Stinger390X Posted November 23, 2013 Report Share Posted November 23, 2013 Here is DJ at Grand Haven MI racing his boat the "Spirit of America" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CameraDaytona Posted November 25, 2013 Report Share Posted November 25, 2013 Cool - I wonder how long he raced. It would be a real rush to race a boat like yours! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stinger390X Posted November 25, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 25, 2013 I'm not quite sure when he quit but he was very active in the late 80's and early nineties. He had a few boats custom built for him, the first being the Wellcraft Scarab, but the later versions were 42 feet plus, and with huge power plants. That is the dawn of serious hp in race boats. in the infancy of offshore racing say in the 60 and 70's boats were just using modified car engines and many times outboards in multiple arrays.During the filming if MV and all of that era the "Go-Fast" boats were coming of age. lots of companies were building very large and very fast boats. These were the 30 foot plus boats with dual and sometimes triple big blocks for power. In these days the boats would max out at about 85-90mph with average speeds in the 60mph range. During the time DJ raced boats were starting to break the 100mph barrier quite frequently and many models were starting to exceed this. The longer the hull design and more power the faster they went until the 130mph mark was breached. DJ was running around in this class with his boat "Spirit of America"Like I said I believe he ran until the mid 90's sometime and then packed it in.Here is another video but the quality is not great: Here is another video about the Miami race http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tm9LRqXudxcNowadays the guys who want to go fast use "CATS" or Catamaran which are twin hulled vessels. They are capable of much higher speed with more stability but they are difficult to turn. Some of the big name manufacturers are Skater, Spectre, Outer Limits, MTI and Nor-Tec. These are VERY fast boats and I have had rides on all of them!I have pics of his a few of DJ's boats...I'll have to find them and post them later if anyone is interested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CameraDaytona Posted November 26, 2013 Report Share Posted November 26, 2013 130 mph in a boat that big must be an amazing experience! I have watched the smaller boats racing - it appears that they are on the edge of control at top speed. And sometimes they crash.Thanks for the info! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stinger390X Posted November 26, 2013 Author Report Share Posted November 26, 2013 My friends Spectre Cat does 110 all day long. it's only 30 feet long so you feel the waves and you have to hang on for dear life sometimes! :)My other buddy has a 42 foot Fountain with twin blown engines and it also does an easy 110mph. The difference being it's a deep "V" hull and carves through the water quite nicely for its length. It's a much smoother ride for sure.Sadly my boat barely breaks 60mph as it is old school and all original, but its fun to go out on others faster boats.Sometimes when we go boating together I feel like I am the old Model"T" in the parade???? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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