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THE BARBER OF BOATING

Steve Ackerie, or simply Stefan to us Gold Coast locals, has been the flamboyant hairdressing tycoon cum offshore powerboat racing guru since the 1980s.

In a racing career that spanned three decades, Stefan ‘The Barber’—as he is affectionately named by the boat racing fraternity—won Australian offshore titles in 1985, 1987-88, 1990-91, and 2002. As well as these championships, he set many long distance powerboat speed records, such as Sydney-to-Brisbane and Cairns-to-Brisbane. During the Sydney-to-Newcastle race Stefan’s boat spun at high speed narrowly avoiding a life threatening crash believed to have been caused by a collision with a submerged shipping container.

Stefan’s involvement in powerboat racing started when he was asked to sponsor a boat in the early 80s. One day, he was taken out for a test drive and found that rather than being scared, he actually loved it, so he started competing in events. Then, by chance, the man who had the best boat and team in Australia passed them on to Stefan when he retired from the sport and his international power boat racing career went from there.

Stefan’s earliest power boat, which was driven by petrol engines, exploded during a New Zealand race in 1989 with him and his crew having to jump for their lives as the boat burst into flames. This era of Australian powerboat racing was extremely dangerous. For example, a controversial NSW law outlawed safety harnesses as it was considered that boat occupants had a better chance of survival if thrown out of the boat. So rough was the ride that specially designed padded seaters were used as the boats skimmed the water surface in danger of “stuffing” a wave bow-first or barrel-rolling the boat. The crew sat three abreast, all wearing helmets and life vests. A driver steered the boat through the waves, the throttle man controlled speed and trim tabs, and the third would navigate the course.

In 1993, Stefan and his three other crewmen smashed the Bass Straight crossing in his $1 million powerboat Jager Paris. In just five and a half hours they raced the clock from St Kilda Pier in Melbourne to the mouth of the Tamar River in Tasmania. A journey of 236 nautical miles through huge seas. Stefan’s boat was powered by two 1350-horsepower engines capable of a top-speed of 285kph. And just three months later, Stefan made an extremely dangerous record breaking crossing of Malaysia’s Malacca Straits in rough seas with five-metre high waves and bad weather.

In 1999, Stefan’s new big and bright pink aluminium catamaran, aptly named Stefan Shampoo and sponsored by his own Jager Cosmetics that was built on the Gold Coast, and powered by twin 12-litre V-8 Detroit diesels, punched out 2700 horsepower racing at 90-plus knots. This placed the boat at the forefront of the Australian competition and up there with the big league international spectacle for Class 1 Offshore powerboat fans around the world, with boats skipping across the water at top speeds of 240kph and some international teams reporting race budgets of $50 million.

With such an eventful boating history, Stefan has been an outstanding ambassador for Australian powerboat racing and for Gold Coast boating. His not-so-secret mantra that is the driving force behind not only his boat racing success but his commercial business trading accomplishment is: “Believe in yourself and never, never, never give up!”

In 2012 he established Stefan Boating World with showroom on Waterways Drive Coomera that can house up to 400 boats at any one time. Stefan has personally scanned the worlds best boat builders to offer a range of brands with many models ready for immediate delivery and all outboards powered by Yamaha. These include Karnic, Chaparral, Scout, Sea Jay, Anglapro, Highfield, Oceania, Morningstar, Reflex, FX and Fibrafort.

Editorial by Andy Kancachian

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Sarasota Powerboat Grand Prix Day One: Super Stock And Bracket Class Winners

The oldest saying in offshore powerboat racing is “to finish first, first you have to finish,” and that couldn’t have proven truer as the favorites in Super Stock and Bracket 500 succumbed well before the checkered flag waved on the first day of action at the 39th annual Sarasota Powerboat Grand Prix in Sarasota, Fla. Produced by Powerboat P1 , the Grand Prix is the third race of the  American Power Boat Association  Offshore National Championship Series and the second race of the  Union Internationale Motonautique  Class 1 World Championship Series.

The Super Stock fleet at the Sarasota Powerboat Grand Prix included 11 catamarans. Photos by Pete Boden/ Shoot 2 Thrill Pix

In Saturday’s final race, the 11 boats in the Super Stock class took to the Gulf of Mexico. Winds were picking up and there were white caps, but conditions were fast and racy. As they did in the first two races of the season, the 32-foot Victory catamaran, Jackhammer , with owner/driver Reese Langheim and throttleman Julian Maldonado bolted to the lead. Giving chase was a pack of boats including the 32-foot MTI cat, CMR, with driver/owner Sean Conner and John Tomlinson subbing for Shaun Torrente on throttles. Throttleman Rusty Williams and driver Myrick Coil in the 32-foot Doug Wright, Performance Boat Center /FASS Diesel Fuel Systems, were in the mix as were owner/driver Daren Kittredge and throttleman Grant Bruggemann in the 32-foot Doug Wright, Northwing Offshore.

A total of 64 teams descended on the city on the west coast of Florida that has become one of the favorite sites in offshore powerboat racing. A checkered flag from Sarasota is rivaled only by one from the world championships in Key West, Fla., in November. The weekend kicked off with a party on Friday evening where fans could meet the teams at the 10th Street ramp party followed by racing in the bracket 500, 600 and 700 classes and Super Stock boats, plus Class 1 pole position qualifying on Saturday.

The day started with calm conditions, but winds slowly built through the day and temperatures in the mid-90s added to the challenge.

It didn’t take long for the teams in the ultra-competitive Super Stock class to push the limits. The 32-foot Doug Wright, LPC, with owner/throttleman Loren Peters and driver Anthony Smith, started moving up through the fleet when it rolled on the outboard leg of the 6-mile course that had the racers navigating in a clockwise direction. Competition was halted after less than a lap. Peters and Smith were OK and the boat was hauled back to the pits.

The CMR team of Sean Conner and John Tomlinson ran a consistent race to earn the Super Stock-class checkered flag.

The carnage took its toll quickly. In that first lap, the 32-foot Doug Wright, Team Allen Lawn Care and Landscaping, appeared to have something torn off the stern and didn’t make the restart. Neither did the 32-foot Doug Wright, Team Bermuda.

