Betty Cook, 1977 SI Profile
 

This was my first exposure to Offshore. 1977, looking through Sports Illustrated in a doctor's waiting room. I was obsessed from the instant I read the article. I had grown up with boats but never had been exposed to anything like this. It's been downhill ever since ;)

I finally found this old copy of SI from a magazine collector/broker.

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...489/Betty1.jpg

http://i38.photobucket.com/albums/e1...489/Betty2.jpg

That was a cool read, thanks for posting it.:cool:

Betty Cook & John Connor+ a Formula boat = good company .


Here's another shot of # 89 Excalibur boat . Looks like John walking on the deck of the Scarab in Chris' post , covering his mustache , hehe.

http://www3.telus.net/spectrasonly/E...ur%20racer.jpg

That was a good article! I only heard of her because of Lucididee's website.

Very Cool!!
Thanks for posting that Chris.

Neat neat neat!!! Very cool! Thanks :cool:

That brings back some memories. I remember hearing and reading some article in a magazine at my next door neighbor's house about Betty Cook and her boat "KAAMA" back in the 1970's when I was a kid in highschool. Perhaps that was the article...can't really remember. Used to see Betty Cook race her boat during the offshore boat races in Saugatuck, Michigan in the early 80's.

It's hard to imagine....the article mentions offshore racing engines were priced at about $6000 during the 70's. Not sure again, but I think it was during that time I also remember seeing pictures and reading about Merc's offshore racing engine back then---482cid with the old Kinsler (or Hilborn) fuel injection with uneven velocity stacks that made something like 680hp.

I thought KAAMA was a Scarab not an Excalibur?
 

Absolutely awesome.

I went to Costa Mesa the other day when I was in America for a few days and checked out her old factory which is now Anchor Marine.

When I was a kid my dad built boats and there was this engineering factory with a big poster of KAAMA coming off a wave like a rocket launching.

Its always made me want an offshore race boat...infact a scarab, until I found out about cigarettes :ernaehrung004:

I thought her boat was a Scarab, however the add says Excalibur?

Wow great article! Thanks!

Yep. They called it the 482FI. Replaced a little later with the 500EFI @750 HP

to the top for crew chief nick B.

LMFAO.... One Offshore Legend posting an article about another Offshore Legend!!! :cool: :D

Its kinda of ironic that the open class winner averaged 69.9 mph. Today's smallest OPA class is 70 mph bracket-and alot of the fleet breaks out.

OldSchool, thank you for the laugh ! Take that DART out of you neck it's killing ME pooor ol Chris. ttt for New screen name on OSO to be "nickotine" a young lad that just can not get enough of this stufff ! bye bye

Well the courses were a whole lot different....so even today they would be quite there.. just look at Cowes-Torquay-Cowest avarage speeds even today.

Cant wait to get that boat in the water again!

If I respond to this as I should I sound old and living in the past so instead I'll agree...

"Yea, those boats were slow and those drivers if they had to race like we do today in the river they would get dizzy loose sight of the GPS screen and have to give up!"

You know I'm only busting you but it's amazing how times change that people think Miami-Binimi-Miami is an "offshore" race. Yes, it's cool but - it's not even half the distance of an old class 1 event.

Its all good Habana, I guess we can credit Rocky Aoki for bringing the race courses close to shore, a stipualtion he mandated for Benihana to sponsor the most successfull race in history.
Truth be told, if it wasn't for boats like Kamma, Bounty Hunter, Benihana, Long Shot, and Beep Beep, I would probably be involved in another sport. Some of best memories I have as a kid were meeting these racer. I also "blame" these racers for my addiction to this "nonsense". :ernaehrung004:
38Vice, do you own the Kamma boat?

It's the Only event where they lose sight of Land or go in water more than 50' deep :)

Now that's funny!

Finally made the name...very cool article. I know "KAAMA" was a scarab but im not sure of the size. 38'?

The Benihana GP did have a offshore legs along with the coast runs , We ran south east from the Manasquan inlet in 1976 and later years they ran north east to the "BA" marker. I would have to find my old race charts to know the offshore distances.

Thank you
Jim

Kaama
 

Ya buddy ck. the article tis a 38, actual I belive it was 37' 10" and may have been a Larry Smith, maybe one of the experts will chime in and straighten things out. Sort of like a 38 Top Gun actually measures out @ 37' 6" - :cool:

DamMagnum-I just checked my old race Programs.
1976 the Open class raced 200 miles, the Production class' 119 miles. There was three offshore legs.
1977 the Open class raced 177.8 miles, Production class' 99.7 miles. There were two offshore legs.
1978 the Open class raced 178.2 miles, the Production class' ran 107.8 miles. NO offshore legs.
1979 the Open class raced 178.2 miles, the Production class' ran 107.8 No offshore legs (same course as previous year)

I think in 1982 they ran to the "BA" marker and then headed south east to the old Long Branch fishing pier and then down along the coast back to Point.
long time ago
Thank you
Jim

1980s to 85s it was manasquan inlet to seaside heights(youd turn at the ferris wheel) and in the fog one year us, seahawk and shear terror( took the entire modified class) got lost and when we saw commercial airplanes comming out of new york we knew something was wrong, some of us ran out of gas shear would later say "id pay a 100 bucks for 1 gallon of gas"

Iron, I remember that year-the Coast Guard on Fire Island was getting calls asking where is the race? What boat were you racing?

Ironhead was in this Active cat from 1981 to 84. :party-smiley-004: Before that he raced the Magnum Charge It

Rumor had it back then, that the late Lew Cooper made the trip to Fire island lost.
Some when they did reach the BA marker just went due West and than ran down the coast rather then try and find the Long Branch Fishing pier.

Thank you
jim

Kaama was a 38 flat deck Scarab.

B-4 Kaama Betty raced a 31 bertram Mongoose.