Originally Posted by Smarty

Multiple boats can show up for an event it is called a race, in an attempt to break a record. One boat goes it alone and tries to break a record, like Gentry from England to the USA, or Dr. Bob Magoon, George Morales or Pepe Nunez from Miami to New York, or Howard Arneson down the Mississippi River but other boats were not present and participating the record breakers new record should not count? Flawed logic. That appears to be what I get out of the previous post either directly or impliedly.

I disagree with the previous posts, what is their to be scared of, he takes his CAT out there, with his hopefully reliable Mercury power and breaks the record, what's the problem? Is it because it is not an OL? Get over it. Records are meant to be broken, I do not care when you do it just do it! It is the same body of water, the same distance, ....call it race if you want multiple boats participating, he is going for a record just like any other race-record setter has done in the past. Maybe he breaks it , or maybe he fails, but at least he tried, and for him just making that attempt - good for him. I wish I had the resources and the boat capable of trying to break the record. And if you haven't figured it out by now, the record breakers always seem, and are the wealthy, with great resources comes great results (or potentially great results).

As Jimmy Spencer would say on the Speed Channel, "you all need the crying towel." Let anyone who wants to try the break the record do it whenever they want, but I do like the Around Long Island Run event, to me it is now my favorite offshore event, other than Key West (which is race in miles, not against a time clock).

Pictures of the Miami to NYC record setters..what is not to understand? They raced the clock over a set distance.....tell these racers their record should not count because other boats did not participate, really?

Originally Posted by chewiekw

George Morales record ( later broken by Gentry). Was a race not a single boat run. There were 5 or 6 other boats entered but I think only 5 started and only two finished. I also think Don Johnson record run had other boats entered as well. I will double check this and let you know.

Originally Posted by Top Banana

“They (the entrants in the Sept. 22 event) can chase our record after we set it,” Hayim added, and laughed.

LAUGHED????

The Greek philosopher Seneca once summed it all up by saying......."Without the dust, there is no glory."

If Mr Hayim goes around the island in a very fast time, good for him and maybe there is a record book out there for the fast run of the day, like for the Staten Island ferry....which does not ocean race either...I guess he could enter his number in that record book, but it has nothing to do with the Around Long Island Race records.

When the races were run and won by guys like Brownie, Odell, Jim Wynne, Sam Griffith and Dick Genth they did it on any day the race was scheduled and against any other racer with any other type of boat they brought to the challenge.

Does anyone doubt that Don Aronow, with all of his resources could not have built the lightest, fastest racer of the day.....and then waited for perfectly flat calm waters and go out and "Break the record." No, he raced on the given race day with whatever conditions prevailed. He never won the race, but boy he sure tried and for that he is still honored and esteemed these many years later.

The past winners of the race..... and that includes the first Joe with his 31 foot Sonic two years ago and the two Joes last year with their Outerlimits ....are the only legitimate claimants to a record run in a race. And they should be the only ones recognized.

I think that if you are not capable of winning a real open ocean water race.... against any and all odds, Don would probably be just as happy if you didn't enter and get in the way of the real competitors.

Originally Posted by fobes

A record would be covering a set distance in the shortest amount of time. Where does it say that there has to be other boats doing it at the same time? Mr. Hayim's competitive record speaks for itself. In this case it appears to be him against the clock alone- I say good for him, and good for all the others w/ the "stones" to take this one on.
Matt

Originally Posted by twinsteptiger

Big deal, Hes hiring Johnny to set the record for him, hes just a dummy passenger. Johnny will scare the living **** out of him. They have plenty of fuel, and this is a 2.5 hour run in that boat.
Congrats to Johnny in advance, Its that easy!

Originally Posted by T2x

I have mixed emotions here to wit:

1. Stuart has impeccable race chops and the thought that JT would scare him in any way is ludicrous since Stuart spent his entire career with Joey Imprescia on the sticks who is arguably the best rough water T-man in history.
2. The disadvantage of setting the record in a race is not the other boats involved. It is the inability to choose a perfect time and weather condition.
3. Both of Stuart's attempts have been used as vehicles to raise money for Cancer research, a disease he miraculously recovered from many years ago, so his intentions are certainly not entirely selfish.
4. All of the records prior to Stuart's attempt were set in pre-scheduled races under extremely rough conditions in most cases, making the record set by Bill Sirois in a 32 Bertram with modest (by today's standards) HP even more remarkable.
5. It is a sad but true commentary on the state of the sport that anyone would think about record setting in a non competitive environment. Back in the glory days of the Around Long Island race no one would have ventured out of the APBA sanctioned date, any more than someone might try and set a "record" on a Nascar track with a modified civilian Porsche or Lambo today. The fact is the respect for racing sanctioning bodies and the tiny fleet of remaining race boats garner so little respect and impact that they are largely ignored in the current era.

Stuart can do anything he wants and IMHO has earned a lot more respect than he has been shown on this thread. He and Joey have beaten fleets of dozens of boats, (in Open and Superboat class) on countless occasions, leading to multiple (real) National and World championships. While I am on a roll let me also point out that even a cleverly scheduled record attempt makes more sense to me than running a 95 mph boat in a 75 mph GPS "breakout" class.

Knowing, as I do, Odell Lewis, Johnny Bakos, Brownie, Gene Bianco, Bill Sirois, Rick Stein, Ken Kalibat, Al Grover, Bill Wishnick, and so many others who made the original race so memorable and iconic, I guess in the end this record needs to include the rough waters of the Atlantic, the navigational challenge to Plum Gut and the wash board thumping of Long Island Sound without compromise. On the other hand there were times when the old race itself had calm conditions. Of course in some of the smaller 15 and 16 foot boats that didn't mean much.

T2x