Hi Mike: when I was racing with Carlo Bonomi in the early seventies, we used to headquarter in Cowes at the Groves and Gutteridge yard. That`s where I met Sonny Levi and his beautiful daughter. He was building his boats in the same building where I mantained the race boats, as you say he is a great guy, very personable and brilliant. I think it`s interesting this thread about first offshore boats. I think John Crouse pretty much covered it in the Searace book. I started in 1968 with mercury factory sponsored Seacraft 21` with twin 110hp outboards, I ran that boat in the original Bahamas 500 which was 548 statute miles with one stop for refuel. Out of 75 staters we finished 8th overall and first outboard to finish, over 13 hours .
Nice to hear from a Brit in the forums. I won Cowes Torquay Cowes 3 out of 5 times entered, It`s the Indy 500, and Lemans all in one. Best Regards Richie Powers 7XCHAMP

Quote:

Originally Posted by THUNDERBOLT TS

...tell me are you a fan of Levi ?


Regards
Mike
THUNDERBOLT
1ST Winner Cowes Torquay 1961

I'm a fan of Barbarina ,especially with her four Lamborghini engines ,hehe.
Friend of mine is a builder and he talked about Levi , that's how I got to know the name.
My friend's boat's designs were inspired by Italian naval architecture like Sonny' and Riva's .
Here's the link for my friend's boats and history www.kazulinboats.com .

Kazulin 24

I´d say the first real offshore boat would be the OHEKA II built in 1927.


although this one was built a year before and is lying at my garage...

Spectra

Your friends produce some very fine looking boats, what do you own?
Have you seen Sonny Levi's book Dhows to Delta's absolutely crammed full of his designs and history.

As you have seen had great reply from Richie Powers..it is amazing how the web breaks down distances..have you looked at our site recently is now back with new articles.

www.classicoffshore.com

x5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8tQP3s9DIQ

Sweet Video. I assume that is Mr. Sutphen SR.?

Checkout this site. http://www.herreshoff.org/hmm/index.html
Can't find pics but I have been to the museum and seen them there. Offshore powerboats dating back in the 1800s

Forgot to add that the designer, Herreshoff was blind and still built boats. Most of the designs he came up with are the basis of designs today.

Would be smoked by a Huckins PT boat ... probably even a Huckins cruiser of the same era

OHEKA is a good suggestion, but I think the British Turbina goes back farther and was faster

Elco, as well a British Power Boat hulls had a nasty habit of breaking their backs, not really surprising as Elcos were British Power boats in drag, and they weren't as bad as Higgins boats in rough water.
I also agree that the Huckins boats were superior as they were designed by Dr. Lindsay Lord PhD N.A. Lord's book "Naval Archetecture of Planing Hulls" was a true sea change in power boat hull design. Ray Hunt clearly gave Lord's "Monohedron" hull credit for inspiration for his additional step to a 24* deadrise hull he developed in the mid '50's.
But the clear rough water winner of WW II PT boats was the German Shnell boats that could maintain 40+ knots in very rough water, but it took 7,500 HP and round bilges to do it.