After many Super Stock competitors voiced concerns about quick green flags in Cocoa Beach at the previous P1 Offshore race, the starters made sure the boats were grouped more fairly in Sarasota. When the green flag flew on the restart, Jackhammer jumped to the lead, with CMR, Performance Boat Center and the 32-foot Victory, Big East Construction, which is owned and driven by Cole Leibel and throttled by veteran Gary Ballough, giving chase in a tight pack.

It didn’t take long for attrition to rear its ugly head. Jackhammer had an engine go into guardian mode, which shuts down the 300-hp outboard to prevent more significant damage. “Nothing like stopping and going every 30 seconds,” Maldonado said. “We had a 14-second lead at the start and guardian started and never stopped.”

The team kept the boat on the same lap as the leaders and appeared to just be running for points.

CMR and Performance Boat Center battled for the lead, with each boat enjoying an advantage on different parts of the course.

“In head seas, they’d catch me, and in following seas, I’d catch them, and it went like that for a few laps,” said Tomlinson, who had raced with Coil in the Super Cat class previously and knew that he could enter a turn with his competitor/friend and not worry about any incidents or collisions.

Check out the slideshow above for more images from the Super Stock race.

Unfortunately, the battle to the finish didn’t materialize when Performance Boat Center pulled off with mechanical issues. Big East Construction moved into second and appeared to be in position for a much-needed podium finish until broken motor mounts forced Ballough to shut down one engine and limp around the course attempting to gain as many points as possible.

With CMR in the lead, Torrente, who qualified for the pole position at an F1H2O tunnel boat race on Saturday afternoon in France, watched on his cell phone while eating dinner with his family. Tomlinson and Conner took the checkered flag followed by Pete and A.J. Bogino in the 32-foot Doug Wright, CoCo’s Monkey, and Jackhammer, which kept running because the race isn’t over until the checkered flag waves.

“I’m pacing the streets of France as we walk back from dinner,” Torrente said in a message to speedonthewater.com from overseas. “It was an amazing race. Sean was turning the boat incredibly and Johnny was getting used to the boat and kept getting quicker and quicker. I’m so thankful for him sitting in for me.”

But as we always report on speedonthewater.com, all results are unofficial pending official inspections and video reviews. According to the APBA Offshore Commission chairman Rich Luhrs, four combined lane infractions at the start and post-accident restart that resulted in four yellow cards (Luhrs declined to name the penalized teams.) That, in turn, changed the official finishing order. Though CMR retained the checkered flag, Jackhammer moved into second place, followed by Big East Construction in thrid.

Almost serving as a harbinger of what was to come, the Class 1 boats took to the 6-mile course to see who would claim the coveted inside lane on Sunday afternoon. The boats ran a “get-comfortable-with-the-course” lap and then followed that with two timed laps. The fastest time would give a team the pole position on Sunday. First up was the team of throttleman Steve Curtis and driver Brit Lilly in the 47-foot Victory cat, Huski Ice Spritz.

In the end, owner/driver Darren Nicholson and throttleman Giovanni Carpitella in their own 47-foot Victory, 222 Offshore Australia , posted the fast number of the day—3:05:85. Tomlinson, who is pulling triple-duty this weekend, joined driver Travis Pastrana and clocked the third fastest time of the day in their 50-foot Victory, Pothole Heroes. The other three Class 1 entries had mechanical issues and didn’t complete a lap.

In the Bracket 500 class, throttleman Elijah Kingery and driver Eric Ullom ran a great race in their 29-foot Warlock, Bulletproof/Team Farnsworth.

Whetting Fans’ Appetites The offshore racing action kicked off at 1 p.m. when the Bracket 500, 600 and 700 classes took to the course. Bracket racing takes a different approach because each class has a set speed limit. If a team exceeds the speed limit, it “breaks out” and is penalized for doing so.

The Bracket 500 fleet had nine teams including two 30-foot Phantoms that racing fans would consider to be favorites. Owner/driver J.J. Turk and throttleman Micheal Stancombe were the defending national champions in TFR/XINSURANCE and when the race started, they had a strong challenge from throttleman Elijah Kingery and driver Eric Ullom in the 29-foot Warlock, Bulletproof/Team Farnsworth, and the father-son team of Rob and Vincent Winoski in their 30-foot Phantom, Bronx Phantom.

Bracket racing is about more than just making sure you don’t exceed your class’ listed speed. It’s about letting your competitors drive away from you when they are going faster in the heat of competition and run the risk of doing just that. That story didn’t pan out because TFR/XINSURANCE pulled off the course with a mechanical problem first, followed by Bronx Phantom.

“We kind of knew that Bronx Phantom broke out because we were at 74.9 mph and they pulled away from us so we backed down a bit to make sure we didn’t break,” Kingery said. “We let them go and then when we saw J.J. break, half a lap later, we could hear Bronx Phantom’s motor starting to break up.”

Enjoy more pictures from the Bracket-class competition in the slideshow above.

This may have resulted in a historical finish with two 29-foot Warlocks finishing first and second in an offshore powerboat race. Hammerheads/Fly SRQ with driver Dennis Austin and throttleman Don Jackson took second followed by YabbaDabbaDo with driver Larry James and throttleman J.D. Ivines in third.

The second start of the day featured a deck-to-deck battle in Bracket 600 between a couple of 26-foot Joker V-bottoms for all five laps on the 6-mile course. George Ivey drove his new boat while Damon Marotta throttled Ivey Racing against a pair of 22-year-olds who have a big future in the sport, throttleman Ryan Stahlman and driver Reef Delanos in Freebird.

The two boats appeared to have a rope connecting their admiships cleats at the start. One took the lead and then the other but in the end Freebird continued its momentum after winning in Cocoa Beach.

“I’m definitely hooked,” said Stahlman, who started navigating in his father’s 41-foot Apache, Predator , last year. When asked what he learned from his race in Sarasota, the youngster said, “How to take corners when you have someone with you like that. You have to hold your lane.”

Finally, in the Bracket 700 class, Brian Guy, owner of the 21-foot Superboat, Jackhammer , gave a performance boat enthusiast the opportunity to check an item off his bucket list.

