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Hotdog Speedboats Article

Hot Dog Speedboat debuts at A.C. show
By RAY SCHWEIBERT For The Press
Published: Sunday, February 5, 2006
Updated: Sunday, February 5, 2006

ATLANTIC CITY-The five-day Atlantic City International Powerboat Show, an event averaging about 50,000 visitors annually, wraps up its 27th year today at the Convention Center from 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

The spotlight of this year's show is the Boats of Bond Exhibit - five watercraft used in James Bond films spanning four decades.

The show also includes more than 700 new powerboats on display up to 65 feet, a 90,000-square-foot Marine Marketplace of services and accessories, and seminars on boating and fishing.

Among the more unique watercraft to debut at this year's show is the Hot Dog Speedboat - a miniature racing replica marketed out of Hammonton by business partners Dan Dillon and Bob Vesper.

The two-seater crafts are powered by small outboard motors (up to 25 HP), but are light and sleek and capable of hitting speeds of 40 mph.

"We originally built them for ourselves, and people started chasing us around asking, 'Where did you get that?' We'd like to buy one,' so we started building them on a small scale and selling them," Vesper said. "We just started three months ago and really had to rush just to get two finished in time for this show."

Vesper has been racing boats for about 20 years and met Dillon on the racing circuit.

A Somers Point resident, Vesper started racing professionally about a year ago and is the wheelman and co-owner (with Patty Raffa) of Team Warpaint, a 40-foot, twin-hulled Apache Cat speedboat that placed third in the World Championship Offshore Powerboat races last November in Key West, Fla.

Dillon and Vesper worked with various Hot Dog prototypes for two years before settling on a design that mimicked many larger racing boats.

The 13-foot, two-seater Hot Dogs can be custom painted and personalized, or sold as they come from their assembly plant in northern New Jersey. Depending on options, such as trailers and engines, the Hot Dogs are priced between $6,000 and $10,000.

"We wanted to keep the price range comparable to Jet Skis, and kind of make this an alternative to that style watercraft," Vesper said.

"They'd seem to make a nice alternative for a couple who would rather be able to sit side-by-side and talk rather than be seated front and back."

Complete with engine, Hot Dogs only weigh about 500 pounds and will fit on a Jet Ski or Waverunner trailer. See

www.hotdogspeedboats.com.

A growing trend in powerboating has been jet-propulsion engines on larger watercraft.

The technology has been around a while (using the same principle found in hot tubs), but was primarily limited to personal watercraft such as Jet Skis and Waverunners.

Now jet propulsion is found on boats up to 23 feet in length, with one of the design forerunners being the Sugar Sand boat company of North Dakota. The 23-foot Sugar Sand Oasis uses a 250-horsepower Mercury OptiMax outboard encased in the stern and employing jet propulsion rather than a propellor.

"Unlike an outboard that's tilted into the water, or the driveshaft of an I/O (inboard/outboard) that juts below the hull, (jet propulsion) is flush with the bottom and allows for less drag, better gas mileage, and better thrust," said Udo Koch, owner of Tide's End Marina in Forked River.

The Atlantic City International Power Boat Show will be open today from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Tickets are $15 for adults, $8 for youths ages 13-15, and free for children 12 and under accompanied by an adult.
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