Offshore endurance racing appeals to a new generation of competitors.

Story: Gregg Mansfield
Photography: Tom Newby

For a newer generation of racers, offshore racing has meant competing on lakes and rivers in states that are nowhere near the ocean.

But that doesn't mean competitors like Team CRC throttleman Jeff Harris have forgotten about the old style of endurance racing. Harris has great respect for the open-ocean racing that puts even greater emphasis on navigation.

"I really miss the real ocean, tough guy, hang it out, hit big wakes racing," Harris said. "I'm just happy to go hit a wave. I want to bounce off a wave."

While Harris and driver Mike DeFrees have made their mark in the new era of offshore racing, their names will forever be associated with the sport's legends after winning the Rum Run put on by the Pacific Offshore Powerboat Racing Association (POPRA) in late July. The duo joins greats such as Betty Cook, Billy Martin and Bob Nordskog on the perpetual trophy.

"What we did was vintage offshore and I think there is still a place for that in the sport," Harris said.

On paper, Team CRC seemed like a sure bet—barring a mechanical problem—to win the 75-mile race. The course went from California's Long Beach to Catalina Island's north shore, along the 13-mile front of the island and back to the mainland.

The 42-foot Marine Technology Inc. catamaran had twice the horsepower of Super Cat Lite competitor Team AMSOIL, which was running Mercury Racing HP525EFI engines. What the team may have been lacking in horsepower, it made it up in experience running to the tourist destination off the Southern California coast.

Throttleman Bob Teague has run to Catalina Island "hundreds of times," and won the endurance race with Nordskog, Powerboat's founder, before he passed away in 1992.

GPS will get you from point to point but slight course corrections in a 75-mile race can make the difference.

Teague and driver Paul Whittier chased the dark yellow and orange Team CRC boat to the island and back. When Teague saw Harris and DeFrees get slightly off-course, he knew it would be their only chance to catch them.

"We were hoping we could reel them in," Teague said. "But they only finished (19) seconds ahead of us."

Team CRC finished the endurance race in 44 minutes, 36 seconds, besting last year's time by nearly seven minutes. Harris and DeFrees averaged about 120 mph and could have shaved more time off the mark but felt they had the victory well in hand.

"We would have kept into it if we had to," DeFrees said. "We were kind of cruising."

Although Team CRC was the overall winner based on time, it wasn't the first boat to cross the finish line in front of the Queen Mary. POPRA officials started the race in two waves with most of the P-class boats going in the first group.

The first group was given a four- to five-minute head start, and that meant Team CRC had to run down at least 10 boats to be the first boat across the finish buoys.

"You've got a lot of guys starting racing for the first time," said Kevin Cooper, president of POPRA and one of the main organizers behind the Rum Run. "To have the small guys go first … the next thing you know, they're running with the big guys—CRC, Platinum Princess.

"It makes you feel like you're one of the big guys. That's what we're really trying to do."

What Team CRC didn't count on was a Super Vee boat Hot for Teacher determined to be first across the line. Team CRC spotted them near the finish but it was too late to catch the V-bottom.

Kevin Schulte knew they were going to have to average between 90 and 100 mph in the Cigarette to stay ahead of the second fleet. This year was payback after they broke and never even got to start the race in 2006.

"We just never backed off," said Schulte, who finished in 47:36. "Races like these separate the wallet from the man."

POPRA resurrected the Rum Run last year after the race had been dormant for 17 years. The first Catalina offshore race took place in 1911 and was renamed the Rum Run in 1968 when Nordskog took it under POPRA's wing.

Hoping to return the endurance race to its glory days, the Rum Run is part of the emerging Offshore Power Festival in Long Beach, which featured the Catalina Water Ski Race and a personal watercraft race the same weekend. The dry pits were set up in the nearby sprawling Marine Green Park.

While a race into the middle of the ocean isn't exactly fan-friendly, organizers used television to bring the race back to shore. Helicopters sent a live feed to Jumbotrons at a local hotel and to Rainbow Harbor, where AMF's John Haggin watched the action from the patio of the Yard House, a great restaurant and local watering hole.

Haggin joined race fans who ate lunch and sipped on drinks while the boats made the run to the island and back. (The entire race was rebroadcast by a local cable provider.)

"To get the TV exposure, I just love it," Haggin said. "Next year we'll have more copters."

Martin Sanborn, who was handling the television commentary, said he liked the potential of the Rum Run. Sanborn grew up in Southern California and the first offshore race he went to was the Long Beach run in the early 1990s. It was at that event where he met Reggie Fountain for the first time.

Sanborn envisions a national tour that offers a variety of races—some with the smaller spectator-friendly courses and an endurance race or two.

"It was great seeing Bob Teague break out a piece of paper and make a parallel line to determine course headings," Sanborn said about the drivers' meeting. "We haven't had to do that forever, not since I first started had we had to do that."

Organizers expect next year's run to double in size, likely because of word-of-mouth among racers. The race in St. Clair, Mich., the following weekend kept several of the East Coast teams from making the journey west. The 2008 Rum Run is slated to take place July 11-13.

When asked what Nordskog would think of the new Rum Run, Teague took a moment to think as he watched his silver Skater being pulled from the water.

"I think he would be proud of what we're doing today, especially because POPRA was his love," Teague said. "POPRA managed to stay totally clear of all the rhetoric and politics. It's been for the racer all the time."

Clark Praises Rum Run Return

Reggie Fountain, Betty Cook, Jerry Gilbreth, Bobby Moore and Bill Sirois. Those names are all part of a long list of drivers and throttlemen Dick Clark teamed up with throughout his racing career, which began in the mid-1960s.

Although he hasn't raced in more than 10 years, Clark is still an offshore racing enthusiast. That is why he contacted Kevin Cooper, president of the Pacific Offshore Powerboat Racing Association, when he heard the Rum Run had returned to the open waters of the Pacific Ocean.

Clark, a several-time national champion who competed in classic endurance races such as the Bahamas 500, Miami to New York and the Rum Run, made the drive from his home in Dana Point, Calif., to Long Beach to watch the endurance race to Catalina Island and back. He also stuck around for the awards ceremony and shared some stories about the good old days with racers like Bob Nordskog, who was a driving force behind the Rum Run.

"I think this is fabulous," Clark said regarding the return of the Rum Run. "This is one of the best things that has happened to the sport. A lot has changed over the years. When I first started racing, they wouldn't let us race if it was smooth. Boats had to be over 20 feet and under 50 feet, and they had to be capable of running in any kind of seas. That was it. You really had to have a boat that could run offshore.

"That was the spirit of the sport," he added. "To me this race is getting back to the spirit of the sport."— Jason Johnson

Click to enlarge.