You want power???? (Now with video!!!!)

[wfooshee]

You want motorsports with power and speed? This is something you should look at if you get a chance! There are boats carrying up to 4000 HP, and capable of over 200 miles per hour! There are giant supercharged V8s, there are turbines, and the lower classes run outboards, still nearly 300 horsepower per motor. Offshore powerboat racing Superboats.

Today I got shots at the dry pits and the launch marina (where they crane the boats into the water.) The in-water running was up to the boats as to location, so they mostly puttered around the bay, and I never found but a couple of them running (and then while on the motorcycle, camera not ready.) Images are clickable to get a larger version.

Bud Light Superboat unlimited, twin 1500HP V8s, 50 feet.









Popeye's Super Cat, twin 525-HP engines, 36 feet:







Taboo Superboat Vee Unlimited, twin 750HP engines, 42 feet:





Geico Turbine, twin 1600-HP (2000-HP?) turbines, 45 feet. The color (Flourescent Snot?) thoroughly confused the camera's white balance.





Unfortunately shut down during its test run. This shot is severely cropped, the boat was almost 2 miles away from my position. The team's support boat is alongside.



Earlier at the dry pits area:



The other turbine boat, Aqua Mania G3, twin 1850 HP turbines, 50 feet.





Didja notice all the scooters? Motorcycle content! I actually came up behind this boat behing trailered to the launch marina, and the scooters were riding escort, changing lanes to block traffic, holding cars back at traffic lights, etc., with no gear or helmets.



Its teammate, Aqua Mania G3 Superboat Unlimited, twin 1500 HP engines, 46 feet.



Raven Manufacturer's Production 1, 980 HP two times, 42 feet.





In the Bud Light transporter, a couple of spares (or maybe even for sale?):



And at the Mercury truck:



WHM Superboat Unlimited, twin 850 HP, 40 feet.



Throttle-Up Propellers Superboat Stock, twin 280 outboard, 32 feet.



Will see racing tomorrow, hopefully some more pics to post then.

 

[jwilly]

Cool stuff! Great pictures as well!! Look forward to seeing them in action.

JW

 

[monk69]

Hell of an angle on the screws blades....Nice pics

 

[madmike2]

Where are the cleats for the skier's tow ropes? :yahoo:

 

[Ignacio]

Unlimited hydroplanes aren't too shabby either. At about 3000hp they hit about 190 as fly into the corners of a 2 1/2 mile course and skid fins dragging through the inside corner. Having been about 100 feet from one at speed it sounds like God tearing open a lake.

I haven't ridden in one, but I did get to ride in an Formula 1 boat once. Bud Light in fact.....Bill Seebold piloted a special two person version and scared the bejeezuz out of me. To go 100 miles in one direction, hook a left and suddenly being going 85 and accelrating in the other direction in less than a hundred foot turn.....yowza.

 

[radman]

They like to fly. With predictable results.

 

[wfooshee]

Race day. A little cloudy in the morning, became a light overcast for the race, so I had two problems with the pictures. Light is very flat from the cloudiness, and since the beach faces south, I'm looking into the sun for most of the pictures, which put the boats into shadow. Still, there are a few that worked pretty well.

First, the marina, putting the boats into the water.



Enough of that, on to the beach. First an artsy fartsy shot



OK. Boats.



Heat haze from the turbine exhausts:



Aqua-Mania turbine pulled off after one lap. Don't think anything was wrong, but they qualify for the world championship race by completing one lap in this race.















Hit a wave, then fly:





Fly, then splash down:





Little outboards fly, too!



Helicopter could not keep up with the Bud Light boat! They came out of the turn together.



I have a video cut, but it will take a while to encode. I'll post that later.

 

[madmike2]

It looks like fun to watch.

If I tried that I'd be walking around in pain because of the impact when they land....

 

[wfooshee]

Video uploaded:

Youtube video:



(EDIT 10-7 7PM: re-encoded the video and re-uploaded, set link to display in higher quality)

 

[dcarver]

Do they throttle down when the prop clears water?

Manually or automagically computer controlled?

 

[MotorToad]

The last time I paid any attention to boat racing (before the microprocessor had been put in a waterproof box, I think), one guy steered and the other guy kept the engines from eating themselves. These days I couldn't imagine a reason that the throttle guy couldn't be replaced with 8 ounces of rev-limiting ECU.

 

[wfooshee]

Except for those damn rules, anyway. I don't think it even needs electronic; a lawn-mower governor should do it!

But no, they have a driver who steers, and a throttle man who rides the tach.

I just noticed that Photobucket cut off the last 2 minutes or so, didn't realize their limit was only 5 minutes. Uploading to Youtube, that'll be in place momentarily.

 

[fjrob1300]

Sweeeeeet pics and Video.

 

[Tim05fjr]

I had the unique experience of working on the pit crew for WHM motorsports for a couple of races a few years back.

Went to Paradise Island and Key West. They are a great bunch of people. At that time they were running a slightly larger CAT. I believe it was 42'. w/ Twin BB Mercs.

Tim