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By admin / Poker Run / 0 Comments

Teaming Up For Safety

Poker Runs America, Sunsation Powerboats and Mercury Marine join together to build a new safety boat for the 2017 Poker Runs America tour.

For many years, participants at Poker Runs America events have become accustomed to seeing the bright yellow Fountain and Scarab paceboats. This year the 47’ Fountain changed colors thanks to the corporate sponsorship from Fiji Water.

At the 2016 Poker Runs America season-ending poker run in Cape Coral, Fla., a new boat joined the Poker Runs America fleet, a Sunsation 32 CCX center console powered by twin Mercury Racing Verado 400R outboards. The white hullsides sported Official Safety Boat decals and the new vessel will pro-vide support and assistance to poker runs and other major events includ-ing offshore races around the coun-try in the future.

“The safety of all our poker run-ners and all performance boaters is of utmost importance,” said Poker Runs America president and publisher Bill Taylor. “This boat will give us the opportunity to provide even more support to them in the future.”

Denny Hejja of Marine Performance Specialties in Cape Coral, FL checks the oil level on the new merc 400’s.

By admin / Performance Boats / 0 Comments

50′ Nor Tech high performance motor yacht – Super fast!

50′ Nor Tech high performance motor yacht – Super fast!

This article was published on: January 16, 2014

50' Nor-Tech 5000 RoadsterIf you are the kind of person that likes to stay one step ahead of the competition, then GOLD RUSH is your dream boat. You will be able to leave everyone in your wake no matter what the sea conditions are. The larger hull lends itself beautifully to cruising at breathtaking speeds in the worst of conditions in relative ease and comfort. This big and powerful Cat offers more room in all areas, which translates into a more comfortable stay on-board. The enlarged salon and cockpit areas are even more luxurious, while the engine room benefits most from increased size, as there is now room enough for a total of four engines. The cockpit is very comfortable with a wrap-around wind screen with seating for six.Pre-owned Nor Tech Yacht Worried about being at the helm of so much power? No problem! Talk to Denny Hejja (33 years experience in high performance watercraft, former crew chief for Popeye’s racing, 6 x National Championship Winner, 3 x World Championship Winner, and an all-around specialist in custom rigging, poker runs, and high-performance marine consulting). Denny has been maninging and maintaining the boat, since new, for her current owner. He is very comfortable and experienced with how to handle these types of vessels and will work with the future owner to safely and comfortably operate this vessel to her full potential. For over 53 years Atlantic Yacht & Ship has been serving the yachting community. Our headquarter sales office is dockside at Harbour Towne Marina in the heart of the yachting capital of the world, Fort Lauderdale, FL. Our in-house waterside service department provides general yacht services from new teak, to engine rebuilds, captain services, and everything in between. Whether purchasing or marketing a quality vessel, Atlantic Yacht and Ship, Inc. is your one stop resource for the highest quality service and sales in the yachting industry today. If you are looking at yachts for sale, or thinking about selling your yacht, it is always wise to have an experienced broker representing your interests throughout the deal. Contact Atlantic Yacht & Ship at 888.677.2939 or click here or chat with us by clicking the link in the lower right corner of the screen!

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By admin / Poker Run / 0 Comments

Symposium: River Dance

BY FLUTO SHINZAWA

“Oh, we’ve blown up engines, drives, just about everything,” Gary Montano says matter-of-factly as we prepare to board Montano Motorsports, his $750,000 Cigarette speedboat. He gives my life jacket one final tug. “Can you swim?” he asks with a smile.

Half an hour later, we are puttering up New York’s Hudson River, poised to ignite the 46-foot Cigarette’s twin 1,100-hp Sterling engines and rocket as fast as 106 mph. “Whatever you do, when you’re turning your head, do this,” shouts Montano, holding his sunglasses with two fingers at the bridge of his nose. “If you turn your head at the speed we’re gonna go, say good-bye.” I nod, sit down, and take my sunglasses off, because I have no intention of removing either hand from the bar in front of me.

We are competing in the New York City Powerboat Rally, also known as the New York City Poker Run. The objective is for each powerboat to travel to different docks along the Hudson, pick up a playing card at each location, and return to Liberty Landing Marina in Jersey City, N.J., with a full five-card hand; the owner with the best cards wins. Truthfully, the poker is irrelevant. The game is an excuse for more than 100 speedboats and their too-tanned, testosterone-addled owners—most in their 20s and 30s—to sprint up the Hudson at heart-stopping speeds. “It’s an ego thing,” admits Montano, who, at 54, is a self-described dinosaur among his peers. “It’s all about who’s the fastest and who looks the nicest.”

Because of commercial traffic on the Hudson, the boats are limited to 10 knots until we reach the George Washington Bridge, where the restriction is lifted. From there, each boat navigates a flat-out 15-mile run to the Tappan Zee Bridge.

