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During the Offshore Powerboat Association 2010 World Championships in Orange Beach, Ala., a little more than a week ago I had a great day on the water—one of the best I ever had. The strange thing is, it didn’t start well. In fact, it had all the makings of a total disaster.

Saturday during the OPA Worlds was a “down day,” meaning there was no racing. So I headed out with my brand-new friends from New Jersey, Joe Sabo and Tony Desaro, for a poker run on Sabo’s 38-foot Cigarette Top Gun powered by twin supercharged 1,050-hp Cobra engines. Joining us for the ride were Randy Garcia and Alex Nuez of Cobra. As we headed offshore and Sabo opened it up, it looked as if we were in for a day of pure go-fast boat fun.

We never made it to the first stop, thanks to a pair of mechanical issues. The first, a leaky header that doused the distributor on the port engine, was easily repaired with duct tape. A few miles later, the starboard engine’s blower belt shredded itself.

“Anyone want to buy a boat?” Sabo said as he collected pieces of the belt from the bilge. Everyone laughed—and the tone for the afternoon was set.

“That’s boating, right?” he said and looked my way.

I nodded. “I’d love to tell you this is the first time I’ve ever seen anything like this happen, but I’d be lying,” I said.

Then I looked at Garcia, who appeared more than a little uncomfortable—understandably so—with having a Powerboat magazine writer on board a boat with his engines having issues.

“I have seen everyone's stuff break, Randy,” I said. “And I mean everyone’s. Don’t sweat it.”

Of course, the engine still ran just fine without a blower but it was down on power and even more so on torque. That meant to get the boat on plane Sabo needed to hammer the port throttle and feather the starboard, and Desaro, Nuez and I had to crawl all the way forward in the cabin.

After a couple of times through that somewhat comical routine, Sabo wisely decided that a multi-stop poker run probably wasn’t a great call and that we should head back.

But first there was the small matter of waiting for the water intakes to clear themselves, thanks to a brush with a sandbar while we had stopped to get our bearings.

No question, we had become a comedy of errors. But the keyword is comedy because everyone on board was laughing.

“You guys feel like getting lunch?” I asked.

Sabo was way ahead of me, and soon we were back on the Intracoastal Waterway running 70 mph and headed toward Lulu’s, a waterside restaurant owned by singer Jimmy Buffet’s sister, in Gulf Shores, Ala.

Bailing on the poker run changed everything for the better. We no longer had to be anywhere. Our timetable became our own, and everything from houses on tall pilings to an immense coal barge became worth appreciating as “something you just don’t see at home.” By the time we tied up at Lulu’s for lunch we were in no hurry to do anything.

A long lunch on a waterfront patio with cold drinks, good conversation and lots of laughs—the time couldn’t pass slowly enough. Though no one said anything about it, I think everyone regretted having to head back.

“You know, sometimes bad is good,” said Sabo as we motored back to Orange Beach.

On that we all agreed.

Editor's Note: All photos courtesy/copyright Tim Sharkey,

After a day or two—best case—at a boat show, I get a little stir crazy. The buzz that comes with seeing new performance-boat models and connecting with old friends eventually falls prey to sore feet and monotony.

So for me, any excuse to step away from the show, if only for a few hours, is a good one. Hats off to Doller Marine in Hollywood, Fla., for planning its Open House event for Saturday, October 30, from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. It’s no accident that’s also the second to the last day of the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, and by then attendees, especially of the go-fast kind, should be ready for a little field trip. And Hollywood is just minutes from Fort Lauderdale.

I have to admit, I’ve never been to Doller Marine, but I’ve known of it since I started writing for Powerboat magazine 16 years ago this month. Back then, the company only sold parts for high-performance powerboat, and had a solid reputation for customer service. Doller’s reputation hasn’t changed, but now the company also is a dealer for Active Thunder, Spectre and Sunsation performance boats.

