Origin of KAAMA

[ernie davis]

Okay, I NEED to know.
Was Kaama just the original race team of B. Cooke, or a performance company, or just a really gigantic Scarab (from the dictionary )?
Now have a "KAAMA" model Scarab and want some history.

[ernie davis]

..

[ernie davis]

and more...

[glassdave]

yea Ernie . . .we can do those graphics on the side of yours

[ernie davis]

Okay.....was Larry Smith some how involved with KAAMA.....
Come on guys..... toss the newbe a crum, eh

[Bulldog]

Ernie-
Larry Smith is in California where he designs and builds Scarab boats under the Team Scarab name. He also licensed the SCARAB name to Wellcraft in Florida.

The Team Scarab boats are each unique boats and have TSC as the first characters in the Hull ID number. The Wellcraft built boats are more of a standard production model, and have WEL in the HID.

Betty Cook owned KAAMA, a company that built performance/race boat hardware.

Betty Cook ran a Cigarette named KAAMA for a short time, then Larry Smith built a Scarab for her sometime around 1977. A second boat was built for her which was some 1200 lbs lighter and is built with Kevlar and carbon fiber with epoxy resin- I own this boat.

She raced with John Connor on throttles and won 3 national championships and 2 world championships along with numerous record runs.

There was a Wellcraft model known as the 38 KV, which some say stands for Kevlar- I don't know if they were all built with Kevlar. I seem to remember being told that the KV stood for KAAMA Victory, maybe I am wrong. There was a KAAMA edition 38 KV also, which does sound kind of redundant with the Kaama Victory theory.

A KAAMA is a type of Gazelle/Antelope, also known as a Hartbeast. The KAAMA logo has a gazelle-like head with horns, and a large red heart under the head.

send me your email addy and I will send some pictures.
Good luck with your new boat!

Bulldog aka Ronnie
rcbyrdX@Xbellsouth.net
(Remove the X's- this is intentional to keep invaders out)

[29scarab]

Good info Bulldog! A lot of people won't take the time to post something like that.

Thanks!

[ernie davis]

Wow, thanks for taking the time for the history lesson Bulldog.
That's some great info, not to mention pretty cool knowing where grand dame of offshores ex-race boat is. That's got to be a water born missle .
Uncle Ernie.

[Top Banana]

I happened to have the honor of racing against that boat many times. Betty and John and the various navigators over the years were always the best.

The bottom picture in post #3 was of Betty and me at the start of the Bushmills Irish Whiskey race in Newport Beach California. I won the race and she came in third. The next race in Miami, she won and I came in third.

For the first five races of that year we battled back and forth and were tied for first place points. She eventually won with a cat taking the World Championship in Venice Italy.

Her original Cigarette was a 36 footer that was called Dante's Inferno and raced out of California by Dante Tagnoli.

Her first World championship came at Key West in a very rough race. Betty stayed in the boat, chewing on a towel for about 20 minutes after the race, to stop the bleeding from her mouth.

In those days, Key West meant running all the way out to Dry Tortugas and back. There were many miles when no land at all could be seen in any direction.

Larry Smith was always a great racer, designer and builder.

You have a great model there with a lot of history involving some really good people, enjoy.

[ernie davis]

Thanks for the insight Top Banana. A pleasure to actualy speak (well, electronically at least) with some of the old school royalty.
Do you know if Ms. Cooke still with us and is she still active in the sport?

Ernie