Steve, You have made me feel 10 feet tall, indeed I am a blessed man! When you have a strong family unit you can face anything, as I have. I have had the fortune of having the best son and daughter a dad could hope for, and on top of that I have a wife that makes me so very proud, for it is her that that has made my life, the best life a man could hope for!!! Yes I am a lucky guy!!! You are correct: GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Pepe Pantera.

Pepe and Jo, I always have had the upmost respect for your boat's, and now that I have learned through this board a little about your Family and that your a Family owned business (Much like my own) I have even more!!

I hope to own one of your boat's one of these day's!!

I was at the Miami Boat Show and drove by the shop, now I wish I would have stopped by, Next time I will!!

Fred (not too old) Was your boat the "Ice, Ice Baby" Boat? Or did it just have the same color interior?

This is a pic. of the first canopied race boat ever built.I have another pic.of this 28 on the first page of this thread.

It had sitdown Recaro seats with shock absorbers,air oxygen tanks,and 5 point harness belts.

We began work on this concept in 1984 and showed up at the Miami race in 1985.APBA told us it was to far ahead of its time and needed time to consider it.

A few months later a few Superboats began using the concept.

JO

And we have a start!! Going out the cut at the Miami race in 79.

This pic. was taken at a race either in Ft. Myers or Sarasota.

It has my Father in the background in the black boat with another Pantera 28 called boats unlimited and the Seahawk of Willy Falcon and Sal Magluta and a 30 foot Sutphen called Magic Gems.


JO

This is a pic. of a 1977 24 Pantera powered with twin 6 cylinders and Alpha 1 drives.This boat is still located here in Miami and seen quite often with original gelcoat colors.

JO

This pic . was taken at Lake X in 1978.If you look closely you will see my fathers 24 way in the background having R and D work done on the first 2.4 Mercs. built before doing the record run.

Betty Cookes 38 Scarab is also pictured. ( Kaama ).

My Father entered a few races that year before the record run was made and the motors would not last at any race he went to.


Since My father was not to confident the motors would last on a 1300 mile trip to New York they ate all the food they had with them before they arrived in West Palm Beach 2 hours North of Miami.:D

The motors survived the trip and had a powerhead let go a few miles away from New York City.:rolleyes:

JO

This is how the Pantera race team got started in 1975.

This pic. was taken here at a Miami race in 1977.The Pantera team is getting ready to go and race to Bimini and back.

Jo

This picture has My Father giving me some input on how to throttle a boat.:) I was 6 years old at the time.

Now I give my Father some input on driving the boat sometime when we race together.:D :p

JO