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Top 10 powerboat racing icons that helped make boating what it is today

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Hugo Peel explores the top ten power-boating events, people and inventions that have influenced today’s sportsboats...

Powerboat racing may seem a world away from the type of cruising most of us do but the sportsboats we enjoy today wouldn’t be half as good as they are without the racers, designers and builders whose heroic efforts helped shape them.

Auto-boat racing, as it was originally known, traces its history back to the late 19th century and for a brief period was even an Olympic sport, with races staged off the Isle of Wight in 1908. However, it wasn’t until the 1960s and 1970s that the sport exploded in popularity as developments in engineering, materials, speed, safety and propulsion really took off.

Racing was the anvil on which these promising technologies were forged. So what are the ten most significant events, inventions and people that have contributed to today’s impressive levels of performance, safety and utility?

While many of these names and events may be unfamiliar now, they are the stuff of legend to all who recall the glory days of British powerboat racing.

1. The Cowes-Torquay-Cowes offshore powerboat race

Many people regard offshore powerboat racing as the ultimate challenge for craft and crew. Arguably the most challenging race of all and certainly one of the oldest is the legendary Cowes-Torquay competition.

Initiated in 1961 by Daily Express newspaper magnate and keen yachtsman, Sir Max Aitken, who foresaw it would help grow the UK marine industry, it bred a string of British and international heroes and brands. This 200-mile race, now known as the Cowes-Torquay-Cowes, and its coveted Harmsworth Trophy, intermittently awarded since 1903, is still the one all top powerboat racers yearn to win.

The marathon Round Britain Powerboat Race started and finished off Portsmouth

2. The marathon Round Britain Powerboat Race

If a 200-mile race sounds challenging, the 1,500-mile endurance marathon that is the Round Britain Race is on an altogether different scale, yet it proved so appealing that it has been run three times over four decades.

The first BP-sponsored race in 1969 comprised ten stages over 1,459 miles and was won by Timo Mäkinen, a champion Finnish rally-driver in Avenger Too propelled by triple Mercury outboards – he averaged 37mph.

The 1984 race was sponsored by Everest double glazing and attracted famous names, including Italian racer/designer Fabio Buzzi driving White Iveco , a single-step GRP monohull with four 600bhp Iveco diesels. Against him was fellow Italian Renato della Valle in Ego Lamborghini , an aluminium-hull craft powered by two ear-splitting 800hp, race-tuned V12 Lamborghinis.

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Victory went to Buzzi who, after the 157-mile Dundee-Whitby leg, during which White Iveco averaged a staggering 69 knots, dismissed it with shrug saying: ‘In Italy, this is just a cruising boat.’

The race was revived in 2008 attracting a field of 47 raceboats old and new, including a number of production RIBs and sportsboats from companies like Scorpion , Goldfish and Scanner. The favourites included Fabio Buzzi again in his classic four-engined Red FPT , and Austrian casino millionaire Hannes Bohinc in another Buzzi-designed monohull Wettpunkt .

This time the overall winner was a Greek entry Blue FPT navigated by Britain’s Dag Pike, who at 75 years old, was the event’s oldest competitor. Many of the production boats also did remarkably well, showing just how far they have come in recent years.

Steve Curtis MBE is powerboat racing royalty

3. Powerboat racer Steve Curtis

If the Cowes-Torquay-Cowes is the benchmark, surely the top driver must be found among its winners? Home-grown contenders must include Tommy Sopwith, a winner in 1961, 1968 and 1970 and the Gardner brothers, Charles and Jimmy, who clocked up victories in 1964 with their Bertram 31 Surfrider , and again in 1967 in the iconic Sonny Levi-designed Surfury .

On the worldwide stage, Italy’s Renato Della Valle won four Cowes Torquay Cowes races in a row from 1982 to 1985. Hannes Bohinc collected the trophies in 1995 and 2003 and another German, Markus Hendricks, whose boat sank on the 2008 Round Britain, took a re-engined 34-year-old monohull, Cinzano , to victory in 2009 and 2011.

They are all brilliant in their way but how could this category ignore the UK’s Steve Curtis MBE, owner of Cougar Marine, with no fewer than eight Class One powerboat racing world championships in fearsome 175mph catamarans? Curtis’s 2016 victory in the roughest ever Cowes Torquay Cowes race, in a 30-year-old aluminium boat sealed his place in the history books.

4. Lady Violet Aitken – the first lady of fast

The field of legendary female powerboat racers may be smaller but is no less worthy for it with three principal candidates – two titled British ladies and an American grandmother.

From the USA, Betty Cook – focussed, smart, and tough – arrived with her 36ft Cigarette Kaama and blew away the opposition in the 1978 Cowes Torquay Cowes race. She went on to secure two world championships.

