Hailed as the ‘the world’s most rugged ocean race’ the fabled Miami-Nassau races brought powerboat racing to the attention of the general public and signaled the beginnings of modern offshore racing. These races also provided the sport with its first hero - Sam L. Griffith.
The first Miami-Nassau race, run on May 6, 1956 was the brainchild of American race car promoter Capt. Sherman ‘Red’ Crise and yacht designer, Dick Bertram. Of the eleven intrepid pioneers who entered this now famous 184-mile race, eight went the distance to complete the race. The first boat home after nine hours 20 minutes, at an average speed of 19.7mph, was the Griffith-Bertram entry, Doodles II, a 34ft wooden Chris Craft with two 215hp Cadillac Crusader engines.
In the 20 years following its recognition by the Union Internationale Motonautique (U.I.M.) and the inception of the Sam Griffith Trophy in 1964 the Americans were at the forefront of the sport’s technological development.
In the 1980s the pendulum swung to witness a period of European design dominance. Don Shead’s Aluminium monohulls from Enfield, Italian manufacturers Picchiotti and CUV and the James Beard-Clive Curtis Cougar catamarans set the pace. The European resurgence was completed by the genius of Fabio Buzzi, whose quantum leap into Glass Reinforced Polymer (GRP) hulls, turbo-charged Aifo Iveco and Seatek diesel engines, and integral surface drive transmissions through his FB Corse concern proved unbeatable.
The decade of the 90s witnessed the emergence of the Michael Peters designed, Tencara and Victory built hulls that dominated the honours lists with the American Sterling, the Italian Lamborghini petrol and the Seatek diesel engines sharing the power battle.
The last year 30-years have not only witnessed an evolution in the technical side of the sport, but a major overhaul to the overall make-up of the championship, becoming a far more international affair. In the early years, it was commonplace for teams to field two boat entries, competing in as many as 18 races at venues across America, Australia, South Africa, Sweden, France, Italy and the UK.
Speeds have altered beyond all recognition. In the early 1960’s, races were regularly won at averages of below 30mph (48km/h) but it was the advent of catamarans in the 1980’s that allowed the magic barrier of 100mph (160km/h) to be regularly exceeded and now, winning averages of 125mph (200km/h) or more are not unusual.
This quest for speed has produced boats, engines and transmission systems which are inevitably more sophisticated and the use of Fibre Reinforced Polymer (FRP) with advanced composites using Kevlar and carbon fibre has happily made them safer.
Yesterday’s racers were amateur sportsmen and women, pioneers who looked the part. Today’s crews wear fireproof overalls, driving boots, have helmets plumbed with intercommunicating radios and do battle in boats that only go afloat to test or race and are prepared and maintained by a crew of professional engineers.
These and all the other factors have shaped Class 1 powerboat racing into what it is today. But one aspect hasn’t changed in the past forty-odd years of action - the sea. And for all the progress made, and the highly professional sport that it has become, Class 1 still shares the same ingenuity and ethos of its founders – man and machine against the sea.