Instead of racing with his usual throttleman, Julian Maldonado, Guy ran with throttleman Francisco Duran, from San Juan, Puerto Rico, who is close with the Maldonado family.

Jackhammer owner and driver Brian Guy won the Bracket 700-class race with Puerto Rican Francisco Duran, who was racing in the United States for the first time, on the throttle.

“He never raced a boat in the states and he always wanted to do this,” Guy said.

Guy added that he broke a couple blades off his prop on the first lap but could still run about 56 to 57 mph in the class bracketed at a top speed of 60. The battle was behind him as a pair of 22-foot Velocitys powered by single Mercury Racing 300Rs fought for position. In the end, Dees Nuts/Meara Classic Cars took second followed by Statement Marine .

As if letting Duran check an item off his bucket list wasn’t enough, Guy’s five-year-old daughter, Kora, also was on hand to see dad win.

“She helps out and is a big supporter of mine,” Guy said.

That’s something attrition can never take away.

Spectators lined the beach in Sarasota to catch the racing action.

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The Excitement of Running a P1 Offshore Race Boat

• By Charles Plueddeman
• November 16, 2023

In this age of 70 mph pontoons , 90 mph center-consoles and 150 mph sport cats, it’s pretty easy to experience eye-popping velocity on the water. So, there you are, the wind flapping your cheeks as you hold that throttle to the stop, one watering eye on the speedo as you bump the trim hoping to squeeze out the last bit of speed it will take to be the first boat to the poker-run card pickup. Maybe you even imagine that’s Reggie Fountain , Steve Curtis or Shaun Torrente at the helm of the boat you are pursuing, and instead of a king of hearts, there’s a big trophy waiting at the finish line. Well, dream on, Speed Racer. You’re going fast, but you are not racing, and your production-built motorboat is no race boat.

Steve Curtis throttles a real race boat. The Victory catamaran Huski Chocolate carried Curtis and drivers Travis Pastrana and Brit Lilly to the 2022 UIM Class 1 championship in the Powerboat P1 Offshore series. Last summer, we met Curtis and this boat, now rechristened Huski Ice Spritz, at the Mercury Racing Midwest Challenge in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, the fourth event on the five-race 2023 P1 schedule. The boat is owned by SVEA Racing Inc., based in Stuart, Florida, regarded as the benchmark in professionalism and experience in Class 1 and led by technical director Gary Stray, director of operations Scott Colton and crew chief Patrick Cleaveland.

Curtis, a 59-year-old Englishman and the son of Cougar Powerboats founder and racing catamaran innovator Clive Curtis, claimed his first Class 1 world championship in 1985 in Key West when he was 21 years old. In his career, Curtis has throttled more than 20 world champions. Who would be better to show us under the cowl of a Class 1 race boat than the acknowledged master of throttling racing cats?

Class 1 is the premier category of international offshore powerboat racing. A P1 Offshore event can include a number of classes, but only the Class 1 Championship is sanctioned by the UIM (Union Internationale Motonautique), the world governing body for all ­powerboating activities. Basic rules for Class 1 dictate a minimum boat length overall of 12 meters (about 39 feet) and a minimum weight of 5,400 kilograms (just over 11,900 pounds). There have been seven boats in the Class 1 field in 2023, ranging in length from the 43-foot Skater Monster Energy/MCON to the 51-foot Mystic dfYoung. The Huski Ice Spritz/SVEA Victory is 47 feet length overall, with a running surface of 41.5 feet, according to Curtis, and a 12-foot beam. Curtis explains that the bigger boats often have an advantage in rough conditions, but the smaller boats can be nimbler in a current on flatter water in a tight, multiturn closed course—the 5-mile course at Sheboygan had 10 turns.

“Courses have become smaller to make the event more spectator-­friendly,” Curtis says. “We used to run 40-mile laps and 200-mile races.”

The age of the Class 1 fleet is also surprising. Huski Ice Spritz/SVEA was built in 2007 by the Victory team in Dubai to a ­Michael Peters design.

“The boat has been rebuilt and repowered a number of times,” Curtis says. “I believe it was originally powered by Lamborghini V-12 engines. The boat has been crashed and repaired. The entire deck has been replaced, and the running surface adjusted as the engine package has changed.”

Carbon, Of Course

The overall theme of a race boat is that every element is functional, and this is the key difference between Huski Ice Spritz and your go-fast rig. Speed and safety are all that matter. The hull and deck are laid up with a combination of carbon fiber and Kevlar composite, with foam coring of various density. Bulkheads are carbon fiber, molded in a combination of triangulation and U-channel shape, and bonded within the hull. Each sponson has a pair of steps that are about 1.5 inches deep and a single strake. The tunnel between the sponsons is designed to trap and compress air, which lifts the boat at speed. The tunnel is about 33 inches deep at the bow but only 22 inches deep at the transom.

A V-hull boat could run in Class 1, but the catamaran offers a significant advantage, according to Randy Scism, who helped establish the Victory team as a force in offshore racing before returning to the United States in 1998 to start performance boatbuilder Marine Technologies Inc.

“A comparable V-hull boat will be 20 to 30 mph slower at top speed,” says Scism, who designed the 48-foot MTI Class 1 cat ­XInsurance/Good Boy ­Vodka. “In some conditions, it might corner better, but it could never make up the difference in total lap time. The air cushion under a cat can carry 30 to 35 percent of the boat’s weight, so the bottom is not even touching small waves and chop.”

Builders seek to produce a boat that is significantly below the class minimum-weight specification. This allows each team to make weight using lead ballast—water ballast is not allowed—that can be positioned right on the stringers to keep the center of gravity as low as possible to enhance handling and help trim the boat. Weight, either lead bars or bags of lead shot, can be placed aft to lift the bow in calm conditions or forward to hold the bow down in rough water. Fuel tanks are located directly on the boat’s center of balance so that balance does not change as fuel is consumed. At race venues, a crane fitted with a scale lifts the Class 1 boats from the trailer to the water; this way, each boat is weighed every time it goes in and comes out of the water to prevent cheating.

