Powerboating

Powerboats in Helsinki

Speed boat used to pull a water skier

Power boating describes activities performed in a motorized boat. Generally, a power boat has a high power-to-weight ratio and a hull design that allows for easy planing, which allows for higher speed and improved handling. Also, the shape of the actual boat is usually very streamlined, which minimizes air resistance and drag, therefore increasing speed. Power boats are often used recreationally, including waterskiing and wakeboarding.

Powerboating appeared as an event in the 1908 Olympics.

» Powerboating began in 1863 when Frenchman Jean Lenoir installed a petrol engine in a small boat.

» The first major race was in 1903 across the English Channel. The Gold Cup, organized by the American Power Boat Association (APBA), started on the Hudson in 1904.

» In about 1910 motor makers such as Evinrude introduced detachable `outboard’ motors that clamp to the stern. Inboard motors have the engine built into the hull.

» In the 1920s racing boats adopted ‘planing hulls’ for skimming across the water at high speeds, rather than traditional deep v-shaped ‘displacement’ hulls. After World War II hulls were made more and more, not from wood, but metals and fiberglass.

» Most powerboats are driven by a high-speed jet of water as opposed to by a propeller screw.

» In 1994 American Tom Gentry set the offshore Class 1 record of 253.35 km/h in Skater powerboats.

» In 1996 Gentry’s Gentry Eagle crossed the Atlantic in 2 days 14 hours 7 mins. In 1997, the skipper Destriero made it in 2 days 6 hours 34 minutes.

» The official water speed record is 511.11 km/h by Kenneth Warby in his hydroplane Spirit of Australia on Blowering Lake, New South Wales on 8 October 1978.