Miami Herald

July 3, 1983

RACE TO NEW YORK IS ON, AND OFF

ERIC SHARP- Herald Boating Writer

Magoon and his three-man crew climbed aboard their 45-foot raceboat and keyed the twin 1,000-horsepower diesel engines to life. At 20 seconds after 7:03 p.m., they roared across the starting line to race Michael Reagan, the President's oldest son, for the speedboat record to New York City, 1,257 miles away.

Reagan shot across the starting line at better than 70 miles per hour at four seconds after midnight, not knowing that Magoon had broken down north of Fort Pierce and was hobbling back to Miami, his effort a failure after only 125 miles. The initial reports said a fuel line had broken and couldn't be repaired.

In addition to the two crewmen in the boat, Reagan had a helicopter overhead carrying a pilot, two scuba divers and a doctor, and a U.S. Coast Guard C130 carrying a team of Secret Service agents who would cover him all the way to New York.

Reagan kissed his wife, Colleen, and son, Cameron, 5, and told the boy, "Are you going to be there

in New York> for dinner tomorrow night? I'll be there for dinner if you will."

He predicted he would beat Magoon's record by four hours and reach New York about 6:30 p.m. today.

But throttleman Johnny Mann was openly concerned about finding a fuel ship around dawn.

Each of Reagan's three engines burns 35 gallons of gasoline an hour, and Mann said that if everything went perfectly, they would reach the refueling ship "with about enough gas to troll for five minutes."

While Magoon's departure was relatively low-key, Reagan arrived in a four-car motorcade carrying friends and Secret Service agents and was greeted by a crowd of about 60 at Tanner Diesel Services on Alton Road in Miami Beach, more than half of them reporters and photographers.

Reagan is running to raise funds for the New York State Statue of Liberty Commission. Magoon is not fundraising, but his run has the approval of the federal Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Centennial Foundation, which is trying to raise $230 million to refurbish the national monument before the statue's 100th anniversary in 1986.

A two-foot sea was running at the Miami Sea Buoy off Government Cut when official starter Tim Grayson of Fort Lauderdale pushed the button on his watch to begin Magoon's half of the strange race.

"I'm ready. I really feel confident this time," said Magoon, a 47-year-old eye surgeon who set the record of 22 hours 41 minutes 15 seconds in 1974 and whose effort to beat that mark last year ended at the halfway point when a $1.59 bearing broke.

With the high incidence of mechanical failures in offshore racing, the chances are less than 50-50 that either boat would finish this run in record time.

Dressed in jeans and a pink T-shirt with "US-1" crudely lettered on the front with a felt-tipped pen, Magoon was accompanied on this trip by mechanic Gene Lanham of Miami, diesel specialist Cliff Souza of Red Hook, N.J., and boatbuilder Bob Saccenti of Miami, all of whom will take hour- long spells at the wheel as the boat bounces northward toward an anticipated finish between 4 and 5 p.m. today at the Verrazano- Narrows Bridge in New York Harbor.

Saccenti came aboard carrying two thermos jugs in leather cases. "It's coffee," he said. After a pause he added, "Well, one of them is wine. But you know us Italians. We can't go anywhere without a little wine."

Souza grinned at the crowd on the dock and at the half- dozen helicopters, filled with photographers, buzzing overhead.

"This is great," he said. "When we tried the record last year, nobody showed up to see us go. Now, with the two boats running, it's getting endurance boat races a lot of attention. I really think we can do it. The only trouble is that no matter how carefully you plan, there's always a hose clamp that can
break or a part that can break down. You can never entirely weed out mechanical and human error."

Missing the trip was crewman Tom Packard of Miami, ill with pneumonia, who still showed up at the dock to install a special radio that allows the crew to talk to aircraft -- and to deliver the brownies, baked by his wife.Sniping continued

Magoon, five-time U.S. offshore world powerboat champion, and Reagan have been verbally sniping at each other for a week, and the gamesmanship continued as a crowd of about 100 people offered encouragement before Magoon left the Miami Beach marina.

"He wouldn't even tell me if he planned to leave tonight," Magoon said. "He just keeps playing his little games. Well, all I care about is the record. I'm not even going to think about Reagan."

The Parker Meridien-Champagne Pommery boat, Magoon's 45- foot, 36,000-pound Cigarette, hits a top speed of about 68 miles per hour. He left the dock carrying 1,400 gallons of diesel fuel, which his boat burns at 100 gallons an hour, and his itinerary included a single fuel stop at a marina in Moorehead City, N.C., at about 7 a.m. today.

Reagan's 38-foot, 1,200-pound Wellcraft Scarab, called the Budweiser Lite-7/Eleven Special, is powered by three huge Evinrude outboard engines that produce about 400 horsepower each.

Deep-vee offshore boats, like those being driven by Magoon and Reagan, are the fastest in the world in big seas, but the crews pay for speed with physical punishment. It is not unusual for offshore racers to pass blood in their urine after a kidney- battering race of 200 miles. Reagan's best chance of beating Magoon was to hope that the weather prediction of seas less than three feet held true.

Reagan's boat is about 10 miles per hour faster than Magoon's in seas less than four feet. But if the waves get higher, Magoon's bigger, heavier boat will be able to keep its crew moving in relative comfort at top speed, while Reagan's crew will be forced to slow down and still taking a pounding every time the boat leaps into the air and slams back onto the sea.

In order to follow the shortest route, Reagan must refuel from another boat about 105 miles off St. Simon's Island, Ga., then make a second fuel stop at a marina at Oregon Inlet, N.C.

This means he must meet the fuel boat as soon after daylight as possible to give him enough light for the refueling operation and still have a chance of reaching the finish line at the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge before dark Sunday.

"That first fuel stop is the crucial one," said Reagan, 38. "We're going to have to eke out every drop of fuel to get there. We're going to be sucking it up with an eyedropper, but a refueling at sea is the only chance we have to beat Magoon. If we follow the coastline and make a third stop, it means traveling 137 miles farther than he will."Leaving a day early

Reagan, a Los Angeles promoter and fundraiser, and his two crewmen, throttleman Johnny Mann of Stuart, Fla., and navigator Steve Lyshon of Fort Pierce, Fla., had originally planned to depart Miami July 3 and reach the finish July 4. But with weather the crucial factor, it appeared Saturday afternoon that a Saturday evening departure would bring Reagan's team the best chance at the record.