Black Tornado

Miss WD-40 was the second Bertram owned by the German Oskar Trost.
The first was a 31' Nautec Sp. former Boss'O Nova/Fino.
With it Trost run some races in 1972,like the London to Montecarlo.
At the end of seventies this Bertram rested in Viareggio,then disappear.....


Viareggio-Bastia-Viareggio 1972
Sorry for the bad quality of the image but it is the only that I have and it is a copy....

Top Banana

Phil...all is well ...getting ready to head down to Florida for the cold months soon. Hope you and Peter are doing fine also!.

Marco...I took the two photos that you have, that show Rocky's boat in Key West and Bacardi the following year.

Look at the exit for the exhaust...the Key West boat had them out the side while the Bacardi boat had them out the transom. These two boats were different.

Also, they were both # 4 while the last photo shows boat # 5 and that is a completely different boat.

Black Tornado

All is possible.
However the different positions of the exhaust means little.
On the Cigarettes the italian drivers for instance changed often these positions
De Angelis on the his 36' Eraf in the 1974 changed such positions for well 2 times and Balestrieri on one of two Black Tornado 32' in 1970 it had his former The Cigarette with the exhaust on transom and in 1971 he changed putting them on either side.
And the job was often done so well that traces of the changes were not seen.
Then you tell me that the first two pics show to us the classical number 4 of Aoki would be the same boat and that with the 5 the other.
But really the two with the number 4 have positioned in different way among them the exhaust like you tell right.
The number 5 was adopted because the Team Benihana in 1978 raced with two boats: the Cougar cat with the Aoki's number 4 and the Bertram with the 5 like show the third photo took at Guy Lombardo in 1978 where was drove to the Errol Lanier's brother Gary.
I haven't datas objective that Aoki had 2 identical Bertrams. But Phil and you were to fight against the Benihanas and you know better surely that about me.

Top Banana

Well we found a great one this week.... a newmember joined HORBA and sent us photos and a story about his restoration of the first race boat that Don Aronow called...The Cigarette. It is a Formula 233 with a single engine 409 cu in motor.

Full story and photos on the HORBA site under Members Boats.

www.historicraceboats.com

Top Banana

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HORBA

One year ago today, we started HORBA

It has grown tremendously over the past 12 months and we are very excited about our plans for the future.

Thanks to OSO for the support and help they have given us and their ownlove of the sport and keeping the history alive.

THANK YOU to the fans and especially to the directors who have made this possible.

littlenige

And Thank You Charlie for being one of the main propellants of the whole caboodle. I personally am finding a renewed joy in my love for offshore racing. I now recall why I fell in love with the sport in the first place. Bring back the old days! WAHOO!

cary

Mr. Simone had nothing to do with the Cigarette, and never worked for my dad either. My dad sold cary to a Mr. Testevan of France and Mr. Simone ran the company for the investors. He tried to put cary in the same market as Don's Cigarette Racing Team. He did an outboard knock off version for Chris Craft. and not much innovative.

Luuk

Yesterday when I was down at the marina, two young guys show up, they was in their 20īs. And they had bought the boat Talvisota this winter and are now rebuilding the engines. They are from Helsinki and own a big IT-company, realy nice guys and I will go and boating with them this summer at the Hangö-regatta.

MikeyFIN

And Iīm rebuilding a 34 Kevlar Scarabs engines for some young guns as we speak...also same kinda profession.
And that boat will kick major butt soon trust me ;-)

I know the seller of "BigT"and must admit that boat is a sled. Itīs only claim to fame was that it was the single boat that held together.
It has never run over 55 knots I believe, itīs just too wide and heavy...not even with the "race-engines" (2X500hp) it could muster anything to hang in the christmas tree.
At the time Talvisota was a racer my boss had a 415 Stinger named Casanova that was even faster :-)

Why was Talvisota the winner then?
The DJ 38KV was a tired stock boat (2X420) and worn out by DJ himself and the TV-company.
Bella 36 Falcon (Molinari) racecat broke once or twice,
The US-1 46 Cougar (3X575īs+SSM3) didnīt have a class to compete although it usually led overall with a Big Margin until it run out of fuel or navigation error (Tallin-Helsinki offshore race for example) As those races were True offshore races that was shown live on TV even.
At the Stockholm Helsinki (True) Offshore race a 32 Baja driven by the well known racing brothers (Wegelius) kicked Talvisota and everybody else Royally and hit a log at the finish line and sunk at the Helsinki harbour, later two of my friends had it who also started the first Poker Runs in Finland (1997)..nowadays itīs bright yellow.
And lets not forget the 35 Chris Cat that was around here ( a true US raceboat ) or the 30 Superboat cat that still is or the still reigning Stockholm Helsinki record Holder Skater32 Warrior driven by 5 time WRC champion Juha Kankkunen, its located a few hundred yards from our company today.
So thereīs a brief rundown of the late 80īs offshore seasons boats locally.

Hangö Regatta is for blowboaters...you think 385Stingers will fare better in those types of racing ;-) ??
FYI 1996 I was quite close to buying Talvisota myself, I had the money went and took a look at it and thought..no not my type. I like oldschool no flying septitanks.
Felt also that same way while looking at the sistership.
Last summer the former owner was quite humbled when he told me at the Airisto offshore race his boat is for sale and I didnīt give hime any reply..he asked didnīt it turn on any lights...
I replied None and that was that and we laughed at the whole thing.

Basically those boats were all stock that raced then so thereīs not much actually to talk about.
The only one worth saving if not changed too much (as it is) is the UIM Class1 Notareal Cougar Cat which I know the current whereabouts of or the World Champion Class1 Finnscrew Skater cat which I donīt have a clue of.

lucy