At Class 1 speeds, aerodynamics becomes critical. The boats literally fly over the water, and the deck is flush with the top of each sponson. The enclosed cockpit is a teardrop blister, hatch latches and cleats are carefully recessed and faired, and air intake is accomplished with low-drag NACA ducts. When conditions are ideal, these huge boats appear to levitate with a grace that belies the brutal thrust required to reach speeds that can exceed 160 mph on the open ocean.

Prescribed Power

There are no surprises below the engine hatches of a Class 1 boat. Since P1 led a revival of the class in 2019, the Mercury Racing 1100 Competition engine has been standard power, a spec engine for the class. The 9.0-liter V-8 engine features Mercury Racing QC4 quad-valve cylinder heads and is boosted by twin turbochargers. Power output is 1,100 hp and 1,100 lb.-ft. of torque per engine on 93-octane pump gasoline. Each big V-8 turns 6,000 to 6,500 rpm. The transmission is the stout model designed for the Mercury Racing 1750 engine with a stronger input shaft and ­internal components.

“Before the switch to the Merc 1100, we were running engines making 1,850 to 2,000 hp at 7,500 rpm,” Curtis says, “and top speeds pushed 190 mph. Those engines needed a rebuild after each race.”

The point of a specified engine for the class is to reduce cost and ensure power parity among teams with unequal resources. With that in mind, the engines are tightly controlled. Teams are not allowed to make any adjustments or modifications to the engines. With the exception of the valve covers, the engines are sealed with special fasteners. At the beginning of each race weekend, the Mercury Racing support team delivers propulsion control modules (PCM) to each team. The PCM units are painted bright ­yellow so they are easy to identify. ­Mercury ­Racing also installs a data logger on each engine.

“After every practice and ­every race, we download the data to make sure it makes sense and that nobody has tweaked on the engines and turned the power up,” says Steve Wynveen, Mercury Racing manager of development engineering. “The idea of Class 1 now is that winning is dependent on driving and boat setup, not on who has the most money to throw at an engine.”

The expectation is that if teams don’t abuse these engines by constantly banging into the rev limiter, each can last the season with just basic maintenance. Teams will put between two and three hours of run time on the engines at each race weekend. Teams are free to install their own PCM for testing between races.

The Huski Ice Spritz/SVEA team engineered a number of quick-disconnect fittings that allow it to remove an engine in about 20 minutes, according to Curtis. This team pulls its engines after each race for maintenance and inspects the bilge and engine mounts below the engines. Typical maintenance includes an oil and filter change, checking the valve lash and adjusting with shims, a compression and leak-down test, checking the turbocharger ­waste-gate adjustment, and ­torquing all fasteners and clamps.

Six of the boats in this Class 1 fleet use surface drives based on a BPM model to put power to the water. The Italian drive only articulates in the vertical plane, which provides a limited range of trim, generally less than 15 degrees or, according to Curtis, about 1.5 inches at the propeller. The prop is located about 58 inches abaft the transom. A drop box located on the exterior of the transom allows teams to quickly change gear ratios to best match engine torque to the prevailing conditions. Curtis explains that on today’s short courses, ­acceleration out of turns is often more important than top speed. Teams using a surface drive are limited to three prop sets but have unlimited gear ratios. Steering is accomplished by a center-mounted rudder—a knife-sharp polished stainless Italian Flexitab model on Huski Ice Spritz—and teams can change rudders based on water conditions.

A sterndrive is also permitted in Class 1, but if the sterndrive can steer, the boat is not allowed to use a rudder. The MTI XInsurance/Good Boy Vodka boat is rigged with modified Mercury Racing M6 sterndrives. Trim is retained, but the skegs are cut off and steering is locked. The boat is equipped with a rudder. Teams running sterndrives are allowed an unlimited number of propellers.

“The problem with trying to steer these boats with the sterndrives is that when you turn the drive, one prop is pushed into water and the other into the air coming through the tunnel,” Scism says. “The prop in the air loses thrust. You want to keep both props centered behind the sponsons. I prefer to use the M6 drives for the added trim authority. That drive is plenty rugged for these engines.”

Read Next: How to Boat Safely at Any Speed

Curtis throttles with his right hand gripping a pair of Mercury Zero Effort controls topped with red plastic knobs molded to the shape of his hand. To his left is a fixed, molded grip with radio/intercom control buttons, trim control, and a button to change the screen display. Curtis can communicate with his team using VHF and UHF radios, and a cellular connection. Below is a pair of Mercury ignition keys, which we were surprised to see.

“When we went to the standard Merc 1100 engines, we wanted to retain the entire stock wiring harness to prevent any sort of tampering,” Curtis says. “So, there are the keys, just like on your fishing boat. It was the ­easiest solution.”

Facing Curtis are a pair of Livorsi turbocharger boost gauges, a Livorsi trim indicator, and a multifunction display usually showing tachometers. In the center of the dash is a Garmin MFD split between navigation and a rearview camera. The driver sits before a quick-release steering wheel with a lap counter on top of the dash, which will also display a yellow-and-red flag signal from race control.

I wish I could describe the ­sensation of driving Huski Ice Spritz at speed while looking through the slit of a windscreen. But as it turns out, there is not enough liability coverage or legal cover to ever make that happen. Scism says MTI will build you a new 48 Race model to Class 1 specs, with a price tag of $2.2 million to $2.4 million with power. A $500,000 budget will cover a bare-bones Class 1 team for a season, Curtis says, with a well-financed team spending more than $1.5 million. SVEA Racing Inc. brings a crew of 10 to each race with a 70-foot race trailer, a tilting boat trailer and its Kenworth hauler, and a world-champion throttleman. They are not going to a poker run.

Safety First

When Steve Curtis won his first Class 1 championship, he was standing in an open cockpit. “There was very little concern for safety in those boats,” Curtis says. “If you stuffed the boat, it was very likely you’d be killed.”

