Year In Review: 10 Stories That Shook The Go-Fast Boat World, Part I
Several triumphs and a tragedy marked the world of high-performance boats in 2013.
In covering the high-performance powerboat world since 1994, I’ve seen my share of great and not-so-great years. But for any number of reason, 2013 was as good—and in one case as bad—as they get. The industry showed the beginnings of a real rebound from the doldrums that began in the 2007, and there were some major performances on the water and some technological achievements off of it. And there was a tragedy that shook the go-fast world to its core. What follows are five top stories from one memorable year. You’ll get the next five stories later this month in the second part of this feature.
My Way Runs 224 Mph
Bill Tomlinson came into the 2013 Lake of the Ozarks Shootout—the nation’s premiere go-fast boat top speed event—as the odds-on favorite to take the Top Gun title on the popular Missouri waterway in My Way, a turbine-powered 50-foot Mystic catamaran. But no one expected the big cat to lay down a 224-mph run on the liquid mile course.
Bill Tomlinson’s turbine-powered Mystic cat hit 224 at the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout. Photo by Jay Nichols.
Tragedy Strikes Lake Cumberland
The Lake Cumberland (Kentucky) Poker Run was just getting started when Jeffrey Asbell and Brad Smith—the rising-star engine-building talent behind Smith Power and the man who built the engines for Asbell’s 40-foot Skater catamaran—flipped. The two men lost their lives, and their deaths sent shockwaves through the high-performance boating world, leaving the go-fast community asking what it could do to ensure that such a tragedy never happens again.
The go-fast boating community lost Brad Smith and Jeffrey Asbell during the Lake Cumberland Poker Run. Photo by Jay Nichols.
Miss GEICO Triumphs
Powered by Mercury Racing 1650 Race engines, Miss GEICO came into the Super Boat International Key West Offshore World Championships with a lot to prove. Against tough competition from Bob Bull and Randy Scism in a CMS Marine Technology, Inc. 48-foot cat—also powered by Mercury Racing 1650s—Miss GEICO’s Marc Granet and Scott Begovich piloted their 44-foot Victory cat to an Unlimited-class world title and newfound respect.
The Miss GEICO team proved itself during the SBI Key West Offshore Worlds. Photo by Andy Neumann.
Pirates Hand Treasure to Charity
These days, it’s hard to find a performance-boating event that doesn’t have some kind of charitable component—and that’s a good thing for everyone. In raising an unprecedented $250,000 for local charities in the Atlanta area, the Pirates of Lanier Poker Run set a new bar for others to try to hurdle.
Performance lovers raised big-time cash for local charities in the Atlanta area. Photo by Jeff Gerardi.
Sterling 1700s Prove Themselves
It took Sterling Performance in Milford, Mich., three years to completely develop its first pair of turbocharged 1,700-hp engines, and by the time the engines found a happy home in a 36-foot Skater catamaran there were plenty of cynics and skeptics out there. But the cat’s blistering 194-mph run at the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout laid all doubts to rest.
Three years in the making, Sterling’s 1700 engines powered a Skater cat to Lake of the Ozarks Shootout glory. Photo by Jay Nichols.
