In the News

The Offshore Powerboat Association kicked off its eight-race season last weekend on New Jersey’s Lake Hopatcong for the first Lake Hopatcong Grand Prix presented by Broadco Restoration. With its “washing machine-like” conditions, the tight, 2.3-mile course left no margin for error among the competitors and created nonstop action that was easy for spectators to follow from all viewing areas.

On Sunday morning, more than 1,000 fans watched the races under clear skies—rain on Saturday was strong enough to force an abbreviated practice schedule—at the Lake Forest Yacht Club. Racing started at noon with Classes 5 and 6.

Despite spinning out, Pirate Racing took first place in the SVL class. Photo courtesy/copyright Lucididee Fast Boats

Read more: OPA Race Recap: Lake Hopatcong

Though last-minute wiring issues threatened to force the Miss GEICO offshore racing team to scrub the first tests of the 44-foot-long catamaran with fresh Mercury Racing 1650 Race engine power, the team was able to get the boat on the water in West Palm Beach, Fla., early yesterday evening. By all accounts from throttleman Scott Begovich, driver Marc Granet and team manager/rigger Gary Stray, the first test session with the twin turbocharged 1,650-hp quad overhead cam piston engines powering the cat was an overwhelming success.

Miss GEICO tested for the first time yesterday with its new Mercury Racing 1650 Race engine power. Exclusive speedonthewater.com photos courtesy/copyright Jay Nichols/Naples Image.

“With the exception of a twin T-55 (3,000 hp per engine) turbine boat, this is the hardest accelerating boat I’ve ever throttled,” said Begovich during a telephone interview from his car—the team presently is headed for another test session in the West Palm Beach area—this morning “The boat is extremely impressive.”

Read more: Miss GEICO First Test Session ‘Beyond Expectations’

If all goes to plan, the twin Mercury Racing 1650 Race engine-powered Miss GEICO offshore raceboat should head out on its first sea trial this afternoon in the waters off West Palm Beach,  Fla. The 44-foot catamaran, which is receiving its finishing touches at its home base in Riviera Beach was scheduled for its first test run this morning. An electrical system issue forced the crew at AMF, lead by Gary Stray, to delay getting the cat on the water.

With the crew attending to final details, Miss GEICO (in the background) is almost ready for its first sea trial. Photo courtesy/copyright Jay Nichols.

“Our joystick trim system is a multi-function system that requires multiple diodes,” Stray explained. “We chased the problem through our own system, only to find out that diodes we received from Dana Products weren’t assembled correctly.

“We spent much of last night and today chasing the problem,” he added. “Now that we have it nailed down, we’re in the process of fixing it.”

The lost time is particularly frustrating for the GEICO crew with the Super Boat International Space Coast Grand Prix in Cocoa Beach, Fla., set for this weekend.

“I can’t focus on the negativity right now,” said Marc Granet, the driver of the boat. “The crew has worked too hard to get to this point. Scott (Begovich) and I have a job to do. It’s a given that we’ll be there on Sunday.

Editor’s note: Look for the running photos of the repowered Miss GEICO, courtesy of Jay Nichols, to appear on speedonthewater.com.

With a couple of new venues and a handful of new faces, the US Formula 1 Powerboat Tour opened its season on Lucas Lake at the new Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Mo., last weekend. Despite the changes, the formidable veteran driver Terry Rinker of the AMSOIL/Rinker Racing team finished atop the podium once again adding another checkered flag to his large collection.

Terry Rinker of the AMSOIL/Rinker Racing team brought home another checkered flag in the yellow No. 10 boat.Rinker, who won all three heats in Group B’s qualifying while longtime competitor Tim Seebold won all three heats in Group A, ran a fast, yet smart race to finish ahead of second- and third-place finishers Brian Venton and Jeff Shepherd. Seebold, who led for the first 15 laps before losing the cowling on his NGK/Seebold Sports boat, which forced a restart, was unable to finish the race when his boat would not start after the mishap.

“We knew it was going to be a tightly confined course since it’s only 390 feet from bank to bank, so we spent a lot of time preparing and strategizing to make sure we stayed patient yet close to the action,” said Rinker, who is already looking forward to the second race of the season in LaPorte, Ind., in two weeks (May 31-June 2) since he grew up less than an hour from the venue. “Fortunately everybody drove really heads up and we had a good race. The competition was solid, too. Tim (Seebold) had a little bit of steam on us so we knew we needed to stay close and hope he made a mistake.”

