Miami Herald

March 3, 1985

A RECORD RUN JUST FOR FUN? EVEN IF HE CAN'T WIN $1 MILLION, MORALES PLANS TO RACE

ERIC SHARP - Herald Boating Writer

The winner-take-all, Miami-to-New York powerboat race scheduled for the week of June 27 now has at least 10 potential starters, and a potential purse of $1 million. What it may not have, not officially, anyway, is Fort Lauderdale's George Morales, the reigning offshore world champion in the unlimited- boat division.

Last week, organizers of the 1,257-mile race appeared to take steps to ban any offshore racers who have a history of drug problems.

"This race is now the Miami-New York Chapman Offshore Invitational Championship," said race spokesman John Crouse, with emphasis on the "invitational." "We've done this so we keep total control of all qualified teams to run in this race."

Asked what constitutes a qualified team, Crouse answered, "That's what we'll decide." And asked if the decision to make the race invitational was aimed at keeping out Morales, who is under federal indictment on drug-smuggling charges, Crouse refused to comment.

While Morales could be banned as an official participant, there's nothing to stop him from showing up at the start and crossing the line when the other boats do. Which is just what he
plans to do.

"They want to keep Morales out of the race. They've been trying it for the past two years," Morales says. "These people are very afraid. They know I can win."

But what can he win. Not the $1 million purse, not if they won't let him enter officially. But what's left is what Morales really wants -- the Miami to New York speed record, set in 1973 by Miami Beach eye surgeon Dr. Bob Magoon. The mark still stands at 22 hours 41 minutes 14 seconds.

The competition so far includes three teams definitely entered in what should be history's wildest, toughest, richest and most interesting powerboat race:

* Al Copeland of Metarie, La., who runs the 50-foot Popeyes catamaran on the regular offshore circuit, will drive a 46-foot Scarab deep vee powered by three or four Italian-made diesel engines.

* Tom Gentry of Honolulu, who also runs a 50-footer on the offshore circuit, will make the long ocean race in a 46-foot Cougar deep vee powered by three 720-horsepower gasoline engines prepared by his Race Arrow shop.

* Bob Saccenti and Ben Kramer of North Miami Beach, the reigning Class I offshore champions who won the title last fall in one of the 41-foot Apache deep vees that they build, are preparing a 47-foot Apache "Superchief," which will have three 720-horsepower Lamborghini gas engines.

At least six other teams are trying to find sponsorship for the run:

* Michael Reagan of Los Angeles, the president's eldest son, has a Scarab 46 that will be powered by three or four of the new eight-cylinder Evinrude outboard engines, tweaked up from their normal 300 horsepower each to about 420 by Gary Garbrecht's Second Effort high-performance shop in Lake Hamilton, Fla.

* Larry Smith, who builds the Scarabs in California, may enter a similar outboard rig.

* Billy Martin, one of the sport's big names in the 1970s with his Bounty Hunter series, plans to make the run in an inboard-powered, 42-foot Cigarette.

* Sandy Satullo, the 1975 national champion, plans to run a 44-foot Tempest, also with inboard power.

* Miami's Sal Magluta says he'll campaign one of the Sea Hawk boats he builds, this one powered by KS&W inboards.

* Magoon reportedly will make the run in a 36-foot, outboard-powered Cigarette, not unlike the boat he used in 1973 to set the Miami-New York record, which has withstood a dozen challenges. The five-time offshore national champion is upset, however, by the race's $100,000 entry fee, saying it is an unnecessary burden on top of the $250,000 to $500,000 needed to prepare a boat and logistics for the race.

The only foreign contender to show strong interest is former world champion Renato della Valle, an Italian who wants to enter a 46-foot Buzzi powered by three Lamborghini gassers or three big diesels.

For his part, Morales is building a new, 46-foot Cougar catamaran that, at this moment, is the only boat entered that is not a vee-hull. Ironically, Morales was the only superboat driver who chose a vee-hull for the regular circuit.

Most of the other boats in the Miami-New York race are planning to run as much as 100 miles offshore to cut the corners from point-to-point along the Eastern Seaboard. The possibility of meeting big waves offshore has convinced most crews to choose a deep vee, which has a top speed of about 100 miles per hour in flat water but can still run 60-70 in a five-foot seaway.

Morales plans a different tack for his quicker, if less durable, twin-hulled cat.

"I'm not going to go too far offshore. I'm going to run up the beach," Morales explains, saying the superior speed of a cat in the flat water inshore will more than make up for the extra distance run.

Morales says he would like to keep the boat moving close to 100 mph most of the time but would be satisfied to average 90 mph between fuel stops. This is another area in which he is rejecting conventional wisdom, opting instead for the tricky proposition of refueling the boat from a helicopter.

Most of the other teams have rejected refueling even from a boat, preferring to spend a few extra miles driving to shoreside fuel stations. Two crews that have tried refueling from boats in record-breaking attempts over the past three years failed when they ran out of fuel only a few miles from fuel boats that were so slow it took them hours to reach the drifting race boats.

Asked about the technical problems of an air-to-boat refueling system, Morales said, "We have plenty of time to learn how to do it between now and June."

He added that he planned to refuel every 400 miles, which will require him to meet a helicopter off the coast of Georgia and again off Virginia or New Jersey.

Morales owns an aircraft chartering service, and says he plans to have several aircraft aloft during the race. A couple will be from his jet fleet, but others will be leased, slow- speed craft that will keep track of some of his opponents and let him know where he stands.

"I'd like to be able to take it easy for the first 800, 900 miles or so, then open it up if I have to for the run for the finish," he says. "The name of the game in this race is not how fast you go -- it's how far you go."