CLASS I …THE FIRST 45 YEARS
Modern offshore racing began its life in 1956 in America, the brainchild of race car promoter Sherman ‘Red’ Crise and yacht designer, Dick Bertram. Their first Miami-Nassau race, without prize money, attracted a mixed and eclectic bunch of eleven hopeful teams and runabout boats from all walks of life and provenances and in the shape of war veteran, Sam Griffith, whose victory over the 184 miles at an average of 19.7mph (31.7km/h) made him a household name, the sport had its first hero.
Many have sought to emulate his skills and some have succeeded but he was ‘the man’ and since offshore competition came of age and Class I was recognised with a World Drivers Championship, his name adorns the trophy that is the target for this season’s hopeful competitors. The boats, engines and courses may look different but in essence, the sport remains the same. Man pushing boat and machinery to the limit against the world’s oceans.
If the Americans had the sport to themselves in the 1950’s, the efforts of Sir Max Aitken in England and Commander Attilio Petroni in Italy in the early 1960’s brought offshore to Europe and set up what was for thirty years, an enduring struggle between the three founding nations. In those early years, the Americans led the technology race with boats, power plants and engineers, the Italians had the style and money and the British sought to emulate both with their own idiosyncratic and individual approach.
Thus, in the first 20 years of racing, from the inception of the Sam Griffith Memorial Trophy in 1964 and its recognition by the Union Internationale Motonautique soon afterwards as Class I’s top prize, the Americans posted thirteen champions and the Italians, six. The one exception being the Brazilian, Wally Franz, who lifted the 1975 title, but his achievement was with an American boat, engines, transmissions and throttleman which hardly counted as a home-grown victory. Indeed, until Italy’s Francesco Cosentino took the 1978 title in a boat designed by Britain’s Don Shead and built on the Mediterranean at Viareggio, every Class I World Champion had won the title in equipment of American origin, assembled and tended by American engineers.
If the 1960’s and 1970’s belonged technically to the Americans, Jim Wynne, Dick Bertram and Don Aronow’s Cigarettes, the 1980’s were the years of European design dominance. Don Shead’s aluminium monohulls from Enfield, Picchiotti and CUV and James Beard’s Cougar catamarans, in wood and aluminium set the pace, followed by the genius of Fabio Buzzi, whose quantum leap into Glass Reinforced Polymer (GRP) hulls, turbo-charged Aifo Iveco and Seatek diesel engines and integral surface drive transmissions through his FB Corse concern proved unbeatable.
The championship, too, had begun to take on a much more international flavour. In the heady days of the 1970’s, a Class I Championship season could involve teams with two boats each, hopping around the world for up to eighteen races across the Americas, Australia, South Africa, Sweden, France, Italy and the United Kingdom. In the 1980’s, financial austerity capped the championship decider to three races in one location over one week but while the title race contracted, the number and variety of nations providing competitors increased to include Argentina, Brazil, Finland, Japan, Jordan Kuwait, Malaysia, Monaco, New Zealand and Norway, before embracing Saudi Arabia and the UAE in the 1990’s.
The season of 1999 will see thirteen international Class I teams battling it out for the title over ten races in six countries on courses designed to give maximum spectator appeal, rather than the more open sea courses of old but the challenges are no easier and the costs are considerably more. In the early years, it was possible to contest a full international season for as little as £100,000 (US$160,000) but today, that sum would not secure a season’s stock of propellers and the most competitive teams are probably spending in the region of £1.75 million (US$2.8 million) on a sport in which prize money is almost an irrelevance.
Of the 34 titles won so far, fourteen have been won by America, twelve by Italy, three by drivers from UAE, and one each by representatives from Britain, Brazil, Monaco, Saudi Arabia and Norway. There was no title awarded in 1990, as a mark of respect following the death of Stefano Casiraghi whilst defending his title in Monaco.
Twenty-three titles have been won in monohulls and eleven in catamarans. Of these winning boats, twenty-two have been built in GRP, eight in aluminium and four in wood while petrol engines have powered twenty-nine winners, (V8 twenty-six, V12 three) and
diesels the remaining five. Three early titles went to boats using conventional propeller shafts but the more efficient, fully trimmable Mercruiser sterndrives have accounted for twenty titles while the more recently introduced surface drives make up the residue.
Propeller design has seen the early three-bladed bronze wheels superceded by stainless steel props of up to six blades for maximum efficiency and a top team might carry twelve pairs of props of differing pitches and diameters to accommodate differing sea conditions, fuel loads and handling characteristics.