Today the driver and throttle work in an enclosed cockpit that is all business. This is not your pleasure boat—there is no Alcantara upholstery, no bass-pumping audio system, and no LED-illuminated drink holders. Cockpit entry is through a hatch secured with four sliding bolts like a bank vault. In Huski Ice Spritz, Curtis throttles from the port seat, and the driver is at the wheel to starboard. Deep bucket seats have 2 inches of suspension travel, and the crew is strapped securely in place. “During a race, it can actually get rather violent in here,” Curtis says. “It’s not very noisy, but there is a lot of vibration, even in smooth water, because the boat is so rigid. We can feel pretty beat up after a race.”

A cage of carbon channels surrounds the cockpit, which Curtis says is backed by a very thick bulkhead. Crush zones around the cockpit are designed to absorb energy on impact. The interior is raw and black, with no thought of cosmetics. The forward portion of the cockpit structure is formed by a ¾-inch-thick polycarbonate shield modeled after a fighter-jet canopy. The clear portion is minimized for further crew protection. There’s an emergency escape hatch in the floor for egress if the boat flips. The driver and throttle have a 10-minute emergency air supply.

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Stefan Boating World: Profile

What would your life be without a few interesting characters to enrich it? Damn boring. Luckily for us, the boating industry is full of these types of characters, and Queensland hairdressing and beauty icon Stefan Ackerie, owner and operator of Stefan Boating World on the Gold Coast, definitely fits the bill.

Meet Stefan once and I guarantee you will remember him forever. He may bring beauty to many, but it would be a mistake to think Stefan is all about the cosmetics.

MORE THAN A PRETTY FACE

Stefan earned his marine stripes through a long association with racing offshore powerboats. He was flying lanes and raising hell in mind-bending hulls way back in the ’80s. He holds records for crossing the Bass Strait as well as the Malacca Strait in Malaysia, and he has won the Australian Offshore Powerboat Championships several times. He is no novice on the water.

Off the water, Stefan’s hard work and success saw him nominated as a finalist in the Australian of the Year Award in 2004, while he has previously been crowned in the Ethnic Business Awards, and been named the 1990 Queensland Employer of the Year and an Official Ambassador for Brisbane. He even purchased the Expo 88 Sky Needle to light up the sky above his headquarters in South Brisbane.

He has a strong commitment to his staff and has supported his industry by implementing education programs in association with TAFE.

There is also a very strong charitable side to this Renaissance man. Stefan has implemented several programs to help kids in need, his famous Rainbow Van delivers meals to Brisbane’s homeless, and he made a donation of $7500 when former Australian cricketer Andrew Symonds got out the hair clippers for the Leukaemia Foundation’s World’s Greatest Shave back in 2009.

BRIGHT IDEAS

Stefan has always had a great love of the boating industry and he is destined to make a splash with his new showroom in Coomera, situated almost opposite the Gold Coast City Marina complex. Stefan purchased the two-acre spot after it was vacated by Azzura Yachts and quickly set about transforming it with his usual passion and flair.

The showroom and façade weren’t quite complete on our recent visit so I’ll save the final details for a future issue, but I can give you the hint — Italian marble floors, Mediterranean gardens, Venetian sculptures, and pink and green rooms all make way for a multi-level showcase of new marine products. Stefan will certainly stamp his individual brand on the boating industry, but he is promising to do it all with well-priced boating packages and niche products.

Smartliner Boats is one of Stefan’s lead products. The brainchild of Frenchman Pierre Charlot, these boats are unique in style and design (see page 98 for a review). The Taiwanese-built fibreglass hulls range from 3.35-8m (11-26ft) and could be described as a combination of a traditional island longboat and European design, and the efficiency of their hull design means they require minimal horsepower.

The Smartliner range includes cuddys with removable cabins, revealing side console layouts, as well as tiller steer and centre console offerings. The side and centre consoles should prove especially popular with the sportsfishing brigade.

There’s a million and one tinnies on the market, but Stefan’s Smartliner aluminium boats offer a real point of difference — they have fibreglass internal liners, which is a new innovation that makes a lot of sense. Fibreglass is light, strong and has a non-slip finish, making an ideal floor for small or large alloy hulls. It also allows a sealed cavity to eliminate corrosion, when sinkers and other non-compatible components get stuck in bilges, and rigid floors with greater buoyancy offer added strength and safety.

The great ideas just keep on flowing from Stefan Boating World. How about an inflatable boat with a transparent acrylic hull? That’s right; a see-through bottom that allows you to keep an eye on what’s below. There are loads of practical uses for these great little craft, including reef watching, diver safety, hire and charter, education and survey assessment, but they would also be a lot of fun.

Stefan has also introduced the Cyprian range of Karnic fibreglass boats to Australia, and these beauties are destined to turn plenty of heads Down Under, just as they have done in 20 other countries throughout the world. They fit well with Stefan: individual styling, premium design, innovative ideas, aesthetically pleasing, congenial ergonomics and enchanting presentation. Karnic boats have a full range of offerings from 5.5m, with innovative open and sundeck packages, sportfishers, cruisers and striking sports combinations.

Then there is the pièce de résistance, the exciting little Razar Cat. This 4.1m twin-hull inflatable is a cross between a cat, a rubber ducky, a jetski and a high-powered racer. Outboard power and a steering wheel means these machines are not technically jetskis, so the best description, at least in terms of riding characteristics, is that it feels like a marinised quad bike, on steroids. This thing is more fun than laughing gas and relatively safe, too. Strap a 60hp Evinrude E-TEC behind the efficient, lightweight 4.1m hull and hang on, because it’s a proverbial rocket ship. There are plenty of practical uses, but fun is really the name of the game.

Stefan’s rainbow company logo exemplifies his attitude to life and business. His commitment is to keep pace with this changing world by offering a ray of sunshine through his panache and his commitment to providing well-priced products and top service to the Australian boating community. We’re officially excited.

Originally published in TrailerBoat #296, June/July 2013.

Stefan Boating World

Offshore powerboat racer opens retail outlet on the gold coast.

Stefan Ackerie, six-time Australian Offshore Powerboat Racing Champion and Queensland’s most famous hairdresser, is to make a bold entry into the marine industry in Australia this week with the release of an impressive range of recreational boats and outboard motors.