Read more: Rinker Wins First US F1 Race at New Lucas Oil Speedway

While driver Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor Al-Thani and throttleman Steve Curtis had hoped for five days of testing in their new Spirit of Qatar team turbine-powered 50-foot Mystic Powerboats catamaran prior to racing in the Super Boat International Space Coast Grand Prix offshore race in Cocoa Beach, Fla., this coming weekend (May 17-19), the cat has yet to hit the water. The revised plan is for the 50-footer, which is powered by twin 1,600-hp engines from Whispering Turbines, to debut at the SBI  event in Orange Beach, Ala., May 31-June 2.

According to Curtis, who is handling the rigging chores with his Spirit of Qatar teammates, a number of issues including parts delays from vendors forced the postponement. More critical to the project, Curtis explained, is ensuring that everything is done correctly.

Mohammed Al-Nasser and Ali Al-Neama will campaign the Spirit of Qatar team's piston-powered 42-foot catamaran in SBI's Superboat class.

“We want to build the best and fastest turbine boat ever,” he said. “But it’s not like building a piston raceboat with marine engines that already have systems on them and are ready to install. To rush it just to make an event would be stupid. Sheikh Hassan wants everything to be perfect. The Qatar team is known to be professional and competitive. The boat has to be perfect.

Read more: Qatar Turbine Boat Out for Cocoa Beach, Team’s Superboat In

Last time I saw Travis Lofland, he was in a world of hurt and hypothermia, and I feared for his well-being. Of course, I wasn’t the only person who saw him that way and worried about him. About 5 million other fans of the Discovery Channel television reality show “Deadliest Catch” saw Lofland fall into the frigid waters below the docks in Dutch Harbor, Alaska, at the end of last season’s series.

For two seasons, Lofland throttled the Time Bandit offshore raceboat with owner/driver Bob Mazikowski. Photo courtesy/copyright Tim Sharkey/Sharkey Images.

It was a seminal moment for Lofland, now 39 years old and living in Sarasota, Fla. And while he doesn’t want to go into any great detail about his departure from the Time Bandit crab fishing vessel—before joining the Time Bandit crew Lofland also worked on the Wizard—he’s pursuing a few things he couldn’t as a full-time commercial fisherman on the Bering Sea.

“Falling off the boat kind of opened my eyes,” says Lofland.

Read More: Catching Up With Travis Lofland: The Adventure Continues

When veteran offshore racer Alvin Heathman set out to bring as many teams as possible to Missouri’s Lake of the Ozarks for the inaugural Lake Race 2013 presented by Mountain Dew and Formula Boats of Missouri, he knew the best way to do so was with prize money.

With a $75,000 total purse, the Lake Race 2013 on Missouri's Lake of the Ozarks is less than a month away.So far Heathman has come through and made the invitational race, which takes place June 6-9, a win-win for any offshore team, bringing the total purse up to $75,000 and eliminating any entry fees or boat registration. The organizers behind the event—the not-for-profit Bagnell Dam Strip Association—are also bringing live television coverage to the equation with coverage running from noon to 3 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday on Missouri’s FOX KRBK-TV.

“I really cannot remember if any opportunity for boat racers has been offered to showcase their teams in such a way with lower costs to them and bigger rewards,” Heathman said. “The Lake of the Ozarks has bucked up in a big way—now it’s up to the racers to bring the show.”

Read more: Lake Race's $75,000 Purse Equals Open Invite to All Competitors

With the increasing popularity of the Buffalo Poker Run among poker run enthusiasts in the Northeast, the organizers have created three speed classes for the August 9-10 event this year.

“Because of the faster and faster boats we’re getting, especially from the Performance Boat Club of Canada, we knew we had to create speed classes,” said Anthony Scioli, one of the organizers for the annual run. “The classes are boats up 70 mph, boats from 70 mph to 110 mph, and boats over 110 mph.”

The annual Buffalo Poker Run continues to grow. Photos courtesy/copyright Tim Sharkey/Sharkey Images.

Like the insurance-mandated rules of the recent Desert Storm Poker Run and all of the Florida Powerboat Club poker runs, the Buffalo Poker Run rules do not permit backseat passengers in boats running more than 110 mph.

Read more: Buffalo Poker Run Adding Three Speed Classes

When the green flag drops for the Super V Light class teams on Lake Hopatcong in New Jersey this coming weekend—the first event of the 2013 season for the Offshore Powerboat Association—the father-and-son team of driver Brit Lilly and throttleman Art Lilly, his famous offshore racing father, will be in the thick of it. In March, the 26-year-old Lilly bought a canopied 30-foot Extreme Super Light racer with a class-spec Mercury Racing 525EFI engine for competition this season. But the purchase came with a few conditions.

