Miami Herald

November 6, 1988

OFFSHORE SHOWDOWN

ERIC SHARP - Herald Boating Writer

WORLD CUP RACES OPEN TUESDAY IN KEY WEST
Al Copeland has driven his 50-foot Popeyes catamarans to the United States championship five years running in offshore power boat racing's superboat class.

Copeland, a Louisiana fried chicken king and restaurateur, is the man who almost single-handedly created this class of three- and four-engined monsters that top out at about 135 miles per hour and routinely skitter over a four-foot sea at speeds in excess of 100 mph.

So it is understandable that Copeland will try to use the 1988 Offshore World Cup races at Key West this week to shut up those who wondered how his Popeyes/Goetz 50-footer could have been beaten in the last race of the regular season by a guy who not only never had competed in an offshore boat but never so much as had gotten into a superboat until minutes before that race began.

Charles Marks of Washington, D.C., believed to be the first black driver on the American offshore circuit, is, like Copeland, a self-made millionaire, piling up his bucks in a computer business. A drag-strip racer as a kid, Marks wanted to get back into high-speed competition, but virtually every avenue he considered would have required years of apprenticeship before he could be competitive.

But then he started thinking about offshore racing, and especially the superboat class where the million-dollar price just to get started keeps the field rather slim.

Marks ordered a 48-foot Cougar cat, which he named Eric's Reality after his 12-year-old son. With Miami boat-rigging genius Bobby Moore putting the craft together and handling the throttles, Marks got into the four-engined boat for the first time in September at the Trump Offshore Grand Prix in New Jersey. After trailing Copeland for most of a very rough-water race, Marks caught and passed him in the final miles when Copeland blew a second engine and Marks was able to limp a bit faster on three.

Marks had owned several smaller offshore pleasure boats and was experienced in craft that reached 60 mph, but the first race in a truly fast boat got him so pumped up that he immediately began looking for a way to get into the World Cup event, even though he had not competed in the required three regular-season races.

So Marks will run at Key West either under the flag of a foreign nation, or he will carry on board a driver from another class who has done three races and list that person as the driver of record.

Copeland, who won four of eight races on his way to the 1988 superboat title, shrugged off Marks' victory in New Jersey, saying that breakdowns are part of the sport.

The World Cup event is a series of three races starting at noon Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. It's expected to draw about 100 boats in five national classes. The prestigious Open class will see a large fleet of 120-mph American boats, mostly catamarans, hoping that they get smooth enough water to enable them to knock off 1988 Open world champion Fabio Buzzi of Italy.

The event consists of two races of about 120 miles and a final of about 160, depending on weather conditions and the course used. All of the courses bring the boats through Key West Harbor several times, where spectators can get an excellent view. The final race carries double points, so the class championships will not necessarily go to the team that's the fastest but to the team that can hold everything together for the entire week.

The Key West course has been dangerous, the site of two deaths and numerous serious injuries in the past three years. Most of the accidents have occurred on the second leg, after the boats go south out of the harbor and turn left at the Sands Key Light seven miles offshore to begin a five-mile easterly run along the south shore of the island.

Seas here often are four to six feet, small enough to tempt a crew to run hard but big enough to cause catastrophic damage if the crew makes a mistake and spins the boat or stuffs its bow under a wave.

Copeland will also get competition in the superboat class from Tom Gentry, the 1987 World Cup winner who will have his 48- foot Gentry Eagle rigged with four turbocharged Gentry engines turning out 850 horsepower each. Copeland's son, Al Jr., will run the team's 46-foot, triple-engined Popeyes/Diet Coke vee-bottom. Miami Vice star Don Johnson is listed as the driver-of-record of a similar Gentry Turbo Eagle. Johnson has taken part in three races this season in boats that posted finishes of 3-3-2.