Stefan’s new company, Stefan Boating World, will be introducing to the market the unique Stefan Smartliner range of aluminium and fibreglass fishing and leisure runabouts as well as the Stefan RIB Series of inflatable boats. Also on offer will be one of the world’s fastest growing outboard motor brands, PowerTec.

The new venture is the culmination of years of research and planning by Stefan.

The boats will be making their Australian debut at Stefan Boating World during this week’s three-day Gold Coast International Marine Expo, which will be staged in the Gold Coast Marine Precinct at Coomera from Friday, November 2 to Sunday, November 4. Entry is free, and the Expo is open from 9am to 5pm each day.

"I have dreamt for many years of one day being able to offer the lovers of boating some amazingly different -- and very affordable -- boats for pleasure and fun, and that time has arrived," Stefan said.

"It comes after 40 years of successfully racing offshore powerboats and being associated with some of the most talented people in the marine industry across the world.

"The launch of Stefan Boating World is a consequence of every one of those wonderful experiences I’ve had on the water, in design offices and with some of the world’s best boatbuilders."

Stefan Boating World is at 27 Waterways Drive, Coomera, Gold Coast (Just near Gold Coast City Marina).

For more information go to: www.stefanboatingworld.com.au

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222 Offshore Receive UIM Class 1 Trophy In Monaco

Alex pratt returns to class 1 with dfyoung, 222 offshore take class 1 world title, this year’s uim class 1 world championship showcased the sport at its absolute best, with 222 offshore’s darren nicholson and giovanni carpitella delivering a near faultless, season-long campaign to win the title and the sam griffith trophy, the most coveted prize in world powerboat racing., doug wright powerboats to race in uim class 1 next year.

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H2O RACING'S

Carbon neutral strategy.

The UIM F1H2O World Championship is the world’s foremost international series of single-seater inshore circuit powerboat racing.

Highly competitive, intensely challenging, risky and entertaining, inshore circuit powerboat racing is the ultimate adrenalin rush and regarded as one of the most spectacular and exciting sports in the world.

Erik Stark - 4

Stefan arand - 2, ahmad al fahim - 3, peter morin - 7, thani al qamzi - 5, sami selio - 11, brent dillard - 8, ben jelf - 9, marit stromoy - 50, alexandre bourgeot - 74, bartek marszalek - 77, filip roms - 18, rusty wyatt - 17, ferdinand zandbergen - 12, jonas andersson - 1, cédric deguisne - 73, duarte benavente - 10, alberto comparato - 6, stromoy racing, china ctic team, maverick racing, team vietnam, red devil - smc f1 team, victory team, team abu dhabi, f1 atlantic team, n.2 - april 2024.

National offshore powerboat racing: Grandstand view and standing ovation as racers return to Napier

I t was a day for big boats and a much bigger boat as national offshore powerboat racing returned to Napier on Saturday, with a standing ovation at the nearby Napier Port.

The race fleet of seven craft plying the waves off Ahuriri and Westshore - mainly two-man crews in boats up to 10 metres - was dwarfed by the 349m of cruise liner Ovation of the Seas with a towering view from Te Whiti, the port’s ocean-facing No 6 wharf.

While most of the 4000-plus passengers on the short cruise stop were checking out other parts of town, a small number could be seen apparently watching from atop Ovation’s 16 decks and some had filtered into the hundreds of shoreline gazers.

Among them was an apparent travel v-logger telling his followers from a vantage point at Te Karaka at the entrance to the inner harbour what an “amazing” opportunity it was to be at the 11am-noon “Napier 100″ and saying: “I didn’t expect this.”

The race is the oldest in the New Zealand Offshore Powerboat Racing Association’s national drivers’ championship, being first held in the 1970s, and returned after three years off due to the global pandemic and its impact on the business sector.

It was won by defending champion Mike Gerbic, of Auckland , and co-driver Josh Edlin in 10m catamaran Espresso Engineers, beating rival Rainbow Haulage (Colin Dunn and Darren Butterworth) and restoring hopes of retaining the title in the last race at Marsden Cove in Northland.

The fleet remained intact until the withdrawal of father-and-son crew Scott and Charlie Lewis and their boat Doric with steering issues, just a few hundred metres from the moored cruise line and about 10 minutes from the race end.

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ON THE WATER: Boating

His playboy reputation precedes him, like that of Warwick Capper sans the tight shorts, but there’s no denying the genuine passion that rocks Stefan Ackerie’s boat.

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The high-profile hairdressing tycoon and six-time Australian offshore powerboat racing champion has made a bold entry into the marine industry with the launch of a new dealership, Stefan Boating World, on the Gold Coast.

It’s accompanied by the release of the Stefan Smartliner range of fishing and family runabouts, as well as the Stefan RIB series of inflatable boats and PowerTec outboard range.

‘‘I have dreamt for many years of being able to offer some amazingly different – and very affordable – boats for pleasure and fun, and that time has arrived,’’ Stefan said.

‘‘It comes after 40 years of successfully racing offshore powerboats and being associated with some of the most talented people in the marine industry across the world.’’

The Stefan Smartliner boats come in two distinct styles – aluminium and fibreglass. 

Each model is said to represent ‘‘decades of research, design and manufacturing expertise from a team of highly talented boating specialists from the USA, France, New Zealand and Taiwan’’.

The alloy dinghies have a full-length fibreglass floor that makes for a sturdy, vibration-free, lighter and considerably quieter boat. 

Sizes range from the 3.5-metre 110 to the five-metre 170.

The fibreglass Smartliner Cuddy models are noted for their stability, and the fact they are unsinkable. 

The three-model range comprises a 17, 19 and 21, with the latter also available in centre-console configuration.

There are seven models in the RIB range, extending from 3.3metres to an impressive 5.8metres.

A bold and totally new release is the 4.1-metre Razar Cat, which combines the features of a jet-ski and an inflatable boat. 

It spells fun for families, and function for maritime rescue organisations.

‘‘The Razar Cat has many advantages over a jet-ski while costing about one-third less than the cheapest jet-ski,’’ Stefan said.

‘‘It can carry up to five people and is also very economical to run because it’s powered by an outboard motor.’’

The Razar Cat is currently going into production and the first deliveries are scheduled for pre-Christmas.

