Maybe I’m jumping the gun, but I’m extremely excited to see how the new Super Vee Light (SVL) class pans out throughout the 2010 offshore racing season. If you haven’t heard about it, check this out:

Last year, the SVL teams agreed to enter the 2010 season as a group and race a series of events with a variety of promoters in order to increase boat count and improve the competition. While the idea to run with Offshore Super Series (OSS), Offshore Powerboat Association (OPA) and Super Boat International (SBI) as one unified front was great in of itself, the timing couldn’t have been better with the establishment of the domestic arm of the Powerboat P1 World Championship.

Basically, Powerboat P1, which announced in April it would not run its European Evolution and SuperSport classes in 2010, decided earlier this year to establish a North American subsidiary to develop three premier V-bottom classes stateside (run with similar power-to-weight-ratio rules). The initial two-year plan, beginning in 2011, was to work with existing organizations and race producers to build up their regional races and represent the three consolidated classes within the American Power Boat Association (APBA) Offshore category.

So here’s the cool part. Not only are the SVL teams going to be bringing more excitement to the race course with the higher boat count, but they also will be competing for a $10,000 prize purse at each race, beginning with the first one in Biloxi, Miss., May 20-23. With nine races on the schedule, that’s $90,000 up for grabs—the largest purse I’ve ever seen for one race class in one season.

The SVL boats, which are single-engine V-bottoms powered by Mercury Racing HP525EFI engines, are currently running under a consistent set of rules for existing North American racing series, but will adopt a set of rules including Powerboat P1’s popular power-to-weight-ratio criteria down the road. The sponsorship is designed to test the waters with Powerboat P1 USA’s model of working with existing race promoters to improve the sport’s marketability, as well as demonstrate the class format so it can be applied to the larger boat classes.

It’s nice to see such a competitive bunch of racers have something go their way. For years, the SVL class has provided some of the highest boat counts and most dramatic finishes. Hopefully the racers’ efforts, as well as Powerboat P1’s, pay off and start a trend in the sport.

And, oh yeah, you didn’t hear it from me, but rumor is a high-profile company plans to debut a new single-engine 30-foot race boat in Biloxi built specifically to compete in the SVL class.

For the past five years, I’ve covered the Formula One racing series for the magazine, and for anyone who has seen the tunnel boats in action, you’ll agree with me when I say there’s nothing like watching the outboard-powered boats race around the course and make those hairpin turns.

With that in mind, I was glad to see the new Formula One PROP Tour kick off its season last weekend in Port Neches, Texas. Led by a few well-known names in the sport, the Formula One PROP Tour was started last fall year after a majority of the F1-ChampBoat Series teams were unhappy with the F1-ChampBoat organizers, who had managed the series for more than five years but had a hard time coming up with funding in 2009.

The good thing is that much of the dissention is behind the drivers, according to veteran driver Chris Fairchild and the 2009 F1-ChampBoat points champion Shaun Torrente, who won the Port Neches event despite damaging his boat during testing on Saturday.

“I don’t see any reason why we can’t all play together this year,” said Fairchild, who is looking forward to a busy 2010 season. “I think we can all go at this knowing that drivers have made mistakes and promoters have made mistakes, and that we all need each other to get through these lean times. The bottom line is we’re going to go where there’s a race—just as long as it meets the requirements of the drivers.”

With five events locked in for the Formula One PROP Tour schedule and another seven tentatively scheduled for the 2010 F1-ChampBoat Series, the teams could have plenty of races to choose from, which could lead to more sponsorship dollars.

“We need races, that’s for sure,” Torrente said from his home in Miami on Monday. “We need to stick together to grow our sport, and just go racing and have a good time.”

From a business aspect, both Fairchild and Torrente agree that the sport needs the marketing efforts that the F1-ChampBoat Series, which has new stockholders, can offer. That said, both were pleased with the professionalism that the first F1 PROP Tour race showed last weekend.

“To tell you the truth, the win was rough for our team,” said Torrente. “We blew a big hole in the boat during Saturday morning testing and had to put the boat aside. RJ West (of Revolution Boats) came by and said he could fix it, and Greg Jacobsen let us use one of his old boats to qualify for Sunday.”

Torrente said his team worked on the boat until 2:30 a.m. on Sunday morning and was back at the race site at 6 a.m. to sand the boat and get it ready for the Final. He gave a lot of credit to all the other teams who pitched in to provide parts to get his boat back on the course.

He also got a little bit of luck when Brian Norman crashed in the first turn on the 38th lap. Torrente was trailing Tim Seebold, who had led from the pole, when the crash occurred and the race was restarted. Torrente managed to beat Seebold to the inside lane on the first turn and held off Seebold for the remaining 12 laps to take the season opener. Finishing behind Seebold for third place was Michael Schubert.

