Charlie,

The shirts and Searace arrived today, all I can say is that the book
completely exceeded my expectations and with all of the data and statistics
at the end of the book...simply mind blowing!!!.

I knew that The Cigarette was a special boat with a lot of history but after reading certain sections, it makes what became of the boat even more depressing. Does anybody know what became of Peter Dean's 40' and 35' cigs Slingshot??? it would be
interesting to find out.

Just got the above e-mail from one of our HORBA members in Australia. This guy helped us a lot in tracking down the trail of the original Cigarette that Don sold to the Carr brothers.

Does anyone know of any leads we could give him for the 40 foot Cigarette that the Dean's raced??

This is a pic of the boat that I'm after, any help would be appreciated!!!
Cheers
NL

Not sure if this helps or not but it`s a little history from my memory regarding the boat pictured. I was with Tom Gentry when we raced in the Mercury Trophy race in Melbourne Australia ( Port Saint Philip Bay ). I believe 1978, we won the race in some Horrific conditions, wind was blowing 30 to 40 mph seas in the bay were 12 to 15` and it was freezing cold. We had been ribbed by the Aussie`s that we as Yanks had no clue about what real Offshore racing was, after the race it was a different story, took us almost 4 hours to do the 80 mile short course, I still have night mares and anecdotes to this race. Barry McMillan was running the boat pictured, however it was a pop of the Cig. 40 and stretched to 44` and built in Australia. I believe from what I heard the original 40` was damaged and used for the plug for new 44`. In the race we led the first lap, on the second lap the 44` passed us in the roughest part of the course, Tom and I watched in amazement as it jumped probably 50` out of the water, when it landed it broke in half, we circled to make sure everyone was OK and when the rescue boat arrived we continued on for the win. it was so rough we were afraid to come off plane, as we would have been swamped by the sea. The pieces washed up on the beach and were salvaged. I still have the magazine article, it made the front page of the newspaper next day. If I figure out how to do scanner and re photo I will try and post Pix.

7XCHAMP

All i can say is DAMMMM!!!!!!

I believe Roger Penske raced a 40' Cigarette, is it the same hull?

Hi there Richie,
Thanks for that, its good to find out a bit more about the Aus offshore scene from the 70s/80s theres not really a lot of info to be found at this end!.
If you have any other info as to the fate of any of the old boats that raced over here or any that may still be around I would love to hear of them.

Cheers
NL

Peter Dean still has the Slingshot at his prop shop "PROPCO" in Monroe Ga.

So you think we were kidding when we said we actually raced offshore when the waves were big huh kids??????

Thanks Richie....everyone needed that !!

Just had a bit more of a read through searace and it appears that there was three slingshots', two 40' one of which was stretched to 44' as Richie has spoke about, and one 35'?
NL

Roger Penske and Mark Donuhue raced a 40` Cig togeteher, I think Jay Signore also went as navigator, Jay is the guy who has the IROC franchise and builds all the cars, great guy. The 40` cig was same design as Peter Dean boat, and when you talk about Peter Dean, you really are talking about an unsung hero/legend,He certainly deserves his do!!!!!!!!! There is a picture of Rogers boat in the Crouse Searace book, I think the name was Sunoco DX number 66 ???? Really beautiful boat all done in blue with yellow and gold trim. That would be a real find if that one could be found. I think it may have been one of the first 40`s as Don A. was very close with Roger and Mark. I think the boat only ran a few races, I don`t remember if it even ran a full season, Charlie should have some info. I raced against them in Key West, Don`t remember exact year, I know they put the fear into a lot of us.
7XCHAMP