don Aronow Memorial Ocean Race from Haulover Inlet in South Florida to Bimini and back. The 42’ Fountain, Miccosukee Indian Gaming, was the first V-bottom to complete the round trip.
“Don Aronow was a great pioneer in our sport and it was an honor to be the first V-bottom to finish this memorial ocean run,” said Fountain Powerboats CEO Reggie Fountain. “We have proven once again that on rough water or smooth, in kilo runs or endurance events, Fountain Powerboats are the fastest, best handling boats on the water.”
What made the accomplishment more amazing was that the team of owner/driver Brett Furshman and throttleman Billy Glick did it with less than half the power of the other V-bottoms in the race. The Miccosukee boat was powered by stock Mercury HP525 EFIs with Dry Sump Six drives. The 47’ OuterLimits, XXX, was powered by twin Mercury Racing HP 1075 SCi engines with Dry Sump Six Drives and left ahead of Miccosukee Indian Gaming in the staggered start format. The 45’ Cigarette Maximus, which was powered by twin 1,000-hp Zul Racing engines, started right behind Miccosukee Indian Gaming. In the end both the Outerlimits and Cigarette finished behind the Fountain.
A total of 23 boats started the event and boats left in 30-second intervals, which prevented crowding. Furshman, who is used to racing deck-to-deck in the Offshore Super Series’ tighter closed courses, said it was unusual to be competing without other boats around him, but added that there were still hazards. “It was really calm and we were running almost wide open, but you need to stay alert because you’ll hit a wake left by a freighter that’s a mile away,” he said. “We even hit a submarine wake.”
Still, nothing could stop the 42’ Fountain which ran flawlessly. As the XXX team ran all over the course on the way back to Haulover Inlet, Furshman stayed on course and passed the bigger more powerful boat to claim bragging rights as the first V-bottom to finish. In the OSS race on Sunday, the team added another win in the OSS Vee class, proving that whether you want to race across the ocean or in a closed course, Fountains dominate the world!
