World Offshore Powerboat Championships memorable for the wrong reasons

by Bob Wonders on 17 Nov 2011 Racers mourned their lost colleagues, but racing continued and champions were crowned following the 31st staging of the legendary Key West World Offshore Powerboat championships organised by Super Boat International (SBI).

The event attracted more international teams this year, with crews from Australia, the Ukraine, Italy, Malta, Norway and the United Kingdom among those doing battle with America’s leading exponents.

Sadly, the championships will probably be remembered more for the tragic deaths of Bob Morgan, 47, Jeff Tillman, 47 and Joey Gratton, 59.

Australia’s first entry to the championships in more than 30-years, ‘Maritimo’, with Luke Durman at the wheel and Ross Willaton on throttles, contested the highly competitive Superboat Unlimited class (the same class in which Morgan and Tillman lost their lives) and performed superbly to register two seconds and a third.

Durman described the conditions as 'very difficult.'

'Without a doubt the most challenging waters I’ve ever raced in,' he said.

'Determined concentration was crucial to staying upright.'

'We did not see the crash of ‘Big Thunder’ or that of ‘Page Motorsports’ and, of course, our thoughts were with all involved following the race', he added. Maritimo Offshore Race Team owner Bill Barry-Cotter was absolutely delighted with the team’s showing at Key West.

'In a word, outstanding,' he said. Although beaten into second place in the two final races, ‘Maritimo’ was certainly ‘on the pace’ losing by less than three minutes and less than one minute in those two races. ‘Maritimo’ was slightly slower in the opening race, finishing third behind top competitors ‘CMS’ and ‘Gasse’.

The Australians averaged 116.51mph (187.50km/hr) for the 42.4 mile (67.5km) second race and 97.64mph (157.5km/hr) for the shorter and punishing final race, finishing just behind the proven championship boat ‘Cintron’.

So why did three highly experienced competitors lose their lives? There’s no straight answer. We may never know if the blame can be attributed to the boisterous conditions, to mechanical problems, driver error or throttleman error.

At 100-plus mph (160km/hr) on a ‘track’ with an ever changing surface, anything can happen and often does.

Some race fans thought racing may have been cancelled following the tragic loss of life, but SBI Founder and President, John Carbonell, declared ‘We will race’.

'No one is forced to go out there and race,' he said, 'they know when the compete in a race that they place themselves in potential danger.'

Losing the three popular and experienced powerboat colleagues is never easy to deal with, there was little competitors could do but make the time honoured statement, 'That’s racing.'

For those who feel offshore racing is too dangerous and for the few who demand further restrictions on the sport, allow me to point out that 32,788 people died in traffic accidents on US roads alone.

In closing, Powerboat-World joins with all who offered their heartfelt sympathy to the families and friends of those who lost their lives at Key West. For a full round up of all results, visit www.superboat.com.