PowerTec two-stroke outboards, meanwhile, have their roots – excuse the hairdressing pun – in Latin America. 

Export numbers are about 25,000 motors worldwide annually. 

Stefan Boating World has 3.5hp through to 40hp available, and higher horsepower models will arrive shortly.

Regatta yardstick for Rio

BELMONT 16ft Sailing Club is hosting the NB Sail Sports Bethwaite Regatta this weekend, with the Olympic Class 49er, new women’s Olympic Class 49er FX, 29ers, Tasars and B14s all set to compete.

As the first major regatta for the 49er since London, several Rio hopefuls will be using it as a yardstick in their preparation. 

It will also mark the first regatta for the FX, which should see some spirited sailing as the girls push for early dominance.

Wangi’s Hayley Outteridge is aiming to join her victorious brother, Nathan, at the 2016 Olympics. 

Flying 11s and Cherubs have been invited to the regatta as feeder classes into the Bethwaite-designed boats. The Cherubs are expecting a large fleet in preparation for the 50th Australian Championship, which will be sailed at Belmont 16s over the Christmas/New Year period.

There will be a new 29er XS at the regatta as well, which kids can take for a test sail. As the young sailors grow in size and ability they can replace the XS rig with the standard rig, or even progress to the XX rig before moving on to the 49er.

NB Sail Sports took over the management of Bethwaite this year and has relocated the spare parts to a Somersby factory, as well as pushing hard on the regatta front. 

Seven races are scheduled over the weekend, starting on Belmont Bay tomorrow at 1pm, and 11.30am on Sunday.

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P1 Offshore;

Powerboat P1 is the fastest growing marine motorsport series in the world and has a long term commitment to growing and developing the sport of power boating at all levels. The Powerboat P1 team works closely with the sport’s governing bodies, the UIM, APBA and the IJSBA. P1 has delivered more than 85 world championship events in over twelve different countries for more than a decade.

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Substantial Prize Purse On Offer For MOD V Teams

Offshore racers in the flourishing MOD V class will be competing for a significant prize purse this year being provided by a sponsor. The MOD V National Money Series presented by Powerboat P1 will have total prize money of more than $120,000 comprising race event and overall prize purses. The series champion across the five P1 rounds will receive $50,000, with the runner-up earning $35,000 and the third-place finisher $25,000. The purse includes per-race payouts of $5,000 for the winner, $2,50 Continued

222 Offshore Receive Sam Griffith Trophy In Monaco

The 222 Offshore team travelled to Monaco on Saturday to receive the Sam Griffith Trophy awarded to the UIM Class 1 world champions. Australian driver Darren Nicholson and Italian throttleman Giovanni Carpitella were presented with the famous memorial trophy at the 2023 UIM Champions Trophy Ceremony by UIM President Raffaele Chiulli and Powerboat P1 CEO ... Continued

Alex Pratt Returns To Class 1 With dfYOUNG

+ Pratt to join owner/throttleman Rich Wyatt as driver for upcoming season + New pairing aiming to improve on dfYOUNG’s third place championship finish in 2023 + Testing in the Sarasota-based 50-foot Mystic sponsored by Good Boy Vodka to start this month The dfYOUNG team competing in this season’s UIM Class 1 World Championship will have a ... Continued

Sheboygan Honored As APBA Best Race Site 2023

The city of Sheboygan in Wisconsin has received the 2023 American Power Boat Association Best Race Site Award for hosting the inaugural Mercury Racing Midwest Challenge in August last year. Designed to acknowledge excellence and improve relationships with race sites, the award recognises and salutes the best venues and organisations supporting APBA-sanc ... Continued

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+ Rebranded Shootout Offshore event confirmed for the end of May + P1 race events to be part of the APBA national championship + Class 1 teams to race in Missouri in second round of UIM World Championship Powerboat P1 today announced that it ... Continued ...

09 Jan 2024

Powerboat p1 unveils 2024 p1 offshore and class 1 race calendar.

+ P1 race events to be part of the APBA national championship + New end of season dates for Sarasota and St. Pete grand prix + Mercury Racing event to return to Sheboygan after 2023 success Powerboat P1 has today announced its P1 O ... Continued ...

04 Jan 2024

Bally sports p1 offshore broadcast times for january.

14 Nov 2023

Key west worlds race no.3 - imposing their will.

Eric Colby, SOTW: Throughout the 42-year history of the offshore powerboat racing world championships, there are tales of teams that finished in the middle of the pack on Sunday but did enough to claim the title because they had done the math to determine where they needed to finish. Then there were those winner-take-all battles in which the numbers didn’t matter because the contenders were all so close coming into the finale. ... Continued ...

12 Nov 2023

Key west worlds race no. 2 - setting the stage for the finale.

Eric Colby, SOTW: There’s an almost inexplicable allure about Key West. Sure, former TV announcer and pro wrestler Stan Lane coined the phrase, “To be the best, you must win Key West,” but the racers take this motto to heart. The combination of the possibility of myriad conditions on the same course and the tightest corner in the famous harbor make the Key West championship arguably the most sought-after trophy in the sport. ... Continued ...

10 Nov 2023

Key west worlds race no. 1 - dominance carries over.

Eric Colby, SOTW: At the first day of competition at the 42nd annual Race World Offshore Key West World Championship presented by Performance Boat Center, the winners in virtually every class put on a superior display of dominance, setting the stage for three days of heated competition in the southernmost city in the United States. ... Continued ...

26 Oct 2023

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When P1 stages a major sports event, the benefits to the local community extend far beyond the racers and spectators, the local economy and tourism receive a massive boost too. Read what the race venues are saying. ... Continued ...

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• APBA Offshore Championship
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Powerboat Racing World

Frode Sundsdal

What is prw.

It’s a powerboat racing website that has covered circuit racing, offshore racing and PWC since 2016. Maintained by The Race Factory based in Norway who have specialists in event planning and promotion, social media, graphic design, and photography. We are currently working on our vision and believe that we can and will make a different in powerboating. We will dedicate our time to produce accurate factual stories and to promote the sport to a wider global audience.

It’s been well documented by PRW about how Stefan Hagin felt about the conclusion of the 2022 UIM F2 World Championship season.