Art and Brit Lilly will campain this 30' Extreme V-bottom next weekend in the first race of the OPA season.

“My mom said my dad had to go with me in the first race,” Brit Lilly said, then laughed.  “It was one of her rules for me getting the boat. There were a few of them. We’ve already broken most of them.”

The Lillys have teamed up in various offshore race boats four times in the past—and won all four races.

Read more: Art and Brit Lilly Team Up for OPA Season-Opener

According to the latest newsletter from the Friends of Miami Marine Stadium, Gloria Estefan, a Grammy winning crossover artist and leading Miami businesswoman, will take a prominent role in the ongoing advocacy campaign to restore the iconic Miami Marine Stadium as a centerpiece of cultural life in Miami. Estefan, a Trustee of the National Trust for Historic Preservation since 2012, will serve as the voice of efforts to preserve Miami Marine Stadium at a time when the Miami City Commission is weighing approval of a new site plan for the stadium.

Musician and Miami businesswoman Gloria Estefan is showing her support for the revitalization of Miami Marine Stadium. Photo by Carlos Betancourt Inc./courtesy Friends of Miami Marine StadiumEstefan agreed to lend her support to the National Trust and Friends of Miami Marine Stadium's ongoing efforts by appearing in public service announcements, sharing information about the campaign with her friends and followers on social media, and appearing in print and video materials supporting the stadium's restoration.

"Miami Marine Stadium is a beautiful, one-of-a-kind place and I am thrilled to join the National Trust and Friends of Miami Marine Stadium to help restore it to its former glory," Estefan said. "As someone who once had the honor of performing at the stadium, I can attest to the fact that it is a completely unique place, and I know thousands of Miami residents feel the same kind of personal connection to the stadium."

Read more: Gloria Estefan Champions Miami Marine Stadium

Bucking at least a six-year industry trend of declining offshore racing engine business, Scorpion Racing Engines has seen a surge in demand for offshore racing power this season. That’s the word from Frank McComas, who co-owns the Livonia, Mich.-based high-performance marine and auto racing engine shop with Mark Pritula.

In addition to long-term offshore racing engine clients including the Instigator and Cleveland Construction teams, McComas has added several new teams including Broadco, Stihl and Qatar to his customer list this year.

Pretty potent engines, all in a row—Scorpion builds marine mills from 525 to 1,500 hp.

Read more: Scorpion Racing Engines Sees Up-Turn In Offshore Racing Business

Christopher Kuster, who paints with his teeth, has illustrated a variety of race boats, including the Team STIHL Skater.

On any given weekend you’ll find Christopher Kuster at the historic Tarpon Springs Sponge Docks completing his next work of art and showing off his latest paintings, many of which capture the essence of the Florida coast in vibrant watercolor and oil. You’ll also find a good mix of cartoonish art featuring hot rods and powerboats—two of Kuster’s favorite things.

As you can see from the included examples of his artwork, the self-proclaimed horsepower junkie offers a fresh, fun perspective on gas-guzzling machines. What you can’t see in the art—the fact that Kuster is a quadriplegic who paints with his mouth—is even more impressive. Yes, he uses his mouth to draw and paint. Just don’t make the mistake of saying to him, “Wow, I couldn’t even do that with my hands,” because—as he told me—if he had a dollar for every time he’d heard that, he’d be a rich man.

Instead he’ll settle for being the “Paint by Teeth” man. A member of the Mouth and Foot Painting Artists (MFPA), an organization owned and run by disabled artists with European roots dating back to the 1950s, Kuster is a C5 quadriplegic who was injured in a shallow water diving accident in 1992—just two weeks before his 22nd birthday. He started painting more than 10 years ago and more recently, as in the past few years, he began the motorsports endeavor, Motor Mouth Studios.

Read more: A Reason to Smile

Taking “some time off” from crab fishing in the Bering Sea this year, Travis Lofland—the former Time Bandit deckhand featured on the Discovery Channel’s popular “Deadliest Catch” television series—is teaming up with veteran offshore racer Peter Meyer this season in the Instigator Fountain V-bottom raceboat. With Lofland driving and Meyer throttling, the team plans to run the Superboat Extreme-class 40-footer, which is powered by twin 700-plus-hp naturally aspirated Scorpion Racing engines at Super Boat International events in Cocoa Beach, Fla., Sarasota, Fla., New York City and Key West, Fla.