Five champions have taken their titles as novices in their first season in Class I racing and only two drivers have managed back to back titles, being Carlo Bonomi in 1973/4 and Saeed Al Tayer in 1995/6.
Speeds have altered beyond all recognition. In the early 1960’s, races were regularly won at averages of below 30mph (48km/h) but it was the advent of catamarans in the 1980’s that allowed the magic barrier of 100mph (160km/h) to be regularly exceeded and now, winning averages of 125mph (200km/h) are not unusual. This quest for speed has produced boats, engines and transmission systems which are inevitably more sophisticated and the use of Fibre Reinforced Polymer (FRP) with advanced composites using Kevlar and carbon fibre has happily made them safer.
Yesterday’s riding crews mostly stood up to the elements while they battled with navigation, throttles and the wheel, taking a battering from wind and waves with little protection. Today’s drivers and throttlemen enjoy the twin advantages of being strapped securely into body-hugging seats and of being located within safety cells and beneath lexan canopies borrowed from the aerospace industry, whilst monitoring their progress on equally advanced global positioning systems (GPS).
Yesterday’s racers were amateur sportsmen and women who took to the water dressed in whatever came to hand and in boats that were capable of other tasks that they had probably put together themselves. Today’s crews dress in fireproof overalls, wear suede driving boots, have helmets plumbed with intercommunication radios and do battle in boats that only go afloat to test or race, that are prepared and maintained by a crew of professional engineers.
These and all the other factors shape Class I offshore powerboat racing into what it is today, a sport growing in professionalism and international appeal but which still owes much to its heritage of the last 45 years. The boats and crews might look different now but the sea never changes.
Article by John Walker
U.I.M. SAM GRIFFITH TROPHY WINNERS
YEAR DRIVER NAT BUILDER ENGINES
1964 J. Wynne USA Wynne Daytona
1965 R. Bertram USA Bertram Detroit Diesel
1966 J. Wynne USA Wynne Daytona
1967 D. Aronow/N.House USA/USA Magnum Mercruiser
1968 V. Balestrieri/J.Stuteville ITA/USA Magnum Mercruiser
1969 D. Aronow/N.House USA/USA Cigarette Mercruiser
1970 V. Balestrieri/J.Stuteville ITA/USA Cigarette Mercruiser
1971 W. Wishnick/R.Moore USA/USA Cigarette Mercruiser
1972 R. Rautbord/R.Moore USA/USA Cigarette Mercruiser
1973 Dr. C. Bonomi /R.Powers ITA/USA Cigarette Aeromarine
1974 Dr. C. Bonomi/R.Powers ITA/USA Cigarette Aeromarine
1975 W. Franz/R.Moore BRA/USA Bertram Aeromarine
1976 T. Gentry/R.Powers USA/USA Cigarette Aeromarine
1977 B. Cook/J.Connor USA/USA Scarab Mercruiser
1978 F. Cosentino/A.Diridoni ITA/ITA Picchiotti Mercruiser
1979 B. Cook/J.Connor USA/USA Cougar Mercruiser
1980 M. Meynard/R.Idoni USA/USA Cougar Mercruiser
1981 J. Jacoby/K.Hazell USA/USA Cigarette Hawk
1982 R.Della Valle/G.Rossi ITA/MON CUV Mercruiser
1983 A. Garcia/K.Hazell USA/USA Cougar Rahilly Grady
1984 A. Petri/F.Statua ITA/ITA CUV Mercruiser
1985 A.J. Roberts/S. Curtis USA/GBR Cougar KS & W
1986 A. Gioffredi/J.Meglio ITA/ITA Buzzi Aifo Iveco
1987 S. Curtis/W.Falcon GBR/USA Cougar KS & W
1988 F.Buzzi/R.Ferraris ITA/ITA Buzzi Seatek
1989 S.Casiraghi/R.Ferraris MON/ITA Buzzi Seatek
1990 Not Awarded
1991 A.Spelta/M.Ambrogetti ITA/ITA CUV Isotta Fraschini
1992 W.Ragazzi/J-P.Mattila ITA/FIN Skater Lightning
1993 K.Harib/E.Colyer UAE/USA Victory Sterling
1994 N.Ferretti/L.Ferrari ITA/ITA Tencara Lamborghini
1995 S.Al Tayer/F.Serralles UAE/PRC Victory Sterling
1996 S.Al Tayer/F.Serralles UAE/PRC Victory Sterling
1997 L.Pharaon/J.Tomlinson SAU/USA Tencara Lamborghini
1998 B.R.Gjelsten/S.Curtis NOR/GBR Tencara Lamborghini