Clive Curtis Has Passed

[Ben]

Another of the greats has been lost.

http://raceboatinternational.com/index.php?id=537

[Ratickle]

Wow, tough week.....


RIP, another of the Top 100 for absolutely sure.....

[Bobcat]

Sad news . That is a great link, thank you for putting it up.

[Black Tornado]

Really sad these days. Another milestone of offshore racing has left us.
Clive with James Beard was the turning point of the competition with its famous cats who defeated the mono on waters that were still offshore.

[Ratickle]

He certainly was a great pioneer of Offshore. I haven't talked with Steve since the Qatar boats left after Orange beach. Our sincerest condolences Steve, our prayers are with you.

A little bit more of a quick oversight (extremely short version);

Clive Curtis was the founder of Cougar Marine and father of powerboat champion Steve Curtis.

He actually started in sailboats.

Curtis crewed with Don Aronow in the Cigarette when it won the 1969 Cowes-Torquay-Cowes race.

His company, Cougar Marine, started out mainly building race boats, but in the late 1970s the firm was incorporated within the Toleman Group.

When Toleman ceased trading in the late 1980s Clive carried on building smaller craft until his retirement, when the company was taken over by his son Steve.

[FLYING FISH]

The thing that made Clive Curtis unique, was that he was involved in so many branches of powerboat racing.He did circa 50 circuit races ranging from Paris to Amsterdam,before the OP1 cats were evolved.

But let`s not forget he was part of a formidable team,with James Beard designing the lines and Chris Hodges building the wooden construction,until sub-contactors did the alloy work.

It seemed that every new design worked straight out of the box,although the 3 pointer cat shown did have turning problems,but very fast down the straight,but that was all part of the learning curve.

I doubt if we will ever see the like again ,capable of so much diversity,his experience was immense.

[C35]

skater mti and the rest prob wouldnt be here if it wasnt for clive.