PJRIZ

Hi Breitanbach:
Yes, thankyou: that does clear it up - It is very believable that those running Aronow, not Don, built you the first race boat out of the mold when finally finished - and that it was not built strong enough for racing by those guys makes sense.
Thanks for clearing it up.
All the best,
PJ

Breitenbach

Cougarman:

I honestly don't remember the name from Gentry Turbos. But I will never forget the engines they built--smooth as silk and great torque.

MikeyFIN

Great Appetizer...when are we going to get served the first main dish, My appetite did get turned on !?
And A Big Welcome to Al B. Great Stories from the West Coast scene.

GoCiggie31

Welcome Al,

Great stuff and I am thirsty for more info as well being an offshore fan in the early days out here on the west coast.

GC

Dude! Sweet!

Hey that's a great story!

I'm a west coast guy and I love hearing the Pacific racing stories.

I've recently discovered something pretty interesting about a few big name west coast guys (Teauge, Pfaff and maybe Nordskog)... As I understand it, they were all LA City Firemen at one time or another.

Thanks for sharing and keep it coming!

littlenige

More stories please!

Breitenbach

More about the west coast, and particularly the important role that Bob Nordskog played in getting the offshore races going.

Some history is again pertinent because the boat racing on the west coast developed much differently then what we read about in the east and south east. We were car crazy and into drag racing in the late 40's and early 50's. And also water skiing. So it was natural that we started drag racing boats and water ski racing. This was in the days of the 19 ft Racing Chris Craft and the Higgins. The only offshore race that I remember in those days was the water ski race to Avalon, Catalina and return. All other racing was on bays, lakes and rivers.

Then came the first fast flat bottoms. I remember Lou Brummett and his first wooden flat bottom with a world war 2 tank engine. With the availability of fibre glass, the flat bottom racing grew. In the drags, the Hondo boat 007 was nearly unbeatable, and the SK, SS, GN and K circle race classes were growing. Many of the race boats were also
multi purpose in that they would drag race, circle race and ski race. Of course the goal of a ski racing boat is to put out a flat table-like wake at high speed(ie no holes to trip up your skier), which means lots of horse power and your plates down so the nose of the boat plows. So these were not the lightest boats built. The geographic area where this was occurring was primarily california, arizona and nevada. Also, marathon racing of these boats was becoming more popular--remember the Salton Sea 500 and the Parker Enduro. The more famous boat builders of the day included Hondo, Sanger, Beismeyer, Raycon Craft and more. This growth continued through the 1970's.

The popular boat racing magazine during this period was Power Boat, published by Bob Nordskog in southern california. He also was an active racer. He became interested in offshore racing during this latter period, but there wasn't any circuit in offshore california. I believe it was about 1980 when the growth of Pacific Offshore Powerboat Racing Association (POPRA) became a priority for Bob. Bob had one of the only deep V offshore race boats so to get things started he advertised "run what you brung". And the early races had some interesting entries--many out of the GN and water ski racing classes, including us. We could use the same boat, with some fairly simple mechanical and seating changes, for water ski circle racing, water ski marathon racing, marathon racing and now offshore racing.

Power Boat magazine covered all of our offshore races with good writeups and this helped build the interest in this type of racing. The used boat advertising started including more offshore boats so within about 5 years there were many more true offshore race boats showing up to race.

So I believe Bob Nordskog should be given credit for starting and nurturing offshore racing in California. It would be very interesting to get the Teague brothers comments about the period because they prepared all of Bob's boats and raced with him.

One part of west coast offshore racing during the period was the fact that our last race of the year, plus our speed trials, were at Lake Mead, Nevada, outside of Las Vegas. Because of the wind chop and wakes, it was always the roughest race for the smaller boats, but it did clean out the salt. You would be on a plane on top of the chop at over 90 mph and have a hay stack appear and hit it before you could turn. One year we were high point in our class entering the race and had another boat in our class disintegrate in front of us just after the start. We stopped and picked up the driver and crew and took them over to the ambulance boat and returned to the finish line to watch the end of the race. The officials came over and asked if we wanted to restart after our class finished the first lap of the two lap race. We said sure and were lucky enough to be able to win and keep our position. In our class alone, two boats were sunk and lost, two boats dropped out with large holes in their side, and nearly every boat had major damage. After just one lap, our boat was split along the transom and had other major damage.

I'm probably boring you so I will sign off and enjoy our snow here in Vail.

Deauville Trophy

Absolutely not.
Very interresting account of the development of the Offshore scene on the West Coast. It is fascinating to compare the differences between the two sides of the US.
A question though, weren't there a race in Long Beach in the 60's already?

Awaiting the next instalment.
Phil.

Breitenbach

Deauville Trophy:

I believe you are right. I remember hearing about offshore races being held. But not regular or frequently. There was no circuit with a regular schedule like the east and south east. Our race boats of that time did not fit any of their offshore classes so we were not involved. In our classes we could race nearly every weekend somewhere in the area.

Nordskog's effort to attract the local racers by offering "run what you brung" I believe was the major impetus to get racers thinking about offshore racing. It is important to note that the "unusual" boats that began to race offshore were truly race boats with first class equipment, but they had been designed and built for a different venue.

We had a lot of fun racing offshore during this period.

MikeyFIN

What was the main differences then?
Engines, drives or what ?

Hmmm, this is truly interesting!