As a race of offshore powerboat racing, turbine-powered catamarans never really took off. No reasonable fan with a marginal memory would disagree. Limited appeal, costs and complexities of ownership and most maintained turbine boats are mostly a curiosity. A large turnout in any race was two boats.
Entertaining while it lasted, the Miss GEICO Mystic turbine-powered catamaran has been gone for nearly 12 years. Photo by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.
But even running solo, a cat equipped with a turbine engine like the 50-ft Miss GEICO cat, which started life as Dave Callan Longlite Boat screaming its way down a straight at over 180 mph was simply fun to watch.
The “era of turbine racing boats” as it were, officially ended when the Miss GEICO Mystic burned to the waterline during practice for what was then called the Suncoast Grand Prix, now the Sarasota Powerboat Grand Prix, in early July 2011. (The Aqua-Mania MTI and my way Mystic catamarans, the last remaining turbine boats, no longer compete.) According to the above Miss GEICO driver Marc Granet, a high-pressure corner of one of the gearboxes failed and caused an oil mist to back up into the exhaust system and cause the fire.
In 2011, the era of turbine powered racing boats officially ended when Miss GEICO was destroyed in a fire.
“The ruptured fitting spewed oil into a 1,000-degree coupling and ignited a diesel and oil fire that was nearly impossible to put out,” Granet recalled. “It was actually on fire underwater when it went in. It was a very tough day for our team.
“I remember saying to (Miss GEICO crew chief) Gary Stray as we were running at 170 mph, “We’ve got smoke in the cockpit,” he continued. “And Gary said, ‘mate, you’re on fire.’ Get off the boat.’”
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