For go-fast boat enthusiasts looking to escape the Fort Lauderdale Show, the short trip to Doller might be worth the effort, if for no other reason than to hang out with fellow performance-boat lovers and enjoy complimentary food and beverages. Trust me, if I were headed to the show—not going to happen this year—I wouldn’t miss it.

Interviewing Walt Collins, throttleman of the 40-foot Sutphen race called TKO, during the Offshore Powerboat Association 2010 Offshore World Championships in Orange Beach, Ala., I bumped—literally—into Richie Sutphen. The famed designer/builder of Sutphen boats on hand to check out the event and support the TKO crew. According to Sutphen, the 40-footer is the last of his boats still actively racing.

“These old boats just don’t go away,” said Sutphen. “There was also a 26-foot Sutphen that came out to a couple of races earlier this season.

“It’s gotten me inspired,” he continued. “People are saying, ‘Rich, why don’t you come out with something new?’ I say, ‘Let me come out, look at a race and I might go back do something next year.’ I already have some people who are interested.”

Sutphen said his next creation—if it comes to fruition—will be a single-engine model.

“I think that’s the future with the economy,” he said. “I already have some stuff on the board.

“I do all my designs from scratch,” Sutphen added. “They’re not stretched or shortened versions of something else.”

John Haggin, the financier and, in many ways, spiritual leader behind the AMF/Geico offshore powerboat racing team announced his retirement tonight at the Offshore Powerboat Association 2010 Offshore World Championships in Orange Beach, Ala.. During the event's awards ceremony at Live Bait II, Haggin said he was stepping back from AMF  to pursue other interests, which reportedly include a long-established race horse breeding business.

Haggin was unavailable for comment during his "retirement party" at the OPA Worlds later this evening, which was attended by a number of teams that run the OPA circuit.

During his seven-year involvement in offshore powerboat racing as the head of AMF Racing (AMF reportedly stands for "American Made Fun"), Haggin supported and funded the development of turbine-class offshore racing that took the form of several Miss Geico catamaran race boats. According to Haggin representatives including his attorney and Miss Geico driver Marc Granet, Haggin plans to step away from day-to-day, decision-making involvement with the team but will still track its progress.

"John taught us to have fun and enjoy life, and not take it so seriously," said Granet during the awards ceremony. "He taught us a new way of looking at things. We won't forget that."

According to multiple sources, Geico will continue to sponsor the AMF race team.

Spent the day on the Geico/AMF paceboat, a 38-foot-long Cigarette Top Gun (Lip-Ship version, of course) watching the first round of the Offshore Powerboat Association 2010 World Championships in Orange Beach, Ala. And as jaded as I’ve probably become in 15-plus years of covering go-fast boat races, poker runs and so on, I have to say that this was one fine day on the water. Here are my highlights:

Best Race: Super V Light, and it’s not even arguable. The five-boat fleet kept it really close in smooth, fast conditions from the start, but Typhoon ended up first over Time Bandit. Still, Time Bandit was right there at the end, and the rest of the Super V Light fleet wasn’t far behind. Big props to the Octane team, by the way, which woke up with mechanical issues that threatened to send it home and still managed to finish.

Most Dominant Performance: OK, I have two. The first is Amsoil in Super Cat Light, which opened a can of you-know-what on Infinity—like Amsoil a Skater 368 with twin Mercury Racing 525EFI engines—driven and throttled by a pair of good-natured Norwegians (who, in the interest of full disclosure, bought the entire Amsoil team and me dinner last night). By the fifth lap, Amsoil had a 30-second lead on the Infinity.

Second up? The Miss Geico 50-foot Mystic doing it’s best not to repeatedly lap the entire fleet. Yes, the cat is turbine-powered. Yes, it’s clearly in a class of its own and has no competition. Guess what? It still takes a ton of skill to run and Scotty Begovich and Marc Granet do it consistently well and know how to put on a show. And did I mention that they are unfailingly professional and courteous to every fan who approaches them at the docks? Bravo, gentlemen.

