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Yearly Archives: 2016

BoostPower USA, led by Alexi Sahagian, was on location at Desert Storm 2016 with their massive display, ready to unleash ridiculous amounts of horsepower on the crowds thronging the streets of Lake Havasu City.

With an extensive display and plenty of performance parts and AEM products strewn about, BoostPower makes it clear that they are the kings of high performance and horsepower at this premier West Coast event. Boostpower showed off eight of their massive engines, all lined up for people to inspect at length, and Alexi himself was around to answer any questions that were thrown at him.

From turbochargers to headers and the services to match, the BoostPower display has everything you need take your craft to the next level and beyond. You can’t miss it! Look for the big white semi with more hulking engines out in front than you’ve ever seen before.

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We’re sad to report that one of the event’s attendees lost their MTI to a massive fire today. As of now we do not know the cause.

Everyone involved is safe, Unfortunately the boat burned all the way down to the water line and is a total loss.

There are few things on this earth more deadly than the vast expanse of the ocean. This deadliness even reaches the inlets and bays along our coasts and in truth, there is no escaping possible oblivion.

Two anglers experienced this first hand this week after a rogue wave swamped and capsized their boat on Galveston Bay on the coast of Texas. The two friends, one of which could not swim, were pitted against the elements in a fight for survival that would take them to their limits.

After a Coast Guard helicopter based in Houston came across the overturned hull of the fishermen’s boat Wednesday, they lowered a rescue swimmer to assess the situation but failed to find either of the friends.

It turns out that after the men were both thrown into the water, one was able to don the only nearby life jacket, and the two starting swimming with no real sense of direction. A short time later the pair came across a cooler from the boat and after splitting the sandwich and water found inside, the man without a life jacket used the cooler as his own flotation device.

Somehow, the men became separated eventually and made their way unknowingly to different oil platforms in the bay. At about 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, a Coast Guard chopper pilot spotted one of the men on his final pass over the area before returning to refuel.

“Happened to see him waving a shirt at us,” pilot Zach Gross told KHOU News.

A Coast Guard rescue swimmer quickly jumped into the water to save 51-year-old Michael Watkins, who had no idea that his buddy was still alive clinging to another oil platform about a mile away.

When rescuers found Watkins’ friend, Raymond Jacik, he was extremely hypothermic and most likely wouldn’t have made it another night.

“We never gave up on these two gentlemen, and bringing them home safe to their families is what Coast Guardsmen live to do,” said Capt. Brian Penoyer, the commander of Sector Houston-Galveston.

“Especially as the boating season starts, it’s important to remember you may not have time to put on your life jacket in an emergency,” Penoyer said. “We were all very lucky this accident happened where it did and they could climb up on a nearby platform. Check that your life jackets are serviceable, and wear them — it could mean the difference in surviving.”

Both men were reported to be in stable condition.

(Soundings Online)

After setting the shootout record at last year’s Desert Storm event, Win Farnsworth and his team are bringing their 50-foot, twin turbine, 3,000 horsepower monster of a powerboat back to Lake Havasu in hopes of breaking their own record! Competing against several other boaters, this year’s event lineup is sure to be bigger and better than ever.

As Team Farnsworth knows, weather may very well be the biggest contributing factor to their run to break their own shootout record. While they do have the advantage of Lake Havasu being short enough that other boats can’t match Low Altitude’s speed in such a short run, all of the competitors have the weather to worry about. The weather at Lake Havasu can be downright terrible sometimes so you never know what the conditions are going to allow for.

“The event is looking good, as long as the weather holds up,” said Jim Nichols, another of the event’s co-producers. “The teams are coming in with their brand-new boats. I think we’ll have a good show as usual on the street. For us to come from a single-day to a two-week-long event, and do Havasu proud…knowing that people plan their vacations around this event is pretty awesome.”

Nichols also said that they are expecting over 3,000 spectators for the shootout alone, adding to the 20,000 boat enthusiasts projected to attend the week’s festivities.

We’re excited to see everyone there as the festivities start to kick of soon and we’ll be eagerly looking to see who take the shootout crown this year!

