• Sarasota Catamaran Fragmentation

    Sometimes in racing an occurrence happens that will stick with you for a long time, and probably live on in infamy long after you're gone. This past Sunday at the P1 Sarasota Grand Prix we are pretty sure we witnessed such an event. Coming down the front straight on the first lap the new, (not one race completed yet), Doug Wright CMR Super Stock boat took a high flyer and stuffed. When the spray cleared, this is what was witnessed by everyone! The old cliché that it looked like a bomb went off seems appropriate. A Fragmentation Bomb in this case.



    Hard to see what happened due to the spray generated, but Shoot 2 Thrill Pix was able to get both of these photographs starting this article. Thanks!



    The occurrence was something we can only recall happening two other times since they started building boats out of something other than wood. One of the last of the wooden catamaran crashes that came to mind was the Fayva Shoes crash in 1981. What was said about that crash may also be appropriate today. "It's experimental ultra lightweight construction made it a fearsome contender, but also became its undoing". As Brownie so eloquently put it, "Li'l Fayva magically transformed into an acre of orange plywood in 1 unbelievable second" Deja Vu?



    At the time of the stuff Fayva were said to be running about 115mph, they had just passed Howard Arneson. The top speed of Fayva was 126 per Brownie. At the time of the CMR stuff CMR was said to be running around 105 mph.





    Another similar hull disintegration in a stuff situation was the Maritimo boat that stuffed back in 2016. The boat was not a carbon edition boat and had been running for several years.



    The destruction to the CMR boat had everyone in shock. As we stated, it hadn't happened too often in all the years of racing since they started using fiberglass.







    The last time we recall anything like this happening was in Key West to the 30' LA Marine Deep Vee catamaran of Lee Austin. It was a similar situation, although on this stuff the deck folded over the canopy instead of disintegrating. This boat was a carbon, kevlar, epoxy boat.



    It has to be tough to have the latest and greatest destruct like this one did, not sure if it has even completed two laps total yet. Hopefully they do get another boat to race this year. This one is not ever going to race again.





    A little levity in an otherwise crappy situation.



    It is great that they are both okay, could have been much worse based on the amount of damage from a stuff, thankfully it was not a blowover like in Key West with Allen Lawn Care and LPC. If you can think of other similar situations, feel free to add them.

    To those whose picture have appeared and been sent everywhere, and we used some in this article, thanks to all of you too.

    Serious Offshore
    Comments 3 Comments
    1. Ratickle's Avatar
      Ratickle -
    1. Ratickle's Avatar
      Ratickle -
    1. Ratickle's Avatar
      Ratickle -
      When I was talking with Sean and Shaun about this they told me they had not stuffed the boat, it was they were going along in the rough water, the boat hit fairly hard, and all of a sudden one half of the front sorks went one way and the other half went the other way.

      That would have to be a really weird experience......