Popeye-La Tortuga 44' - The giants of the seventies

[T2x]

Skean Dhu, a special purpose boat designed for speed alone? What makes you think that.It won it`s class on several occasions in Class IIID offshore racing,which was more than a trip round the bay (as per key west) and that was in a class with more than 4 boats as the U.S. like to do, and then call themselves World Champions,but that`s a thread in itself.OK it wasn`t OP1,but still a noteworthy achievement.

Point taken, but that hull was a trimaran, and considerably faster and lighter than any standard vee bottomed hull of that era. A few of those designs made it over here (they still pop up from time to time in newer "original" forms of one kind or another) The bottom line is that the Skean Dhu style hull was faster in calm water than a vee, and not quite as fast as a good cat.

As far as US World champions are concerned, back when Skean Dhu was racing the US fleets were the largest in the world........

Your comment no doubt pertains to the nonsense that has called itself "racing" for the the last 5 to 7 years stateside.

T2x

[Black Tornado]

As far as US World champions are concerned, back when Skean Dhu was racing the US fleets were the largest in the world........
T2x

This didn't justify the fact to pretend that the World Championship had to exclusively be raced in US waters every year.
This happened after the Worlds finals of Key West of the 1981. The APBA didn't want to send around the World its champions anymore and pretended that the rest of the World every year introduced him to the presence of the temple of the god of the offshore Key West.
It was the beginning of the end of the offshore racing.
The rest they made the cats and the consequent more and more competitions inshore.