What does a "real boat race" look like?
 

While this is a bit biased toward OMC....you should still get the idea.

If you are looking for a standard to measure your sanctioning body or event against.............these races should fit your need.

Those of you who know Fred Hauenstein from Mercury Racing may enjoy the footage of him from 40 years ago at 10:29 on the video.

http://www.screamandfly.com/showthre...Racing-History

Nice attendance,wish we had that many now

yessir, and most races had only 2 classes.......no more than 4.

great footage, 90 laps would certainly separate the men from the boys in a 22 footer. Thanks for posting the link. What hull and power today would closest fit a class like that?

If you can dwell on the past so can I........St Pete 1999 turn 1 in Factory 1 or Factory 2....that was real powerboat racing! ps....you were there too!

Most of the hulls were under 20 feet...the singles were 16 to 18 footers. Closest thing today would be a GN inboard flatbottom. They still run endurance races but no where near as long in miles. Today's Champ boats came directly from the single engine outboard tunnel boats shown.

$50k purse...not bad!

I am not dwelling on the past...I am merely pointing out what is blatantly possible...and what the future could be. There really are people who didn't back down from close racing and received no automatic trophy for simply showing up....and showing off.

P.S...... I was also at many of the races shown in the video link.

A real race boat looks like this. Small, agile, fast.

We had the Champ Boats here in Toledo about ten years ago. Quite possibly the biggest crowd i have seen on our river front . Our riverfront and entertainment district lends itself well to that type of event. I had a great time watching them run right down our seawall about twenty feet away from the VIP sections.

Did I see a race boat running twin Force 125s????!!!!!!

Wow. That is definitely a first for me.

I think it can be done again today. That 50K purse in 1969 is worth a little over $289,314.44 today. With that kind of $$ being available in this economy a lot of racers with these smaller boats would show up.

Figure one could build a new SST120 boat today for under $25K ready to race for that purse $$

No, those were Chryslers....the brand that bought out West Bend....and then sold to Force. They were a big in line 4 that a handful of guys were able to pull speed out of. They were rarely competitive with the Merc's or OMC's except on the drag racing circuit where they apparently could be configured with a lot of torque......

T2x

I know it looked to early to be a Force, but color and graphic looked like a Force engine cover in the .05 second clip of the boat running by.

I am familiar with them. The very first boat that introduced me to boating was an '85 (a-hem) Bayliner Capri with a 125 Force. At a green 12 years old and into my teen years, I put that motor thru hell and back. Dad bought it new and was in the family until 2000.

Had no idea guys actually raced 'em.

They actually made a tunnel boat version from the factory with twin open exhaust pipes coming straight back out of the powerhead and a funky, speedmaster type lower unit.

Must you???????????????:drink:

:evilb:

What the heck

Good points..... I have said repeatedly that until Champ Boat catches on with the public...Offshore racing hasn't got a chance. Champ Boat is struggling to stay afloat....so do the math.

Back then race boats were probably worth "$5-10,000" so the purse was approximately 5 to 10 times the value of a single boat. Today in offshore the purses are 10% of the value of a single boat (if there is a purse). Part of it is the extreme escalation in hardware costs..... and part of it is the lack of sponsorship...and sponsor interest. This is a real chicken-egg thing. Which came first...the reduction in competition and fleet size....or the reduction in sponsorship and specatator/media interest? The funny thing is I have no doubt that a race with the fleet size and racing action shown in this video would draw crowds, media and sposnsorship...... but how do we get there? The Blue Water Casino 300 runs each October at Parker AZ. This race was huge back in the 60's, 70's and early 80's when it was run as the Parker 9 Hour Enduro. A few West Coast guys resurrected it in 2005 as a strict non capsule event with some speed limiting, and it has climbed back up to about 50 boats under 22 feet or so. This may be a great platform to build on....

There is real appeal in endurance racing, and it makes for great "reality" TV, with pit stops, overnight rebuilds of hulls and engines, etc. It also was a proven format that didn't depend on artificial speed limits to create actual bow to bow racing.

Something to think about.

The endurance racing in the UK is taking off with Round Britain 2008 a big success, a big race planned with US participants in Cowes this year for the 50th anniversary www.cowes2010.co.uk and more Round Britain races planned for 2011 and 2012. www.rb12.com