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Outerlimits Working Hard On New Speed Record The Facts

EAST BAY NEWSPAPERS RHODE ISLAND

Outerlimits' latest aims for world speed mark
Like Bill Belichik in his sweatshirt, the gray, unadorned powerboat launched last week in Bristol Harbor is all business. The hot name and flashy graphics will come later. First this latest Outerlimits racing boat must earn its colors. It will do that, the Bristol company says, by setting a world speed record.

Outerlimits won't rest, says sales manager Paul Fiore, until they have wrested the twin-engine vee-hull speed record back from arch rivals Fountain Powerboats of North Carolina.

"It has been a back and forth thing for awhile. We set the record, they break it, we get it back. It's our turn now," Mr. Fiore said. The Outerlimits staff think they have the boat to do it in the gray missile that ventured out onto Narragansett Bay from Bristol with a roar last Wednesday morning, accompanied by chase boat and film crew.

This was just a test spin, one of many needed to get boat, engine and driver tuned for the real thing.

"We're getting closer but we're not quite ready to go yet," Mr. Fiore said last week. A few more test runs and trips back to the shop for adjustments remain.

When all involved believe the boat is ready to churn out the necessary, 180-plus miles per hour over a measured course, the actual record run will be attempted — but it might not take place on Narragansett Bay. While lack of boat traffic is attractive, weather conditions at this time of year are seldom ideal for record attempts. It's usually too windy and, worse, there is ice. Hit an ice floe at that speed, even a small one, "and that's really not a good thing," Mr. Fiore said.

An ideal day would feature flat seas, little or no wind, no boat traffic — and not the slightest possibility of ice.

Their mission is to regain the record set by the 47-foot Outerlimits speedster that pegged the record at 161 m.p.h. awhile back. That was before a Fountain boat ratcheted the record up to 177 m.p.h. The goal now is to surpass the 180 m.p.h. barrier.

Like Triple X, the new boat is 47 feet long and is powered by twin 1,900 horsepower Paul Pfaff racing engines built in California. A pair of six-blade forged stainless steel props provide the propulsion, and fuel is either very high 116 octane racing fuel — car fuel is about 87 to 93 octane — or alcohol.

Hull construction is of carbon fiber and epoxy.

The difference this time, at least the only one the company wants to talk much about yet, is that this boat weighs about 1,000 pounds less than Triple X.

An Outerlimits customer will likely drive the boat, perhaps with Mr. Fiore's son, Mike, riding shotgun. They'll be strapped to their seats inside a closed cockpit and will be hitched up to oxygen and wearing full safety suits.

Mr. Fiore said the company hopes to make the run in a week or two. After that — it's Fountain's turn to figure if there's a way to coax even more speed from a deep-vee.