Commentary: Ripples from Key West
 

After a week of thinking about it, writing and rewriting it, http://speedonthewater.com/commentar...-key-west.html.

Well said Matt. As for me I would be very comfortable in a big V that ran 70-80.

Very well versed my friend!!!

I agree, the events of the last few weeks have changed my perspective of offshore racing. However, do the elite high performance pleasure boat owners push the boat hard in the similar conditions to Key West this year? I would think conditions would need to be ideal to really push the boat hard.

rEven in ideal conditions, 150 mph, not a huge number these days, is 220 feet per second. That makes "reaction" time little more than wishful thinking. Mechanical issue. Something in the water. The risk remains, and it remains huge.

+1

YES! My perspective changed after our roll over in KW a few years back. Our crash was in slow motion and non dramatic to me, but the reaction of others to it really made me stop and think and reflect on what is really important to me.

We've had other tragedies in the offshore world .... the accident at Smoke on the Water, the accident at Patchogue, the accident at Cumberland ...... Maybe there was too much distance between them to make the impact on offshore that the deaths in KW have made but the impact of those accidents were felt by their families and friends... by their fellow racers and poker runners. No one is exempt. Experience or no experience.....

"But if three racers perished with “protective” canopies over their heads, what chance do people have in open-cockpit high-performance pleasure boats running similar or greater speeds in the same kind of catastrophic event? None. And we all know it. And if we don’t know it we’re stupid. Or ignorant. Or both."

Safe & Sane??
 

Matt:

I have to agree here also. although we all love the thrill of speed to a point, there comes a place and time where the "need for speed" is outweighed by the "need to live!"
I raced smaller boats in my early years and I have been tossed out at over 100mph twice and luckily both times I escaped serious inury and "walked away." I think the sobering thing about the tragic events of Key West races this month is that a lot of racers and performance boaters can now better relate to how easily the ever increasing speeds can turn on the boat in an instant and end in a disaster for the racers or occupants! I know some will tyr and make the analogy that its just racing. I understand that thought and "BugBite" , had it a long time in my life also. We must also remember that in professional "buck" racing with its income, sponsorship and career endeavors the psort becomes more of a job. In our sports "gentlemans" racing with not real careers, big earnings and huge public following like Nascar, Indy, Formula 1. Is it worth ending your life for or seriously injuring yourself for. I think NO! Lets take the time to learn from the accidents and losses, design and mandate better safety features and systems and lets cap the speeds to a more resonable level and make sure race organizers and bodies mare carefully evaluate course conditions and delay or call races when conditons are known to be on the edge of safety.

Best Regards,
Ray @ Raylar

I watched that video a few times & it's hard to read the water but it really did'nt look that choppy or rough, I also thought the same thing about loto until I got out there, boy did my tabs & passengers get a workout! I commented on a thread a while ago about just how fast is 180mph, & as I said then at those kind of speeds there is no time to react. With that said I would like to wish that all racers from all sports who lost their lives R I P & my condolences to all the families. Randy

Bobby Saccenti called me last week when he got home from being in Key West. We spoke about this awful tragedy for quite a while and came up with some old guy answers.

1.) The boats are too fast and the courses are too short.
2.) Get back to long legs and real ocean racing, min 150 mile races.
3.) Simplify the classes...3 maybe 5 if needed.
4.) Have just one big boat class....max 45 feet or so.
5.) One engine spec. Big block, one carb, log exhaust
6.) Max of 4 blades on the props.
7.) Offshore version of a silhouette NASCAR car. Hulls and decks identical, available to everyone to be rigged.
With these restricted engines speeds for the single engine boats would be approx 65 MPH and the twin engine boats in the 90 MPH range. Average speeds for the big boats over 150 miles of real ocean would be in the 70 mile range

Jersey speed skiffs, SK boats, Unlimited hydros are all very exciting, but they stayed as they were raced 10 years or 20 years ago. Leave the real offshore racing alone and call this harbor and beach stuff by another name.