1980 Offshore Racing
‘Gold Coast One’ was a 35′ Bruce Harris designed Shark Cat racing hull powered by three 250 hp Black Max outboards. 750 hp moved her through calm water at around 90 mph – but she wasn’t in calm water very often! She was once clocked crossing the (old) Southport bar at 75 mph! This (I hasten to add) before either Peter Greenland or I were parents… She drew just 3″ at rest – and was actually airborne during most of a race.
She was purpose built for the (then) annual Pacific 1000 Race from Cairns in Far North Queensland to the Gold Coast in South East Queensland. 1000 Nautical Miles of maritime madness. The boats covered the coarse in 10 daily stages – and the road crews (with their 50′ trailers) had their own race down the highway!
Whippy’s Eagle – our main rival.
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