Though he wasn’t sure in early June when his 42-foot-long Marine Technology, Inc., catamaran was being rigged with twin Mercury Racing 1350 engines at TNT Custom Marine in Miami, multi-time offshore racing world champion Stuart Hayim has announced he will come out of retirement to run the cat in the Don Aronow Memorial Race Around Long Island on Sept. 22.
Hayim’s new 42-foot MTI will be powered by Mercury Racing 1350 engines.
According to a press release, the New York-based Hayim—the owner of the Experience Auto Group that sells Ferraris, Maseratis and other luxury vehicles out of three boutique showrooms—wants to break the record for event he set in 1989 with ace throttleman Joey Imprescia and raise $100,000 through donations for the Don Monti Cancer Center at The North Shore University Hospital. A cancer survivor, Hayim dedicated his 10-year offshore racing career to raising funds for cancer research and treatment.
“Thanks to the Monti and Saladino families, I have been blessed with a second life,” Hayim said in the press release. “Even better, my survival not only kept Garrett’s father alive, but enabled the birth of three miracle children: Gregg, Lisa Beth and Max Power.”
In a previous news story that appeared on speedonthewater.com, Hayim questioned the legitimacy of the existing Around Long Island record of 3 hours and 6 minutes set in 2011 by Joe Cibellis and Joe Sgro in a 43-foot Outerlimits V-bottom. Hayim and Imprescia completed the run in 3 hours and 7 minutes in a 32-foot Skater cat.
“Let’s just say I have some doubts about it and leave it at that,” Hayim said in the speedonthewater.com story in June. “But I thought the guys who won it last year did a great job. I even signed their flag when they were finished.”
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