Performance Marine Outboard
 

I recently brought back some of my old offshore magazines and I came across this picture. Unfortunately, the caption wasn't helpful at all to identify boat or crew.
Can anyone shed light on this boat, please?
The photo was in the 1971 season recap.

Thanks
Phil.

That is either Ed Sims or Juan Whatshisname from Nassau. 35' Magnum.

No, it's Sims in a 36' Cig.

Thank you for the info.
I thought it was a Cigarette hull but I wasn't sure if it was a 36' or 32'.
Do you remember this boat racing? Was it competitive in this configuration? And also, do you know what became of it?

Thanks
Phil.

No. All those boats were 'gimmicks' and not competitive. I think they had very short lives as 'six packs'. The 35 Magnum would chine walk, and the outside engines would clear the water. One guy throttled the outside engines, the other throttled the indide four,,,,,,

However it was "Jersey Devil III"(the name is clearly visible on the back side) of Ed Sims and was a proto 34' with outboards, not a 36'.
The only other one Cig 34' ever builded for competitions was the "Tornado" (mustard) of Balestrieri in 1973.
The mould of them was cutted foreward the cockpit of 2'.

I'm not sure but I have the suspect that the Jersey Devil III went in Cote' d'Azur becaming Maxim's.
Maybe Caldente can know something about.

http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/6641/sciglm6.th.jpg

Here the other 34': Tornado(mustard),one of the three boats that Balestrieri drove during the 1973 season. With it the Roman builder won the first race in Argentina beating Tom Gentry's American Eagle and one of the two race between Pescara and Makarska then cancelled to the UIM World Championships.

http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/9...nado80auu4.png

note the point where was shortened the boat from 36'to 34':exactly in front of the windshield.

Ok the outboards are cool but that pic in post #7 has a boat in front of it with the tallest scoops I have EVER seen on an engine hatch. WOW:eek:

Were the Cigarette 38'(?) Est and the Colibri' of the former F1 driver Didier Pironi in the St.Tropez race in 1987.
Can we said that those airscopes were a little bit exhotics....

Maxim's
 

Marco,
I too have thought that there could have been a link between the unidentified (at the time) photo I had and Jacques Mezanotti's Maxim's. After all, there can't have been many 36' Cigarette modified to carry 6 outboard engines. You'll noticed that I am referring to Maxim's being a 36' as this is the length that was always mentioned in conjunction with the boat. Now, the photo I found was from the 1971 season and Mezanotti got his Cigarette hull in 1984, a 13 years void in the boat history (assuming it is the same one). Also, Jacques Mezanotti was notorious for racing on a shoe-string budget so he could have started racing with a 13 year old hull as it would probably be fairly low cost to purchase.
Finally, although the boat was unreliable due to its configuration, Mezanotti replaced his Cigarette hull with an aluminium cat powered this time not by 6 but 7 Mercury outboards(!)

Phil

Yes, probably not the prettiest examples of air scoop. My guess is that they were inspired by the one used by the Ligier F1 team. Pironi had been driving for Ligier before he joined Ferrari and he must have made some contacts while there. Maybe the air scoops were even designed by the same person. As the 38' Cigarette EST was prepared by Pironi's Leader team, I suppose that he equipped it with the same air scoops. Why?, I am not sure. but surely not for pleasing the eye of onlookers.

Phil

The Pironi's teammate was J.C Guenard an ex Formula one mechanics and they put the air scoop to get more air to feed the V12 lambo's engines installed in the cigarette and the Colibri.
The Cigarette hull is now in Switzerland.
Patrick.

Phil,
The suspect in me came some time ago when comparing two images of that boats(Jersey Devil III and Maxim's) I noted that the 34' of Sims had the deck in white and the sides in yellow and Maxim's had the deck in white and under the repainting in white part of the sides there where the same yellow.
It's too much little to affirm that were the same boat but togheter the fact that there were very few Cig. 34' outboards around the world the suspect could be founded.

http://img400.imageshack.us/img400/1...baseasopj4.jpg
image taken from a Mercury outboards brochure of 1972.

Patrick,
I remember well those Ligier F1 when they appeared in 1976.
Very original and beautiful design.
That air-scopes were too big maybe but the performances of the cars immediately impressed. Then those scopes were cut soon because of the change of the rules.
Maybe you are perhaps right saying that the V12s Lambo had to breathe well as the old V12s Matra.
At least it was an attempt.