Image of the Week: Superboat Vee Formation

Browsing through photographer Jay Nichol’s “Top 50 Favorites of 2013” Flickr gallery, we came across this beauty of three Superboat Vee-class competitors—J.D. Byrider/Red Hot Racing, Boatfloater.com and Sun Print—running in close formation just before the start of the 2013 Super Boat International Offshore World Championships in Key West, Fla. While we’re still a long way from the 2014 SBI Key West Worlds in November, this photo immediately grabbed our attention. It almost looks staged—but it wasn’t.

Three offshore raceboats—in one clean row and ready to go. Photo courtesy/copyright Jay Nichols/Naples Image.

We like “big-air” shots as much as anyone, and there were plenty of those during SBI’s recent second race of the season—where Sun Print took first in its class—in the unruly waters off Cocoa Beach, Fla. But we appreciate offshore raceboats running deck to deck just as much because that’s also what offshore racing is all about. Speed is made with propellers in rather than above the water, and the boat that can generally stay hooked up the longest has the best chance of coming out on top.

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