The final results are up for the 65th running of the Catalina Ski Race. World Champion Ski Racer Todd Haig won again and set a new record at 49.42.66 with this being his 11th victory at the prestigious race. Todd was followed over the finish line by Mark Weaver at 54.29.09 and Jake Tegart at 54.44.33
Todd was supported by the familiar team of Nordic Boats with Randy Davis at the helm. The Team Nordic 47 Mono-Hull has a specially designed bottom to support the skier and leave as consistent of a wake possible. Powered by Mercury Racing 1200 HP Motors they averaged about 75 mph over the 62 mile course. Haig has now tied the legendary Chuck Sterns at 11 Catalina Wins.
Boostpower Marine’s Alexi Sahagian was on hand for the event. The Boostpower Boats did very well, Of course Warpath, a 47 Fountain owned by Mike Avila was Boostpower’s premier boat with triple Boostpower 1000sc engines within it. They won overall last year with skier Peter Procter and this year they were on track for the world record however unfortunately Peter fell approx 4 miles from the break water. Proctor was eyeing for the win and at the halfway point nearly got the lead. Alexi commended the performance of the Australians noting “The Aussie’s did very well as usual. The water conditions here in the ocean are a bit of a challenge as they ski in better water conditions in the rivers abroad.”
After the race started, the water and winds of course became choppy and a bit unstable compared to the normal ruff oceanic conditions. The skiers definitely were required to adapt. From conversations I had with Drivers, they reported they had to navigate around a fishing fleet and also saw a lot of wildlife as well. “The approximate 62 miles sure tests the integrity of the engines, boats skiers and of course the drivers as well! It’s ‘The Great Race'” noted Alexi.
Alexi lauded the events history saying “The race is such a historic event for all of us current and retired ski racers. We always as children looked forward to this annual event in Long Beach. When we were kids we had the luxury of practicing in Lake Arrowhead were the water is as close to an ocean as possible and a lot of the skiers that were competitive were originally in the Lake Arrowhead Ski Club.”
More history may be written next year as records are made to be broken and we look forward to seeing a possible 12th title is in Haig’s future, although the other skiers may have something to say about that!
All the results can be downloaded here.