Best Celebrity Moment: Once again, I have two (in order of sequence), which has to be at least somewhat unusual for Orange Beach. Last night, Travis Loftland, the driver of Time Bandit, poured me a beer during the OPA party at Happy Harbor. Loftland is—or was, if you follow the papers—a deckhand on the Discovery Channel television show “Deadliest Catch.” The Hillstrand brothers, who were his captains on the show, which I’ve watched relentlessly since Day 1, sponsor the race boat.

Second celebrity moment: On the pace boat for the second race today with OPA official Ron Polli, boat driver extraordinaire Steve Kenney, a Geico representative and me was Tico Torres, the drummer for Bon Jovi for 23 years. (The band is performing a free concert tonight in nearby Gulf Shores.) What a cool, unpretentious guy—and being from Los Angeles I feel fully qualified to judge coolness and pretense.

None of the final chapters in the 2010 OPA Worlds is written, as there are two more races on Sunday and the results are determined by what happened today and what will happen then. Tomorrow, there’s a poker run and I’m looking forward to bumping into Giselle. Hey, a guy can dream and I’m relatively sure that Tom Brady has work outside of Orange Beach this weekend.

Stay tuned.

Arguably the best throttleman in offshore powerboat racing today, John Tomlinson spent most of his time on the sidelines this season—he ran just two domestic races this year with Mike DeFrees in the CRC catamaran. After David Scott of the multiple Anheuser-Busch-backed race boats retired a few years ago. Tomlinson was left without a solid ride.

Scott’s departure coincided with the beginning of the economic downturn, and even Tomlinson’s solid credentials including multiple offshore championships weren’t enough to keep the “hired gun” off the bench.

“After the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout, I thought that was it for the year,” said Tomlinson, who earned Top Gun honors at the late August event with Scott in a 4,000-hp Mystic catamaran. “Just when I thought racing was over for the year, I got a call from Scott Gillman.”

A world-championship-winning Formula One tunnel boat racer, Gillman manages the Dubai-based Victory team’s Formula One campaign. Victory also runs a two-boat, dominant Union Internationale Motonautique Class 1 offshore catamaran campaign, as well as fielding a third boat for Abu Dhabi. When the Abu Dhabi team needed to replace its throttleman, Gillman suggested they pursue Tomlinson.

Tomlinson is no stranger to Class 1 competition. After an undefeated 1996 season of domestic offshore racing in the Zero Defect Skater cat with Laith Pharaon, he and Pharaon campaigned the Jolly Motor catamaran to a Class 1 European title the following year.

Tomlinson said his first and only race this season—so far— wearing Abu Dhabi colors in Italy was encouraging, if unspectacular in term of results.

“We practiced well, we tested well and we qualified well,” said Tomlinson, who shares the cockpit with Rashed Al Tayer. “We just didn’t finish well.

“Thanksgiving week we race in Abu Dhabi, then I’m home for a week and then I’m back in Dubai for the final race of the season,” he added. “It looks like I’ll also race (at the Super Boat International World Championships) in Key West.”

Tomlinson that Class 1 racing is comparable to racing in the now-extinct Open class in terms of speed, but also similar to the hey-day of the Super Cat class for close competition and parity across the fleet.

“You have to race hard—there’s no taking it easy,” he explained. “It (Class 1) is very organized and very professional. The level of sophistication over there also is quite different with all the telemetry and computers. You can really dial in you set up on the racecourse. The course is open for three days, and you practice on it and race on it. There are test sessions every day, so you can go out and run, and then come back and look at exactly how you did and how you did it.”

As for next season in Class 1, Tomlinson said he had no formal plans. Although he is paid as a throttleman, his “bread and butter” business is TNT Custom Marine in North Miami.

“We’ll see what happens for next year,” he said. “Racing there takes a lot of time away from being here in Miami. Every race, I’m gone for a week.”