Lofland and Meyer will team up in Instigator for the first time racing together at the SBI event in Cocoa Beach. Photo courtesy Instigator Offshore Racing.

“This will be my first time driving in a race,” said Lofland, who formerly throttled the Time Bandit Super V Light raceboat. “I’m used to throttling, but I did drive during testing in Time Bandit and every time I did I thought it made me a better throttleman.

“Peter has 30 years of racing experience so this is going to be fun,” he continued. “It’s going to be challenging jumping from the throttling side to the driving side, but I’m very confident with Peter.”

Read more: Travis Lofland Joining Peter Meyer In Instigator Cockpit

After seven or eight trips—they’re not exactly sure how many—to Desert Storm, Dan and Lisa Ellis had done most every legal thing there was to do at the annual Lake Havasu, Ariz.-based event. From the Thursday Street Party, where they had displayed their immaculate 2008 Cigarette 38’ Top Gun, to the Friday Poker Run and more recently the Saturday fun run to Pirate Cove, the couple from Ventura, Calif., thought they had covered it all.

And they were just fine with coming back year after to do it all again. That’s because Dan and Lisa Ellis flat out love high-performance powerboating. After buying their 38-footer from Miami-based Lip-Ship Performance in 2011, they left the boat in South Florida for a few months and made two trips to the Keys.

Read More: In The Heart of Desert Storm

(Above photo courtesy/copyright Jay Nichols/Naples Image.)

With roughly half of the 50 slots taken for the New Jersey Performance Powerboat Club Atlantic City Poker Run on Friday June 21 and an estimated 35 to 40 teams committed to the Offshore Powerboat Association/ New Jersey Offshore Powerboat Racing Association Atlantic City Offshore Grand Prix on Sunday June 23, what the organizers are dubbing the “Festival of Speed Week” (Read the story) is off to a strong start. That’s the word from Dave Patnaude, the president of the NJPPC who is one of the key organizers for the event.

“People are excited for the poker run and the race combined,” said Patnaude. “Registration for the poker run is far ahead of where it was last year at this time. I think part of that has to do with the discount the Atlantic City Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino is giving the poker runners if they register by June 8, but the event itself is the biggest draw.”

While the turbine-powered Miss GEICO catamaran (shown here) is gone, the current 44-footer with twin Mercury Racing 1650 Race engines will compete in the Atlantic City Offshore Grand Prix. Photo courtesy/copyright Tim Sharkey/Sharkey Images.

Read more: Atlantic City Poker Run and Offshore Race Building Momentum

Ultra Custom Boats Midwest made its debut at the Desert Storm Poker Run in Lake Havasu City, Ariz., with a new 27 Shadow catamaran.

Although there were a couple of things left to finish—including the custom billet seat pedestals with built-in shocks—the new 27 Shadow from the recently established Ultra Custom Boats Midwest was on display at the Desert Storm Poker Run last week. Built by John West, the owner of Ultra Custom Boats in Southern California, the 27-foot catamaran featured an impressive assortment of blue, gray, black and white graphics in the gelcoat and a gorgeous black and white upholstery combination.

Like many custom creations from Ultra Custom Boats, the six-person seating arrangement in the 27-foot cat featured outstanding upholstery work.According to West, who is excited about having a company represent the brand on the Midwest and East Coast, the closed-deck cat has a lot of trick components from the rigging to the electric windscreens. And while the boat, which features a 560-hp naturally aspirated 502-cubic-inch engine from Marine Industries West, wasn’t ready to run on Arizona’s Lake Havasu, from the sound of things, it received a lot of attention at the street party.

“We’ve got some really cool stuff in this boat, and we have even more coming down the line,” said West, who plans to test drive the boat this weekend. “Things have been looking up. We’re considering introducing some new models soon.”

West added that Ultra Custom Boats Midwest, which has signed Missouri’s Lake Ozarks Marine as one of its dealerships, has plans to showcase the 27 Shadow at a variety of events this summer, including the Chattanooga Poker Run in Tennessee, the Pirates of Lanier Poker Run in Georgia, the Thunder Run in Kentucky, and the Support the Troops Poker Run and the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout in Missouri.

