1st turbine offshore boat
 

when? name? Who had the 1st, what race was it debuted at & how was it used? hint. we used it for our 1776 aniv.

Re: 1st turbine offshore boat
 

Big Broad Jumper, Odell Lewis 1968

Re: 1st turbine offshore boat
 

Wow you know your sh@%! :D

Re: 1st turbine offshore boat
 

Scott,
I think your mistaken, Odell Lewis drove "Mona Lou II" during the 1967 season, a 31' Maritime hull. Turbines were considered 'Experimental" that year and outlawed by 1968.

Re: 1st turbine offshore boat
 

I bow to your knowledge, I thought this was the boat in the background. You can see the exhaust in the deck

Re: 1st turbine offshore boat
 

I believe the boat that Jamie is referring to is the "Spirit of 76" that was constructed from I think the old 404 Outboard boat of Randy Rabe.

The turbine was purchased from Lake X and from my memory was a hydraulic driven #3 club foot with four Greyhound bus oil coolers to keep the oil cool.

Yep, it burned down trees in parking lots, and transom paint off fishing boats at the dock !

AC

Re: 1st turbine offshore boat
 

Gents: Big Broad Jumper was owned and piloted by Bill Wishnick, power was 500 hp Mercruisers, it is just sea spray in the photo..Thunderbird Boats was ownd by Alliance Machine &Tool who also created Formula......the turbine boat( twin 475hp P&W Helo engines) was designed for Carl K. by Jim Wynne and built of aluminum by Maritine Marine of Alliance, Ohio by Merrick Lewis,.... Maritne was a name created by Alliance for the sale of metal raceboats, but they never caught on. Carl caught hell as no one was spending those bucks for engines those days and he knew the customers would be pissed as that boat(90) was so loud (whinning)when you came close to it..you knew it was T_REX itself..Odell laid back way to the side of the fleet and as the flag dropped he just poured on the instant speed and left all of us.......

Re: 1st turbine offshore boat
 

Ghost,
Thanks for the first hand Info!