Key West 2014, Stock Outboard's Present and Future?

Published on 11-05-2014 10:49 AM

33 Comments

Courtesy Shoot 2 Thrill Pete

Stock Outboard, the only class where the world's rules match the US rules, also appears to be strong this year. There are a few boats who will have the role of favorites, the wider Doug Wrights being the boats with the advantage over the narrower tunneled competition. But, there is one boat that we will be keeping our eyes on closely to see how it does. Risky Business, a 1992 Skater 28 with a pair of Mercury Racing 200 XS outboards (running approximately 240 HP), will be competing against 32' Doug Wrights and 30' Skaters with twin 280 HP Mercury Racing engines.

Obviously, water conditions will play a major role in the class, but what will the top speed of the 200's be versus the top speed of the 280's? Why so much interest for some of us? Well, Mercury has stopped building the 280's so there is a debate going on as to running the 200 or the 300 in the future. The pieces and parts of the 200 fits the current lower units without major modification, the 300 does not. So, the expense of racing the 300 over the 200 is major investment increase and may make the size of the fleet decrease.

Courtesy Freezeframe Jeff

We will try to keep the information flowing as the week progresses.

Courtesy Sgoot 2 Thrill Pete

Starting the events races today should be:

5 Brothers Grocery
Hulk
Talbot Excavating
SOS Venezuela
Papa's Pilar
Risky Business

33 Comments

Serious News - 11-06-2014, 09:11 AM
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CLASS: SUPERBOAT STOCK
DIST: 28.6 LAP-1 LAP-2 LAP-3 LAP-4 LAP-5 LAP-6 LAP-7 LAP-8 LAP-9 LAP-10 TOTAL AVG PEN ELAPSED
START: 12:35:08 DIST. SPEED MIN TIME POS PTS
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S-29 TALBOT EXCAVATING 78.1 79.7 80.2 80.2 79.7 78.9 79.3 ------------------ 28.6 79.57 -- 00:21:34 1 250
S-110 SOS VENEZULA 77.5 78.1 79.7 78.5 79.7 78.9 79.3 ------------------ 28.6 78.96 -- 00:21:44 2 225
S-1 THE HULK REDLINE OIL 78.7 77.7 76.6 78.9 77.7 78.9 78.5 ------------------ 28.6 78.18 -- 00:21:57 3 202.5
S-111 5 BROTHERS GROCERY 72.0 75.8 76.2 77.0 75.1 75.5 77.0 ------------------ 28.6 75.71 -- 00:22:40 4 182.5
S-5 PAPA'S PILAR RUM 76.9 77.4 77.7 78.5 78.9 74.0 67.6 ------------------ 28.6 75.65 -- 00:22:41 5 164.5
S-27 RISKY BUSINESS 57.6 62.1 63.1 65.3 60.7 63.4 64.5 ------------------ 28.6 62.59 -- 00:27:25 6 148

Serious News - 11-07-2014, 09:24 PM
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KEY WEST WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
SBIP - NOVEMBER 7, 2014 - FRIDAY RACE - KEY WEST, FL
UNOFFICIAL RESULTS - TIME: 14:54:32
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CLASS: SUPERBOAT STOCK
DIST: 28.6 LAP-1 LAP-2 LAP-3 LAP-4 LAP-5 LAP-6 LAP-7 LAP-8 LAP-9 LAP-10 TOTAL AVG PEN ELAPSED
START: 12:35:37 DIST. SPEED MIN TIME POS PTS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
S-29 TALBOT EXCAVATING 86.1 86.4 86.9 86.9 87.4 86.0 86.9 ------------------ 28.6 86.74 -- 00:19:47 1 250
S-1 THE HULK REDLINE OIL 85.4 86.0 85.0 86.9 86.4 86.4 86.0 ------------------ 28.6 86.09 -- 00:19:56 2 225
S-110 SOS VENEZULA 84.0 85.0 84.1 84.5 85.5 83.6 82.7 ------------------ 28.6 84.26 -- 00:20:22 3 202.5
S-5 PAPA'S PILAR RUM 81.9 82.7 84.5 84.1 84.1 83.6 82.7 ------------------ 28.6 83.50 -- 00:20:33 4 182.5
S-111 5 BROTHERS GROCERY 80.6 81.4 81.9 82.7 80.6 81.4 81.0 ------------------ 28.6 81.46 -- 00:21:04 5 164.5
S-27 RISKY BUSINESS 69.0 72.6 71.0 73.3 70.6 69.4 ------------------------ 24.3 71.12 -- 00:20:30 6 148

