Factory Classes

Team Hyperactive races F1-24 in the American Power Boat Association's (APBA) Factory 1 class.

There are three factory classes, but first a little background about how they came to exist.

Power boat racing traces its roots back to the early years of the 20th Century when the internal combustion engine rose over the technology horizon. Owners of these new fangled power boats that went where the wind didn't want them to soon began to see whom could get where ever the fastest, and the need for speed on the water was born. I say born- sailing ships had been competing for the title of the fastest for decades, but their record times were often measured in MONTHS. With power, we began to talk about REAL speed! Of course, airplanes then laugh at US in our slow power boats, but what the hey?

Members of various yacht clubs from the Long Island Sound area provided the foundation for what would eventually become the American Power Boat Association (APBA). Hyperactive Racing is a proud member of the APBA and the Great Lakes Offshore Powerboat Racing Association (GLOPRA). In the not too distant past offshore powerboat racing had evolved into a struggling sport. Races were indeed "offshore", such as from Miami to Nassau to Key West and back to Miami. If you won, so what- nobody saw it. There was no practical way to provide TV coverage to attract sponsors and the money needed to help the sport grow.

Compare this situation to the similar land based motorsport that came to be NASCAR. Accessible to everyone, and held inside a fixed oval track like a fly buzzing around a lamp with nothing better to do. But, it sure made for good TV coverage and sponsor opportunities! All those crowds, and all that noise, AND all those crashes! Offshore power boat racing had the noise and the crashes, but without the crowds it evolved into what was known as "checkbook racing."

A few million-dollar boats showed up at each race, and the ones who wrote the biggest checks the most often were the winners. The public lost interest in offshore power boating because they couldn't relate to it any more, and it went into a state of serious decline. To the great good fortune of the sport, along came a successful businessman named Gene Whipp to take the management helm, so to speak, as President of the APBA Offshore Division, and turn the sport around. Gene has retired now, but he served as a tireless promoter who did a tremendous job of laying the ground work for the thriving Offshore division that we know today.

My fondest memory of Gene's tenure was at the 1998 National series race in Toronto. Talk about NEW! This was only Hyperactivs's second race in our own boat, and our first at the national level. I didn't know Gene from Adam's house cat - but he knew who I was. I was bumbling around with the officials at the registration desk, pretty much the clueless red neck, when Gene came up from behind and clapped his arm around my shoulder and loudly proclaimed to the officials that they had better take good care of me because I was with Hyperactive Racing and they damn well NEEDED me since I was part of their future! The effect was magical. Talk about instant credibility! The fact that we came in dead last in that race is not what matters. The fact that the President of the Offshore Division took the time to tell us beginners we were of some small significance is what I remember. Thank you Gene.

The current offshore division president, Michael Allweiss, is moving ahead at an incredible pace to promote the sport and increase TV coverage by negotiating a deal with TNN to broadcast the National race series. Speedvision returns for the 1999 season to provide its usual excellent coverage of the Great Lakes Silver Cup Series races that Hyperactive usually participates in.

OK. Enough of this background foolishness. What about those three Factory Classes you came here to learn about?

The Factory classes were formed in 1996 in an effort to make racing affordable for the average boat owner, increase the fleet of participating boats, and bring the public back to the sport by letting them see what is essentially the same boat they might own, but in wolf's clothing out there actually racing! By the end of the 1998 race season the Factory classes were clearly having the desired effect, with more of them participating in the APBA Worlds in Biloxi, Mississippi than in any of the other classes. Hyperactive was there racing at the Worlds, as one of the 10 entries in Factory 1.

The Factory classes were created based on a well known relatively high performance but still reasonably reliable engine and outdrive package available from Mercury marine in Fon du Lac, Wisconsin. Every Factory class boat starts with the same stock carburated 502 cubic inch displacement MerCruiser HP 500 engine and Bravo One outdrive package. According to the rules, every engine is sealed at the factory, and nobody can touch nothing. In an attempt to acknowledge the costly reality that things tend to break when you run even a good 500 horse power engine at full throttle for more that an hour at a time, the rules allow an engine to be bored out to 509 cubic inches during a rebuild.

Seems reasonable doesn't it? The reality is that Factory teams with big budget sponsors take new boats with brand new engines and immediately rebuild them to 509s. Then they go racing. And who is to know if they tried 15 or 20 carbs on the dyno to find that special one at the upper end of the official Mercury plus or minus 10% allowable specifications limit? The bottom line is that a Factory team can end up racing with 450 horse power against a supposedly identical engine that is cranking out 550 or more horse power, all within the rules. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to guess who usually wins. But hey, we do have fun.

Factory 1

The Factory I class consists of 24 to 30 foot V hull boats with one MerCruiser HP 500 and Bravo One outdrive. This package results in typical speeds in the 70 to 75 mile per hour range. Atypical speeds in the official kilometer speed runs have shown 77 for one of the F1 boats in the Great Lakes Silver Cup Series (August 1999). The world kilometer record is a nat's hair over 81 miles per hour, but this is on a grand fathered "A" class boat that was downgraded to F1 by changing the motor to the required stock 500 horse power. When this boat's grandfathering expires, you will not likely ever see 80 miles per hour in an legitimate F1 boat again.

Factory 2

The Factory 2 class consists of 30 to 39 foot V hull boats with two MerCruiser HP 500s and Bravo One outdrives. This package results in typical speeds in the 85 to 90 mile per hour range. Sucks don't it? Add another 500 horse power to a deep v hull and it only goes 10 or so miles per hour faster. The laws of physics are kind of tough.

Factory 3

The Factory 3 class consists of 30 to 37.5 foot catamaran hull boats with two MerCruiser HP 500s and Bravo One outdrives. This package results in typical speeds in the 105 to 110 mile per hour range. They are not violating the laws of physics, just circumventing them by riding partly on air, which has a lot less drag than water since is it about 600 times less dense. If you pay close attention you may notice that as a spectator you tend to see the bottoms of the cat boats a lot more often than the v hulls. I'll stick to double digit speeds to increase the odds that my age might get to triple digits. To each his own...