Caveman Skater V-Bottom to Race Offshore

Caught up with Marc Granet, the driver of the turbine-powered Miss Geico offshore racing catamaran, earlier this morning. Granet told me that a Skater 399—the cat builder’s nearly 40-foot-long V-bottom offering—with twin 1,350-hp Chief engines will compete during the 2011 offshore racing season as the “Caveman” race boat. The actual class the boat will compete in will depend upon the technical rules of the sanctioning body for each race its team chooses to enter.

AMF Offshore Rigging, which is owned by Granet, Miss Geico throttleman Scott Begovich, Gary Stray, Scott Colton and Gary Goodell, will handle the race preparation and crew duties for the Caveman team. The Caveman group is headed by throttleman Richard Carr of the United Kingdom-based team HoneyParty.com, which previously campaigned the Skater 399 in the now-defunct Evolution class on the Powerboat P1 circuit.

“They’ll just fly in and we’ll have the boat ready for them to race,” said Granet. “When they’re done, they’ll fly out and we’ll take care getting the boat ready for the next race.”

In preparation for the new season—and in keeping with its new name and association with AMF Offshore Rigging—the boat has undergone a complete makeover. At press time, pictures were not available.