Serious News - 11-08-2014, 10:15 AM
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Talbot closing in on third world powerboat title

By: Kitsap Sun staff

Posted: 7:07 PM, Nov 7, 2014

Silverdale's Kyler Talbot won his second race of the three-race series during the 34th annual Key West World Championship Offshore Powerboat races on Friday. Talbot and throttleman Jay Mullen from New Jersey led the Superboat Stock-class race from start to finish.

http://www.kitsapsun.com/sports/talb...title_35596940

Serious News - 11-11-2014, 10:14 PM
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Sunday's rough water certainly took its toll on the boats. With Talbot breaking a motor, the entire expectations of those watching were changed. The Final places were SOS Venezuela, The Hulk, and Papa's Pilar Rum. Talbot excavating ended up fourth for the week.

stevequick - 11-15-2014, 04:59 PM
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The conditions were not great for a 28 even on Wednesday and Friday. The Risky Business guys are a too savvy and experienced to tear their boat up for nothing. My read from most of the Stock guys is that they don't want to go slower. The 200XS's (240 hp) might be an answer. If they can be slightly warmed up possibly even the answer. The 'test' in Key West did nothing to help their case.

Ratickle - 11-16-2014, 05:36 PM
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Yep, that was unfortunate. I'm a bit curious about what their speeds were on Wednesday and Friday. The big questions, will SBI and APBA/UIM make the rules match for both organizations, or will there continue to be dissimilar rules as there currently are. I'm hoping the team owners will push towards standardizing the rules as the first step towards a new power package, no ,matter when and what it is. The current engines won't last forever, and the 300 will not fit the UIM/APBA rules I don't believe.

stevequick - 11-18-2014, 09:05 PM
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The SS fleet averaged 77.61 on Wednesday Risky Business averaged 62.59. Friday the fleet was 84 and Risky Business was 71. As I said, it was not a fair test for the motors. Based on absolutely no factual evidence I suspect a 32' boat would have been about 6-10 mph slower. Currently I have no dog in this hunt. When I do the thought of an easily accessed low maintenance motor will be very appealing. 5mph slower would not bother me either. I have seen motor changes take the excitement/thrill factor out of another class I used to race. That is something we need to be careful of.

Ratickle - 11-18-2014, 11:22 PM
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Very careful.

SBI has the weight benefit/restriction rules for the wider tunnels versus the narrow tunnels. With their weight differences, and a 28' wide tunnel boat made to take all the benefits of the 240HP engine, I believe the 5mph slower range is possible. But, the only way to know for sure is to compare an apples to apples boat. Rumors have it Gary is having a 28 wide tunnel built. Do you chat with him?

Also, APBA/UIM does not have the weight modification rules for tunnel width. But, they don't allow the modified ECM's that SBI allows. Is that because it's easy to monitor maximum RPM with today's data-loggers but not easy to catch a modified ECM?