Denny Hejja, Montano’s crew chief, punches the throttle, and the Cigarette blasts off. The two Sterlings, located just behind my head, are shrieking in sync with the roar of the waves in our wake. The steady thud-thud-thud of the hull pounding the water shudders throughout the boat. I feel as though I am in a supermarket cart rolling downhill on a cobblestone road, powerless to prevent the unspeakable from occurring.

With the Cigarette’s engines howling at 5,000 rpm, if Hejja makes the slightest error while adjusting the Cigarette’s trim tabs (devices to adjust the boat’s angle on the water), the 14,000-pound boat will perform a hook: an instantaneous 90-degree turn that would catapult us into the Hudson. The flotilla of approaching powerboats would shred our bodies, but we would be dead before hitting the water, our necks having snapped from the force of the ejection. “The water is a very dangerous mistress,” Montano says somberly. “There isn’t a year that goes by without deaths.”

Our lives are literally in Hejja’s hands, the ones controlling the wheel, the throttle, and the trim tabs. The crew chief is “reading the water,” avoiding rogue waves, watching for debris, and keeping away from other boats. Several times, the boat goes airborne—a sickening sensation at triple-digit speeds—and Hejja backs off the throttle, which keeps the engine from over-revving, then eases the boat back into the water to prevent the propellers from breaking.

We are testing the limits of horsepower, hull technology, and ego, kept in check by Hejja, who knows exactly where the edge lies—and not to cross it.

After the rally, I drive home in a BMW 760Li, turning on the massage function to soothe my back, which is still as tight as a snare drum. I am steering the whisper-quiet 4,872-pound sedan with one hand, changing radio stations with the other, until I notice that the speedometer reading is nearing 100 mph. I slow down, put two hands on the wheel, and remind myself that when I get home, I need to thank Hejja for keeping me alive and Montano for giving me a newfound respect for speed.

By admin / Performance Boats / 0 Comments

A Real Jet Boat

BY CLIFF GROMER

New York rush-hour is tolling north on the West Side Highway, threatening to solidify into arthritic gridlock at any moment. But we’re in the fast lane breezing along at a rather cool 120 mph. The fast lane in this case isn’t alongside the river, but in the river. The familiar New York waterfront flashes by at gi­gaspeed. It’s more than fast-it’s surreal, like watching a video in fast forward. What’s re­ally mind-boggling is that we’re not strapped into some race boat, but a one-of-a-kind pleasure boat with full carpeting, 500-watt, 10-speaker Clarion stereo, and comfy seats.

To the molasses-paced bumper taggers on the highway, we must look like a bullet being fired up the Hudson. We certainly feel like we’re riding one. Rear-seat passengers don’t receive much benefit from the windshield, and my wife’s hair looks like it’s being blow-dried by the exhaust blast of a 747. Good thing she took pains to wash and set it before we came aboard.

There are jet boats and there are jet boats. Traditional types use a jet pump drive powered by a conven­tional reciprocating gasoline en­gine. Our boat, a production 50-ft. Nortech catamaran hull, uses conventional props-17.5 x 32-in.-pitch five-blade Mercury stainless steel race units driven by Mercury No. 6 Speed master race drives. But in­stead of being powered by a piston engine that goes Boing! Boing! you’ll find two Lycoming P53-13 gas tur­bine engines that go Hmmm/Veter­ans of Huey UH-1 H helicopter serv­ice, these engines are dynoed at 1600 hp each. Unlike a pure jet en­gine that uses the thrust of expand­ing exhaust gas for forward motion, a gas turbine relies on the jet princi­ple of expanding gas directed against the blades on a wheel to produce shaft horsepower.

This Lycoming engine is marinized by MTT and sells for 130 grand.

Gaffrig marine gauges are calibrated for aircraft engine input.

The engines are surprisingly quiet at speed and my wife,son and I are able to carry on a conversation at something less than a shout with boat project chief Denny Hejja and engine/boat rigger specialist Ted McIntyre, who occupy the front seats. Hejja, who owns Marine Per­formance Specialties in Cape Coral, Fla., conceived this craft for its own­er, Joe Montano, a race boat enthusi­ast from Connecticut. McIntyre, who runs Marine Turbine Technologies in Franklin, La., is a turbine guru who has designed and built a num­ber of high-profile turbine projects, including a motorcycle (with a guar­anteed top speed of 250-plus mph) for funnyman Jay Leno.

Casting off from the dock, the en­gines spool up with a whine that’s pure music.”I can shoot 6-ft. flames out the exhaust,” Hejja chuckles. Like this boat doesn’t get enough atten­tion as it is. At docking speeds, each engine produces only 11 hp.This way, the props can be stopped with the engines still spinning via a disc