The Top Dogs

I can’t stress enough how many different types of boating there are. In this blog, I’d like to focus on race boats. This is something many people are unfamiliar with. It is kind of this secret community. The boats I am referring to are not the kind you find on a lake or in the middle of Maryland. These are the super boat world champions and what I refer to as the “top dogs.” Not one person owns these (at least I don’t think so). These boats run on endless budgets. I’d say money is not the issue for them for several reasons. Key West holds the annual World Championships for race boats. Two of the biggest names are Miss Geico (in neon yellow) and CMS Racing (in orange). They consistently take titles every year.   

The racing sport is crazy expensive. We see that for some races they will bring three of similar boats for spares and/or engines, drives, and propellers sitting on land waiting for the boats to break down. And oh the boats will break down. These are the highest performing engines in the world. They’re being pushed to their absolute limits.

And that’s not the only thing that can go wrong. A lot of the races have crashes and flips. For example you can see below a clip from last year where one boat ran over top of one of the CMS boats. For the most part, the boats are racing over 150mph within feet of each other.

I remind you that these are catamaran boats, so they pack air and are basically planes on water. It is incredibly easy to flip boats like these. Most boats that are this dangerous have a canopy (which makes the boat completely enclosed) and seatbelts. So when the boat does flip, the captains have a better rate of survival. With every closed canopy boat, there is one or two escape hatches on the bottom of the boat in case it flips.

While it is extremely rare, some race boats do use turbine engines (motors out of a helicopter). Although, these are extremely dangerous. They always seems to go up in flames and burn the boat to the ground, except to the water in this case.

These race boats also are driven by two captains. There is one throttle man and one behind the wheel. So obviously, these partners have to be completely in sync the entire time to make the system work. It it too much work for simply one person. You can see a short clip of what it looks like inside the canopy during a race.

While many of unaware of the occurrence of this event, this sport is taken very seriously and the World Championships attracts a huge international audience. We see groups of boating communities travel together to Florida to view the race, such as my parents and their friends. Additionally, we see large yachts and helicopters fly in from all over to watch the races.

The night before the races, there is a parade where they bring all their rigs down the streets of crowded fans. It is something really spectacular. The boats can either be turn on their side on hydraulic towing trailers (because catamarans are too large to tow flat) or flat where the entourage sits on top. The rigs consist of the largest tractor trailers with sometimes both a car and boat. CMS has put a truck, a Camaro, or a Lamborghini between the tractor trailer and boat.

So, now you’ve heard a quick summary of what happens at the World Championship Boat Races. It is a huge event that happens each year within our country, but still I sense that most of our society has no clue what it is. If you ever have the slightest chance to see one of these (they’re also live streamed online), I encourage you to go! I know I will be trying as much as possible to go in future years.

 ~The Aquaholic