Ratickle - 11-19-2014, 09:25 PM
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SBI

6.2.12 Tunnel Width no more than 63”. Any boat having less than 63” in the tunnel may reduce its overall weight by 25lbs. per inch of tunnel, from their base weight.
Example: Base Boat – Doug Wright 32’ with the 63” tunnel weight is 4,300 lbs
32’ with the 61” tunnel would be 4,275 lbs
32’ with the 60” tunnel would be 4,250 lbs BOTTOM LINE-Doug Wright 32’(older models)57” tunnel would be 4,150 lbs
a total reduction of 150 lbs.
6.2.13 Minimum overall length of 28’ with a maximum of 32’.
6.3 Minimum weight: 28’ … 3,800lb
29’ … 3,925lb
30’ … 4,050lb
31’ … 4,175lb
32’ …4,300lb

APBA
All Super Stock (SS) Class boats must adhere strictly to the following specifications. Please also refer to the rules pertaining to all APBA Offshore classes.
1 - Dimensions:
Hull type:Catamaran
Length minimum:28' 0"
Length maximum:32' 0"
Beam maximum:10' 6”
Tunnel width maximum (measured at keel):65"
Weight minimum 28 feet:3,800lb
Weight minimum 29 feet:3,925lb
Weight minimum 30 feet:4,050lb
Weight minimum 31 feet:4,175lb
Weight minimum 32 feet:4,300lb

Riskybusiness racing - 11-24-2014, 10:25 PM
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We were actually surprised how well the boat ran. Since we didn't get to test to much before we made our long haul out from California. The boat was down on power big time compared to the other boats and the tunnel width. We did see 95 mph going out to turn one. The boat will be getting lots of work done. Maybe widening it and put some different motors on. But it was just a good time and a lot if fun!

2TR - 11-25-2014, 07:58 PM
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The old girl ran good with a couple mildly modified 2.5/260's - not sure on the H.P, Maybe 270/280??

Wonder how she will run with a couple 200xs - I need to get a weight this weekend.
Attachment 79267

Attachment 79272

Riskybusiness racing - 11-25-2014, 10:49 PM
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We ran with the 200xs.. It ran good bit just wasn't enough horsepower. To keep up with the other boats. Those motors we had were 240 horsepower a motor, so we were significantly down on power. But they are way cool motors. Very cool and easy maintenance motors.

Ratickle - 11-26-2014, 12:58 AM
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If you had the time to set it up and work with props, what do you think you could have done? 240 HP isn't that much less than the 280 of the 2.5's.

What's your tunnel width and weight?

Riskybusiness racing - 11-26-2014, 11:34 PM
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If I had more time we could have tried more options. But we threw those on, ran it on the river by my house. Broke the motors in and hauled ass to key west. I wish we had more time to set motor height and try more props out, but no one is really running those on a cat like us so we had to just go with it. I would be so pumped up if they decided to run these motors.

Ratickle - 11-27-2014, 09:59 AM
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Originally Posted by Pete B

Nice shot.

2TR - 11-28-2014, 01:00 PM
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Originally Posted by Riskybusiness racing

If I had more time we could have tried more options. But we threw those on, ran it on the river by my house. Broke the motors in and hauled ass to key west. I wish we had more time to set motor height and try more props out, but no one is really running those on a cat like us so we had to just go with it. I would be so pumped up if they decided to run these motors.

Couple questions:

Whats was your boats weight at KY?
and whats your tunnel width on that skater?

Ratickle - 11-29-2014, 11:28 AM
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Shoot 2 Thrill Pix

Riskybusiness racing - 12-01-2014, 10:52 PM
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The weight was 4250. There is a lot to take out but when that boat was built it had three outboards on. So it is a little heavy. There are a lot if options to do. We were going to change all batteries, seats , Etc...
The tunnel is very short, I believe it's 43" across from each sponson. But it would be a badass boat if we widened it to 63" . I think it would be awesome competition if the boats were all equal.

Ratickle - 12-02-2014, 04:09 PM
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At 43" tunnel you could have been as light as 3300 lbs. and been legal?

Riskybusiness racing - 12-02-2014, 08:55 PM
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Originally Posted by Ratickle

At 43" tunnel you could have been as light as 3300 lbs. and been legal?

Yes, we were way heavy,but we didn't have anytime to really get everything in order. If the boat doesn't sell without motors, we are going to widen it and make it some what lighter. It's going to be a lot of work but I think it'll be a fast boat. Those seats in there are like 100 pounds so there is a lot of possibilities to do.