POWER BOATS

The two categories of boat design are sailing boats and powerboats. The sailing boats look graceful and elegant. However, it is the powerboat that is the winner of the two because most drivers can't wait for the wind to come up.

The drivers love for powerboats does also stem from driving a motorcar. The boats have an internal combustion engine. It started in Germany in 1885 when Gottfried Daimler fixed a petrol engine to a small boat. From there on it has developed and improved more and more. Soon the motorboats were easy to handle. When they began to get faster, they were called speedboats or powerboats.
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Then the competitions started and with it the compulsory helmet. The powerboat's driver has now an opportunity to prove his design is a winner. The international governing body - the Union Internationale Motoautique (UIM) - established certain rules and regulation.

SPEEDBOAT RACE VANCOUVER

The boats got faster but there was also a development of another sport. In 1922 the teenager from Minnesota, Ralph Samuelson, changed his snow skis, which were made from barrel staves, to be used on the surface of the lake. He is officially acknowledged as the inventor of waterskiing.

There are two types of powerboat race. One is the circuit racing and the other the offshore racing. The races have a wide variety. They range from club contests to the international races in the UIM calendar.

Circuit racing is held on inland or sheltered water and has to have a minimum of depth of 1.2m. The boats are known as sportsboats.  In this class are monohulls and catamarans and the driver have to be seated.

Hydroplanes with two hulls in the front and joined into one at the rear of the boat. The driver can either sit, kneel or lie down.

POWERBOATS OFF-SHORE BRITAIN

Off-shore races, as the name suggest, are held on the open sea. The rules demand to have two members in the crew. One is the driver and the other is the navigator. Sometimes a third one operates the throttle. It is also rule that each crew member has to be linked to the kill-switch cord. The reason for this is that if a crew member is thrown over board it stops the engine. When there is a powerboat racing there are always rescue crafts standing by.

Powerboats are classed by the size of their engine and in off-shore race the length of the boat. The variety of boats is enormous. There are boats with inboard engine and outboard engines. The smaller boats can be powered by petrol. The bigger craft are powered by diesel or gas turbine engine which also makes them faster.

By circuit and short off-shore races the course is marked by buoys. The boats are not allowed to touch them.  At the start of a race a green light comes up and the start flag is dropped. The end of a race is signalled by a chequered or red flag. The boats are timed at each lap.

America's Hudson River Gold Cup and France's River Seine are a 24-hours endurance race but both are known inland events. The off-shore races are long distance. There is the Cowes to Torque which is off the coast of Britain.  Another one is the Venice to Monte Carlo to name just two. The others are transatlantic events.

Surprise, surprise, the powerboat drivers like to break speed records. The famous Blue Riband trophy is for the highest average speed while crossing the Atlantic. In 1992 the 68m Italian powerboat Destrien had an average 53.09 knots in a 58-hours trip.

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