Speeds from Offshore Racers in the '60's and '70's
 

This is a question for all the Legacy racers out there.

What speeds were achieved and or maintained in the offshore races in the '60's and '70's?

In the stock classes, what speeds were the Formula's, Cigarette's , Magnums, Carreras,etc running?

I remember reading a statement by Don Arronow once where he said that many talk about their factory boats that will break 60 MPH yet there are only a few that actually will.

Here is my speed chart from the 1976 Michigan APBA Charleys Crab race. APBA had a speed run the day before before the offshore race on Lake Huron, here are the speeds of the boats..

Man them Mirages were fast :cool:

Great Stuff...thanks.

well in the late 60''s thunderbird 28 ft twin daytona turbo 427 chevys pushed us to just under 70 mph, but we could not run their very long. I was in that boat 1966, europe. thundebird race team in the 70's mercury engines and drives took over. we then could be pushed well over 70 mph and the engines were staying together.I was in the boats 36 cig race team 4 years.I worked a total of 8 years for Don on various projects. sonny miller

Sony...what drives were you running in those days...TR's or Volvo's?

in the mid 60's at thunderbird we were running struts, outboard rudders and casale v drives set with 10 % overdrive gears and daytona marine engines, so was don on his early projects. Look on history of offshore power boats site and look at #50 or #250 you will see our running gear.I am in the boat. crew merrick lewis, buck carlton and sonny miller off the coast of north miami 1967. volvo drives on the small formula jr. and donzi's with holman moodys ford engines. sonny miller thanks for the interest.

The Mirage guys were using a local engine guy to massage their motors.....I'm not sure what he was doing, but he never popped up in offshore again...somebody said he moved on to auto racing.

I think his name was Jack Roush....anybody know what happened to him?

Good old Jack. Yep...he's done quite well for himself and has had a bit of luck...especially the day that retired Marine pulled him out of his experimental aircraft at the bottom of a lake in Alabama...but that's another story.

So there was a transition period from straight inboards and v-drives to stern-drives sometime in the late '60's ~ early '70's.

As in auto racing, the recreational boating crowd (all of us) are benefiting from the things you guys learned slamming yourselves and your equipment all over the ocean. It looks like 60~70 mph was near the top of the hill at that time. What were some of the most significant changes you have seen over the past 30 years to the sport?

The cruising speeds that top of the line off shore factory boats achieve these days were top speeds guys like you were finishing races with...amazing how far the technology has evolved. At the end of the day I guess the limit is how much punishment the human body can take. We can make the equipment stronger but we are at the limit as to what we as men can tolerate. I think making it safer and more comfortable is always a goal.