(Editor’s note: Sometimes massive power, massive stones, and massive amounts of skill all come together to create a situation that’s violently poetic and beautiful. Such is the case here with this massive off shore racing boat skipping across the ocean like a stone at 100+ mph. It spends more time in the air than on the water!)
The offshore racing boat scene in the 1980s was crazy, especially in south Florida. Fueled by the massive amount of cocaine flowing into the Miami area, there were LOTS of flamboyant rich guys with literally millions to spend and nowhere to spend it. A good number of them turned to the world of off shore powerboat racing and while their case helped to evolve the sport, it also gave it a less than desirable rep on some level at that point in time. This vide was filmed during the 1980s and it shows exactly why an adventure seeking rich guy would want in on this sport…it is crazy.
This boat is making 2,000hp on a bad day and probably more than that on most others. It is manned by three guys, and it’ll run well over 100mph on the open water of the ocean. This happens to be an Apache built boat. Apache is still in business today building huge and hugely expensive machines that are essentially a more modern version of the machine you will see in the video below.
We’re not sure about you guys but for us, we’d have probably gotten seasick after the first of second massive leap off the top of a wave. These guys are some gusty mothers because they keep the throttles buried and that means triple digit speeds and all of the airtime they can handle. The boat “flies” very well. Even when they get a few seconds of hang time, it lands evenly. Nearing the end of a clip, a team nearly pushes their luck too far but you’ll see what I mean as soon as you watch the video.
Would you want in on this thing? We’d take a pass and ride in the chopper!
PRESS PLAY BELOW TO SEE THIS BOAT (AND ONE OTHER) SPEND MORE TIME IN THE AIR THAN IN THE WATER AT 100MPH!
In 1970 I worked at an airport in So Cal and sometimes a racer towing one of those would come in for aviation fuel (100/130 Octane. 57 cents/gal) They held 400 gallons and I would always make them show me the engines. 3 injected big blocks. Years later when I was a charter pilot I flew Hall of Fame owner Bernie Little to follow his offshore racer, Miss Bud Light, on a Race from Long Beach to Catalina and back. With half flaps in a Cessna we were pacing this boat at about 100 mph.