The boat piloted by the missing Florida boys, Perry Cohen and Austin Stephanos, both 14, is finally on its way back to U.S. soil after being found off the coast of Bermuda last month by a Norwegian shipping freighter. Before packing the boat into its designated shipping container, the crew took several unadulterated photos of the boat which are currently being examined by U.S. authorities in hopes of getting a better glimpse into what might have transpired when the boys went missing.

According to the Cohen family’s attorney, Guy Rubin, upon first review the photographs show that the boat’s battery switch and ignition key are in the off position. Rubin claims that this is concerning because the location of the battery switch makes it extremely difficult to reach, and nothing short of impossible to be deactivated by a storm or length of time. This, according to Rubin, indicates that the switch being in the off position carries the high possibility that it was deactivated intentionally. Whether that was done by the boys or a another party that had access to the boat since their disappearance remains unknown.

“We do know for sure that boat was disabled intentionally because the battery switch, which is very difficult to get to, was in the off position. That can’t be maneuvered by the passage of time, the current, and other events,” Rubin told WPBF. “The key in the ignition was in the off position.”

“If the storm came and capsized the boat, the battery switch and the key would not be in those positions,” Rubin continued. “We want forensic experts in accident reconstruction to look at the boat and tell us what happened. I’m not trying to be an alarmist, but I’m also trying to take it from a scientific approach.”

However, while this may lead Rubin and his clients to lean towards some manner of foul play, concrete facts are still elusive and they are hesitant to offer any speculation as to what may have actually taken place.

“We don’t have any specific details about how the boat was taken from the vessel that picked it up to the process when it was then documented with photographs and put into a cargo container for shipment back to Port Everglades,” he told PEOPLE Wednesday. “This is still yet to be determined. So, we are drawing some possible conclusions from the photographs with the caveat that we just don’t know enough to make any determinative statements. This is the nature of investigative work and why it needs to be done methodically, carefully and by professionals. There is a lot from the photographs that tell the story and I’m going to let the professionals tell us what they mean from their perspective.”

The Stephanos family is still refusing to let the authorities examine the iPhone that was recovered from the boat and the Cohens are currently in the middle of a lawsuit to have the phone returned to the authorities for examination.

We’ll keep you updated here on PBN as we learn more.

(PEOPLE Magazine)

While most yachts are associated with the bevy of giants cabin cruisers found in harbors along the coast of Florida and the like, the latest outlier takes the form of a fully remodeled and revamped supply ship essentially converted into a floating piggy bank.

The Kilkea is currently sitting in a shipyard getting ready for its luxury makeover that will completely transform the ship from the shell of a freighter that it is now, to a full fledged super yacht.

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The 269-foot freighter will be able to accommodate 36 guests, and when fully stocked it will be able to stay out at sea for up to 30 days at a time, making it possible for the passengers and crew adventure further than other yachts can even dream of. The addition of an on-board helicopter is just the cherry on top.

The yacht’s designers are claiming to be able to engineer the vessel to be more environmentally friendly with lower fuel consumption requirements which will also add to the range the yacht is capable of.

We’re looking forward to seeing the progress these coming months as she undergoes her transformation.

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This Jan. 21, 2016 photo shows the MSC Opera cruiser off the coast of Havana as it departs Cuba. Cuban state media announced on Friday, April 22, 2016 the loosening of the government's policy that banned Cuban-born people from arriving by sea. Those prohibitions were put in place in response to Cuban exiles launching attacks from the water in the first years after the Cuban revolution. (AP Photo/Desmond Boylan)

U.S. Marshal Amos Rojas Jr. has announced to the news that last Thursday, a Disney Fantasy cruise ship found three fugitives clinging to a capsized boat off the coast of Cuba. All three were wanted for violating their supervised release on federal credit card fraud charges in New Orleans.

The fugitives, 26-year-old Luis Rivera-Garcia, 23-year-old Juliet Estrada Perez, and 23-year-old Enrique Gonzalez-Torres, are all Cuban nationals believed to be fleeing to Cuba to avoid prosecution.

The men were turned over to authorities in Florida and have been charged with violation of supervised release. It is unknown if they have attorneys at this point.

(Fox News)

Torque spikes are devastating to your transmissions, drives, and the like. They were also thought to be unavoidable until Mike Clesceri from Marine Design Corporation took it upon himself fix the problem altogether.