Standing out in a healthy field of top-shelf high-performance powerboats, a Douglas Marine Skater 388 LE Hardtop owned by Gary and Rosemary Colledge of Discovery Bay, Calif., earned “Best In Show” honors last Thursday at the Desert Storm Poker Run Street Party. Dubbed Colledgewood, the 38-footer, which features a hydraulically raised center section of its hardtop for cockpit access and is powered by twin Mercury Racing 1350 engines, was completed last summer and delivered just in time for the 2012 Big Cat Poker Run.

With owner Gary Colledge driving and throttling and Skater founder Peter Hledin trimming, this "Best In Show" Skater 388 cat reached 141 mph during the Desert Storm Shootout. Photo courtesy/copyright Jay Nichols/Naples Image.

“I was excited about the award, but my wife went nuts,” Colledge said, then laughed. “She tends be more, well, enthusiastic than I am.”

Along with several friends including industry notable Karl Koster, Colledge piloted the boat in Friday’s poker run. The following day, he throttled and drove it with Douglas Marine/Skater founder and owner Hledin handling the trim duties—via the in-console switches—to 141 mph in the Desert Storm top-speed shootout. Though Hledin rarely rides in his own creations, it has happened a few times in recent years. But being in the cockpit and helping pilot the boat during a top-speed event was a “first” for him.

Read more: Colledgewood Skater 388 Takes ‘Best In Show’ Award at Desert Storm

Offshore racing fans will most likely get their first look at Qatar’s new Turbine-class Mystic Powerboats catamaran at the upcoming Super Boat International event May 17-19 in Cocoa Beach, Fla., according to a press release from the Qatar Marine Sports Federation. As previously reported on speednthewater.com, Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor Al-Thani will drive the 50-foot cat with offshore racing veteran Steve Curtis handling the throttles.

Sheikh Hassan (left) and Steve Curtis (right) plan to debut the team's new turbine-powered 50-foot Mystic cat at the SBI's Cocoa Beach event later this month.

According to the press release, Sheikh Hassan and Curtis will begin on-water testing of the 50-footer, which is powered by twin 1,600-hp engines from Whispering Turbines, on May 5. The program calls for five days of testing and dial-in prior to the boat’s planned Cocoa Beach race debut.

 “Our target is to dial the boat in during the year as our test session will be short,” said Sheikh Hassan in the release. “The main target will be the World Championship at Key West later in the season.”

To run its Superboat-class entry, a 42-foot Marine Technology, Inc., that formerly ran as Reliable Carriers, the team has selected Qataris Mohammed Al-Nasser and Ali Al-Neam to man the cockpit.

Related Story: Qatar To Run Former Reliable Carriers Cat in Superboat Class

More than one person I trust has told me that Lake Michigan can be calm and still and serene. And more than one person I trust also has told me that it can be one of most beautiful summer boating areas in the country. Without question, Lake Michigan, at least on the Northern Michigan side, has never failed to dazzle me with its beauty. But it also has never failed to beat the living crap out of me in a go-fast boat. So this calm and still and serene stuff? Not so much, at least in my limited experience.

Last year, Tom Borisich debuted this 50-foot Mystic cat with twin Mercury Racing 1350 engines at the Boyne Thunder Poker Run. This year, he's bringing another 50-foot Mystic cat with fresh graphics and twin 1,850-hp turbine engines to the event. Photo courtesy/copyright Jay Nichols/Naples Image.

So for me, that the Boyne Thunder Poker Run, which celebrates its tenth anniversary this year, doesn’t run its entire course—just most of it—on Lake Michigan is in and of itself something to recommend it. As it has in years past, the July 12-13 event begins and ends in Boyne City, which is on the shores of Lake Charlevoix. And Lake Charlevoix is to Lake Michigan what Smith Mountain in Virginia is to, well, the Atlantic Ocean. On a bad day.

Read More: Boyne Thunder Turns Ten

Jay Nichols is one of the hottest high-performance powerboat photographers in the world, never mind the Fort Myers, Fla., area he calls home. From offshore races and formal poker runs to casual raft-ups and regattas, you name it and he shoots it.

But Nichols also lives the go-fast boat lifestyle, meaning when he’s not capturing the action from a helicopter he’s on the water every weekend with friends who own some mighty fine—and mighty fast—hardware. So it’s safe to say he has personal and professional investments in the health and growth of that community. That’s why in 2006 he decided to help start a go-fast powerboat club in his area with his friend Bob Barnhart.

Read More: Virtual Communities Get Real In The Go-Fast Boat World

(Above photo courtesy/copyright Jay Nichols/Naples Image.)