It should have a been a defining career moment, filled with joy and one to saviour. Instead it left him with a sense of frustration and heartbreak after he thought he had won the UIM F2 World Championship title, only to have it taken away from him just hours after the chequered flag had fallen.

“For me and the whole RPM team along with my Race Engineer it’s still causes us to think what if. Even to this day I have no idea why it took so long for the UIM to measure the engine block after the team appealed about the disqualification”

said the disillusioned racer.

“When you look at other motorsports they know within a week whether the engine is illegal or not. Maybe in boat racing a week is unrealistic so, I thought ok four weeks maximum and we should know by the end of October.”

The fact was the RPM Team needed to know before November because they had begun to seek out potential sponsors off the back of their World Championship ‘victory’ to allow them to race again in the F1H2O World Championship as many of them did very successfully with the Qatar Team nine years ago.

“We finally got a confirmation email from Thomas Kurth, the UIM Secretary General in February confirming that I was indeed the 2022 World Champion, so three weeks before the start of the F1H2O season in Indonesia. Thanks to the way the UIM went about it in a totally unprofessional way denied me and the team the opportunity to race in F1.”

Now it’s time to put all that unwanted drama behind him. Hagin has already confirmed that he won’t return to the UIM F2 World Championship to defend his title.

“How can I even begin to think of returning to F2 when there is no confirmed calendar of races to show any potential sponsor! Plus the overall result of last season championship are still pending the conclusion of the appeal made by Sami Selio, it’s just wrong.”

Fortunately, plans are well underway that will see him joining the Racingfabrikken run by Frode Sundsdal in Tønsberg, Norway. His role there will be Technical Director and will see him and his wife Ieva Millere-Hagin move to the Vestfold County, on the western shore of the Oslofjord.

“We are now heading in a new direction with the Racingfabrikken”

said Sundsdal “Next week we are moving into new 500 square metres workshop facility in Tønsberg. This will allow us to have all the raceboats in one place to work on. It also gives us plenty of space to develop new concepts and perhaps some new race motors. I am extremely delighted to have secured a contract with one of the world’s best circuit races, after all anyone who can break the stranglehold that Team Abu Dhabi’s had on the F2 world title is someone I need on my side.”

Part of Stefan Hagin’s role will be to coach William Martinsen and Sindre Sundsdal Anundsen as the young Norwegian racers prepare to compete in the teams F4 hulls. Hagin has a huge wealth of experience when it comes to setting up and running an F4 hull. Previously he won the extremely competitive German ADAC SL60 title in 2008 and 2009. Then the following season as a twenty-one-year-old he made his F4-S debut with the Atlantic F1 Team alongside his friend Fabian Kalsow and lead driver Duarte Benavente who were competing in the F1H2O World Championship.

Sixteen-year-old Martinsen, who won the Norwegian GT30 Championship said,

“Having Stefan Hagin as my tutor, Frode Sundsdal looking after the sponsorship and Sindre as my team-mate I could not find a more complete race package to be part of and one I hope in due course will see me race in F2.”

Hagin is no stranger to helping emerging talent as before moving to Norway he had already begun developing a young German driver, Max Rohm who raced a Molgaard F2 hull that had previously belonged to Hagin.

“We still plan to offer him this service, the boat will be based in Germany and I will travel to the race venues to assist him.”

So, not only does the Racingfabrikken get the reigning UIM F2 World Champion but perhaps more significantly they also gets Ieva Millere-Hagin on board, with her skills as not only a racer but also as an event organiser. Back in 2019 she successfully combined these when she not only organised the Baltic Championship race in Aizkraukle, Latvia but also won the FR1000 class that was raced there.

The team, including Stefan Hagin are not planning to hang up their race overalls just yet as plans are underway to see them compete not only at their home event in Tønsberg at the start of August but also at the UIM F4 and F2 European Championships in Telšiai, Lithuania and San Nazzaro, Italy.

“For both Ieva and me this is a huge opportunity”

said Hagin,

“together with Frode we have a lot of knowledge and drive to get things done and I can’t wait to get started.”

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Our 30' Activator Rage has been completely redone by the original manufacturer

We have also purchased a new boat- a 22' Activator which will be racing in Class 7

The team will be announced shortly, the true story is about how you pick yourself back up, learn and move forward.

Special thanks to @yachtmediagrou p and @thefirmracingteam  for this content.

In racing, just like in life, the true story is not about the “fall”. The true story is about how you pick yourself back up, learn and move forward. This video is about the TRUE story of the incident in Key West and how Richard @richy_boat_sales  and Julian   @j_garcia33  got back in the boat and competed in the following race. It’s about how Danny Gonzalez @marine_sealution s  worked tirelessly all day and into the night to get the boat race ready again. Pete @thefirm_pete  was supposed to race on Sunday, but the Garcia brothers were adamant about getting back in the boat, racing again, and getting passed the turn where the incident occurred. AND THEY DID!    You see those were our world championships, and although we didn’t win the race, Danny, Richard and Julian were still champions that weekend. Our Rage is a beast and she is now getting dialed in for next season. The team, although rookies in in their first season, proved they are truly professionals.  A very special thanks to Luke Bossert @lukebossert  for his amazing work. We look forward to working with you next season. To Mike and Sarah Howe @howe2live  here is the rest of the story……thanks for your great work as well.

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THE FIRM RACING TEAM accepting 2nd Place at Hooters Clearwater Offshore Nationals

Pete and Richard Jr. are ready to race!

Heading out to race at the Hooters Clearwater Offshore Nationals

ProStock V Class offshore racing is a family affair.

Peter Riveiro, a 54-year-old driver/owner  and Richard Garcia Jr., a 27-year-old throttleman have raced their 30-foot Activator Rage in two races this year in Stock V Class and had podium finishes in both races. On September 5th they took 3rd Place at St. Pete Grand Prix and 2nd Place at the Hooters Clearwater Offshore Nationals. They plan to compete at Roar Offshore National Championship at Fort Myers Beach, Florida on October 9th and at Race World Offshore Key West Championships on November 14th. Their support team makes it all happen.

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