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Top Banana
11-15-2008, 03:44 PM
Thank God Key West is only once a year, don't now how many weeks of that I could take. Finally arrived home this morning after a very pleasant trip.

First a big thanks to Chris and the other members of Seriousoffshore.com that we met up with in Key West. Thanks for the attire, didn't realize the great quality until I opened the package.

Paradox, arrived home to find your messages on my home phone.....I guess that explains why you didn't contact me in Key West on my cell phone, but it was a pleasure meeting up with you and seeing your boat, we will catch up in Tampa before long.

Many thanks to those who had such kind comments on our new 24 foot outboard, we certainly had a great time running around down there catching some air time.

A special thanks to the Bounty Hunter crew. We were out running around on Saturday and they came up next to us and we ran together out toward the tower. My son was driving and I told him that the last time I ran next to that boat was in the 1979 Bacardi race to Bimini and I came in 3rd to his 2nd place. It really brought back some great memories.

We went over to the Bounty Hunter to introduce ourselves after we came back in to the dock. Thanks to the wonderful world of the internet, they not only knew who we were, but also all about HORBA and our plans to race open ocean races again. We left them with a bunch of HORBA decals for the side of the boat.

Saw Richie Powers later and he said...."I saw you out there racing the Bounty Hunter just like old times." It really got the juices going again and helped us to get to work on the open ocean racing again.

At this time, we know of about 20 to 25 old race boats that could be ready by next November 2009. We could do something like just a small 100 mile run to warm us up for the Miami to Key West race ( 190 miles) we are doing in February of 2010.

The boats would range from Open class boats like Bounty Hunter to the restored single engine 1963 Formula 233 that I raced in the Don Aronow Memorial Race in June with. The main thing is that we would have a pretty big group and could just make a "Cruise" to exercise the old boats and let them be seen again.

My son and I are starting again on the restoration of the Benihana that we have.... and I stopped by my engine shop after Key West to see how they are doing with the engines. I have an old set of Mercury racing engines, with the big injector stacks, that I am having the shop detune to run on regular gas and live for more than the old 4 hour lifespan.

My last night in Miami, I was with Brownie, Bobby Saccenti, John Conners (Betty Cook's throtleman) and some people from P1. We have some great ideas for the coming years....you ain't seen nothing yet.

We want to include the Seriousoffshore.com people too, as we move along with our plans.....this is going to be great fun, just like it used to be.

Racegirl3
11-15-2008, 04:40 PM
Charlie .... it was great seeing you again and meeting your son. Thanks for keeping us up to date ... I always look forward to reading your posts :)

Top Banana
11-15-2008, 04:44 PM
[QUOTE=Top Banana;20694]
My son and I are starting again on the restoration of the Benihana that we have.... and I stopped by my engine shop after Key West to see how they are doing with the engines. I have an old set of Mercury racing engines, with the big injector stacks, that I am having the shop detune to run on regular gas and live for more than the old 4 hour lifespan.QUOTE]

Here is a shot of the Benihana and the engines like we have to power it.

Racegirl....always a pleasure to see you and your partner in crime, Lucidee.

boatme
11-15-2008, 04:52 PM
Charlie,

What ever i can do to help you know i am in

Let me know

Marc

PARADOX
11-15-2008, 05:09 PM
Glad you had a good time Charlie.

I called the "number" several times and I thought it was your cell phone.. Sorry for the confusion. Let me know when you'r will be in the Tampa area .. we get that ride in.
Some serious "bouncing" has your name on it.
BTW.. The Avanti, performed awsome. After the FPC Saturday party at YCOA. we were coming back, in some nice chops. Bunch of white caps but "close" together. We were about to come back to the marina and I said,, heII with it, let's go and play a bit. So we turned around and had some serious fun. Love to see some "air" under that hull and we hit the fastest speed yet, in some nasty seas. My hat's off to your design.