Mike runs his boat on Lake Michigan where a nice day is still a rough day, and when you’re running on water like that your boat is bound to come out of the water even if it’s just a little bit. This re-entry of the prop into the water after leaving the surface is what leads to torque spikes. Not only are these spikes unavoidable, but their severity is raised by many different factors. In many cases, these factors are the positive designs of the boat, from propeller shapes that allow it to reach maximum thrust, to hull design. These designs all add up to produce a massive amount of kinetic energy that resists a sudden change in rpm, resulting in a massive spike of torque that has to go somewhere. These spikes have enough force to squeeze the gear lube out and results in the teeth touching and grinding. Over a period of time this grinding action causes pits and renders the transmission and its accompanying parts useless. Mike blew through three transmissions in one year due to the stress these spikes put on his transmission and drives.

Instead of selling the boat, Mike set out to solve the problem and he came up with the DriveGuardian, essentially a “slipping” clutch that alleviates all of the stress put on the transmission and drives when the propeller loses and re-encounters water resistance.

The DriveGuardian is designed to allow a very precise amount of slippage whenever the prop re-encounters enough water resistance so that the stress and energy is converted to heat instead of transferring it to the components and causing irreparable damage. The slippage itself is precisely tuned to the boat and is impossible to feel or notice due to it occurring in less than half a revolution. The DriveGuardian’s unique design prevents the engine from exceeding its peak torque and causing the above mentioned damage. DriveGuardian uses billet aluminum housings, Kevlar clutch plates and heat treated hubs. The SSM and Crashbox versions include a HD damper plate for increased reliability over the factory units. Installation is a direct bolt-on with no additional modifications required

Since Mike developed the DriveGuardian, the success of the design has been indisputable. He initially performed R&D on his boat in 2013, logging over 240 hours on rough Lake Michigan with the new DriveGuardian installed. He noticed that without the DriveGuardian, his data logs recorded torque spikes in excess of 2,000 ft. lbs. due to the fact that when the props left the water, dropping 400rpms in less than a second created a massive amount of torque. With the DriveGuardian implemented, those would-be spikes never exceeded the preset value, and after experiencing a high level of success personally, he was then able to approach a few OPA Racing teams in 2014.

 

After running with the DriveGuardian, the results were astonishing. In the previous year, the race team, SARIS, had ran only three races during the season before finding that the teeth on the brand new couplers were already pitted and cracked due to torque spikes. After installing the DriveGuardian the following season, the same team ran five races in typical rough water conditions, and after pulling it apart the teeth were fully intact and looked brand new.

Capture

Currently, Mike’s design is used by several offshore racing teams as well as numerous individual boaters, and those figures are growing daily. After recently making his first sale to the European market at the 2016 Miami Boat Show to a Swedish gentlemen, his design is poised to become and integral part of powerboating for years to come. With concrete numbers and results that prove that it’s a must have for any offshore boater, we’re looking forward to seeing the level of success that Mike will undoubtedly achieve in coming years.

Sweden Customer

Scroll through the photos below to see how the DriveGuardian is designed for optimal performance.

Almost 9 months after the disappearance of two 14 year old Florida boys, Perry Cohen and Austin Stephanos, there small 19-foot Seacraft vessel was found March 18th  by a Norwegian supply ship approximately 100 miles off the coast of Bermuda.

The single engine craft, found floating in a shipping lane, was recovered by the Norwegian ship and kept on board its voyage to Norway. Crew were able to find several personal items belonging to the boys including a cell phone and a plastic tackle box.

“The boat was subsequently confirmed to be the boat that belonged to Austin Stephanos,” Rob Klepper, a spokesman for the law enforcement division of the fish and wildlife conservation commission, said in a statement.

The respective agencies have notified the boys’ families and the boat is expected to be returned by shipping container on May 16th.

“The personal effects that were onboard the boat will be returned to the families of the victims, and subsequent information retrieval efforts from any of those items will be at their discretion,” Klepper said. “The (fish and wildlife commission) will examine the vessel for any new information, and return the boat to the family.”

The boat had originally been found several miles off of Florida’s coast a few days after the boys went missing, but due to deep water, the Coast Guard had to attach a data marker buoy instead of a typical anchor, and when salvage crews returned to recover the boat, it had drifted away and became lost due to a faulty data marker.

The search continues for the 2 missing boys as the family refuses to give up hope.

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