Welcome to the World of junior F1 power boat racing

[thaw ripper]

:cool: little boats check them out~~ wwwrocket-racing.com[/url]

[vishus]

try www.rocket-racing.com

[Instigator]

the boats they used to race/bet on in Japan.
Not sure if they still do this or not.
When I was racing Stock and Mod O/B back in the 80's the Japanese used to have paramutal (sp?) betting on boat races over there.
The boats, motors, propellers were all identical.
You would bet on a driver. (like horse racing over here)
One of our main class supporters was over there on business when he stumbled on this (looks identical to your picture).
This was at a time that all of the 2 cylinder classes ran the ancient MK 20 H's, KG-4's etc so parts were getting tuff to come by etc.
These things were power'd by 22 cu.in. 2 cylinder Japanese Yamato's. They were bullet proof little motors with tons of mid range grunt, direct drive, forced fed cooling.
He found out that the government ran the races and at the end of each season they were destroying these motors to eliminate the chance of cheating.
To say a light bulb went off in his head was an understatement.
20 cu.in Super Stock was born in the US as soon as he got back to US soil.
The first couple years they were way slower than the 20H's on the straightaways but would pull em in the turns.
First kilo records (in a hydro) were around 63. Last I checked ( I think that class is now "B") it was around 74/75 I think.
Sorry for the book but that picture looks exactly like them.

[Instigator]

ran for **** but looked fast:D

[thaw ripper]

Did U have to crawl on the bow to get it out of the hole? :D

[Instigator]

Yes
In A Stock, which were 15 cu.in. Merc's we even figured out that if you loosend the motor clamp screws, this let the motor tuck under then you'd crawl on the bow, hold the throttle open with one foot and steer with the other until it'd roll over on plane:eek: :p ;)
Once on plane you'd tighten the clamp srews back up which tilted the motor back to it's orig position.
Don't laugh, it worked. Oh yeah, I weighed 155 then:D
Moved up to B and 20SS so I could gain 10 lbs and they had enough balls to where you just had to lean over the wheel and they'd accelerate hard.
I designed the boat in the picture to drive laying down. It didn't work:D

[Lasse]

My old boat, killer looks
Norwegian made Winrace with Yamaha 15 hp.
Ron hill propp, 46,3 mph.

Realy fun to race, when ther is 15 boats in close racing.

Ps I think the boat in the picture is a boat that races in the same class that I used to race in, called T 250

[thaw ripper]

Oh Ya!! the k-man had a 8 ft or 10 ft thing made out of plywood with a 15 hp on it, that looked similar to yours, when ya gotter on plane it was fun to zip around in. Until you meet up with da big roller :D


Lasse ~ Nice air on da dittle red bota, cool pic.! ~tr~

[BK]

This 12' Grand Prix still holds the Mod-C kilo record at 89 mph.
Highly modified 30hp Yamaha. That baby was LOUD!

Owner/driver/engine builder: Jimmy Johnson.

This class was so much fun! God I miss it.


(Photo by Mark Nelson)

[FrenchPhil]

BK, those pics are way cool. Have any more?

Here's German S550

[FrenchPhil]

One more, speeds around 60-65 mph. Here's with a Selva 35 hp 489 cc motor instead of the classic Tohatsu 499cc 40hp.

[BK]

Here's one of me in my TomCat

Same class, same race as above, only I got second place.

Just couldn't beat Jimmy!


(Photo: Mark Nelson)

[BK]

In the 1980s they used to run a whole bunch of these all at once for 2 hours straight each day. They often had 60+ boats take off and all head for the same start bouy! :eek:

They called it "Mini boat madness"


http://members.aol.com/wettomcat/BoatRacing3/minimadness.gif

[BK]

This was the Parker 5-hour mini boat enduro.

Fast driver changes and refueling were all part of the strategy.


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