Latham Marine Remembers Richard “Richie” Sutphen 1941-2017At Latham Marine, we can’t pay tribute to Richie Sutphen without a hearty dose of gratitude. It was at a Key West race, 1979 when Bob Latham was throttling with Ed Mero in his 30’ Sutphen Powerboat, Magic Gems, when the steering failed, nearly sending both racers into the water and knocking them out of the race.“The Sutphen was innovative—it was a fast boat,” recalls Bob Latham, “Running over 80 mph then was faster than the equipment of the day could handle and even though it was only a moderate chop, we were outrunning the steering.” Mero wanted a solution and Bob Latham, who ran a mobile repair shop for race boats, while building his throttleman-for-hire reputation, went back to the drawing board, bought a manual lathe, taught himself how to use it and designed a revolutionary new hydraulic steering system that was the basis for what is now Latham Marine. Latham improved the Sutphen’s steering and kept Magic Gems in the money, then in the next year, Latham won Regional, National and World Championship awards in another 30’ Cobra, Man-O-War, using Latham Steering.“Without Richie Sutphen’s boat, inspiring Bob to get the most from that hull, we would not be where we are today,” states Kathy Latham who has built and expanded the performance industry steering and parts leader with her husband for 45 years.“Racing was a strong community in those days—we were all family working together to keep improving the sport and our products,” Latham recalls, “Richie was one of the leaders—the innovators, starting in Hydroplanes and moving into Vee-bottom powerboats when he came to Florida. We’ll miss him.”The Latham family regrets that they cannot make the memorial celebration in Cape Coral due to a conflicting event with one of the U.S. Military Veteran charities they support, Caddy for a Cure. “We’ll be raising a toast to Richie—he was an industry leader, a racing legend and a great guy to whom we owe a lot, says Latham, “We send our deepest condolences to Christine and all the family. We are sure Richie will rest in peace--probably in racing heaven!”

I met him and spoke to him at length a few times. What a great man! He certainly is a legend in the offshore community! We'll certainly miss him. My condolences to their family.