The next stop on the F1 PROP Tour is Bay City, Mich., at the end of June, but I’m hoping we see many of the teams at the F1-ChampBoat Series season opener in Little Rock, Ark., on June 5-6.

While I’ve had the chance to ride in two of the world’s fastest race boats—both Mystic Powerboats catamarans—I have to admit that I can’t wait to feast my eyes on the company’s new performance pleasure boat.

With so much hype surrounding the C-5000S—the pleasure version of the C-5000R race boat used by teams like Aqua-Mania, Cintron, JBS Racing and Miss GEICO—I called John Cosker to find out how the new boat was coming along.

Boat? Try boats, plural. Excited about entering a new side of the performance-boat world, Cosker said Mystic has doubled its production to focus on the demand for the recreational 50-footer. The Deland, Fla., company had an open-cockpit four-seater—essentially its race boat with the top cut off—on display at the Miami International Boat Show in February, but Cosker said he’s already sent the first closed-canopy six-seater model to Turbine Marine for power and rigging.

And right behind that is the second closed-canopy six-seater, which is headed to St. Tropez in France, followed by the first open-canopy six-seater powered by twin T-53 turbines. Cosker expects to have the open-canopy boat done in time for some poker runs this summer and is looking forward to getting his boats out to different regions of the country, as well as into the European market where his SL 700 70-foot performance yachts have been well received.

“A lot of people seem to be waiting to see how (the six-seater) will look since they’ve only seen the race boats,” Cosker said. “I can tell you that it looks a lot different because the six-man cockpit is wider and taller. The interior has a real automotive feel and we’ll be working with different painters to satisfy out customers’ preferences.”

In the meantime, Cosker is heading to the Desert Storm Poker Run in Lake Havasu, Ariz., for the first time in a couple of weeks (April 22-25) with new dealer Bruce Bullock, who joined the Mystic family this week. Cosker said Bullock Marine, along with a couple of other dealers Mystic plans to add this year, will help sell the models and assist the clients at poker runs or whenever they need support. Jeff Stevenson and the JBS Racing Mystic team also are expected to be in Lake Havasu for the event.

For more information on Cosker and Mystic Powerboats, check out www.mysticpowerboats.com.

Motivated by a 185.7-mph top speed Bill Pyburn posted in his 388 Skater powered by Chief 1350SCEFI engines in late January to lay claim to the title of world’s fastest open-canopy pleasure boat, a pair of professional racers and setup men drove Gino Gargiulo’s Mercedes MTI up to 193 mph last week in Miami.

Yes 193 mph! With Larry Goldman, owner of Xtreme Marine and organizer of the Bimini Memorial Offshore Challenge in June (offshoreevents.net), on the wheel and John Tomlinson, world champion racer and owner of TNT Custom Marine, on the throttles, the 44-foot catamaran reached 193 mph on GPS. Click here to see the video of the run shot by Tomlinson, who throttled with his right hand and held the camera in his left.

I spoke to Goldman last week and he and Gargiulo were ecstatic about the run. Powered by a pair of Sterling 1550 engines with race fuel, Goldman said the boat handled at top speed flawlessly. Although nothing was modified on the engines that are normally in the boat, Goldman said they ran a new set of lower units built by Mark Wilson and tried two new sets of Hering propellers, the first of which produced a 191-mph run.

With further dialing in, Goldman believes the boat can run even faster as the tachometers showed 6,550 rpm while the motors reportedly max out at 6,850 rpm.

There’s been a friendly competition between Gargiulo and Pyburn in the past on the message boards and on the water, including at the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout where Pyburn’s Skater reached 171 mph and Gargiulo’s MTI had some issues, but managed to run 157 mph. And while it’s fun to see the two shoot for bragging rights, it also should be noted that these are experienced drivers running these speeds. (Tomlinson, who is a member of the Powerboat Test Team, also throttled Pyburn’s Skater that ran 185 on 93-octane pump gas.)

“We had the right people on the right day, and some help from the right props,” said Goldman, who added that they had six different high-end cameras on board for the first run and not one of them held up besides the handheld one Tomlinson used.

I must admit it’s amazing to see boats run these speeds. But between the quality of the boats, engines, drives and propellers, as well as the knowledge of the guys controlling the boats, it’s not surprising.

On a side note, Gargiulo’s MTI was featured in a recent episode of “World’s Most Expensive Rides” on the Discovery HD Theater channel. Check your listings today to catch a repeat. It’s the episode featuring the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren sports car.