The British aristocracy provides the eccentric and brave Countess of Arran, who fielded fast if unconventional designs of three-pointers like Highland Fling among others. She was described by The Guardian in her obituary as ‘beautiful, vivacious, funny, fun and entrancing’.

But our top female driver is Lady Violet Aitken, wife of Cowes-Torquay founder Sir Max Aitken and Ladies’ Trophy winner on several occasions. Racing is still in the blood as her daughter Laura and granddaughter Lucci are both keen powerboat racers.

Buzzi’s legendary status stems from 40 years of work in the marine industry

5. Powerboat designer Fabio Buzzi

The late Fabio Buzzi is a legend, both behind the helm and at the drawing board. In more than 40 years of activity, his company FB Design has won a staggering 52 world championships; seven Harmsworth Trophies; two Round Britains; and set no less than 56 world speed records in both European and American classes.

Buzzi designed the boat that has won more races than any other powerboat in history, the quadruple-engined, be-winged 44ft Cesa/Gancia dei Gancia . Today, the descendants of these monohull designs are found in service with government and military agencies all around the world, as well as leisure craft like the Sunseeker XS2000 and Hawk 38 .

But the competition is hard-fought. Sonny Levi’s delta-shaped race-boats A’Speranziella , Merry-go-Round , Alto Volante , and Surfury leave lasting memories by their sheer performance and poise. And their legacy, the Levi Corsair, is still made today.

The UK’s Don Shead also runs Buzzi close having designed ten Cowes-Torquay winners and the 1984 Round Britain race winner. The early Sunseeker ranges also came from his drawing board.

Peter Thornycroft and Alan Burnard merit attention as designers of the iconic Nelson and Fairey hulls respectively, many of which are still in service today. But the sheer scale of Fabio’s achievements trumps them all.

The Mercury V8 took powerboating to another level

6. The Mercury V8 engine

Early racers only had American petrol V8s for choice, mainly Ford Dearborn Interceptors, tweaked to deliver big torque and 300-400bhp. There were also a few marinised Jaguar straight-six engines, which consumed oil at a terrifying rate and were fragile. Then Carl Kiekhaefer, head of US outboard giant Mercury, refined numerous Mercury Racing V8s and Lamborghini V12s providing up to 850bhp and things took off. Literally.

To this market came car racing engineers Ilmor in the 1990s with a tuned Dodge Viper V10 engine, pushing out a reliable 700-800bhp. The Italians, at the behest of Fabio Buzzi, developed the 16-litre 1,000hp Seatek diesel for ultra-marathon events, providing unparalleled torque with (relatively) light weight and reliability.

A special mention for the maddest motors must go to Tommy Sopwith, who put a pair of helicopter turbines into a 44ft Don Shead hull delivering over 1500bhp and Domenico Achilli, who ‘glued’ two Subaru flat-four rally car engines together, and split our eardrums while winning the 1990 Cowes Torquay Cowes race.

But for sheer consistency and the countless number of ever-faster, smoother, more reliable production engines its powerboat racing successes have spawned, Mercury and its big displacement V8s have to take the crown.

Offering horizontal thrust and reduced drag, the sterndrive greatly increased the speed and efficiency of both race and pleasure craft

7. The sterndrive unit

Early shaft-driven race-boats normally placed engines amidships with straight shafts to the propellers. Then the vee-drive option enabled engines to be moved astern for better weight distribution but, in both cases, the angle of thrust was still pushing the hull ‘uphill’.

With the arrival of the sterndrive came horizontal thrust to harness the growing power of engines, and hugely reduced hydrodynamic drag by doing away with separate rudders, shafts and P-brackets. This greatly increased both speed and efficiency while the ability to trim the angle of thrust also enabled drivers to adjust the boat’s trim to suit differing sea conditions.

Surface-drives from Arneson and Trimax reduced drag even further but at the cost of low speed manoeuvrability and we mustn’t overlook the impact of the outboard engine on both race and leisure sportsboats.

However, for sheer versatility, the impact it has had on both powerboat racing and leisure craft, and its ability to work equally well with both petrol and diesel engines, the sterndrive has to take it.

Hunt’s deep-vee design proved a powerboat game-changer

8. Racing hull designer Ray Hunt

The most successful hull builders embraced the fast-developing world of engineering and materials as well as developments in design. Cold-molded mahogany plywood gave way to GRP, which in turn surrendered to carbon-fibre reinforced by Kevlar.

However, it’s hard to think of a bigger leap in hull design than Ray Hunt’s deep-vee concept, demonstrating an immediate and staggering superiority over previous hard and rounded chines. Nothing underpins this assertion better than Dick Bertram’s 1961 Miami-Nassau victory in his prototype Moppie – finishing a whole day ahead of the third-placed boat.

The likes of Levi, Shead and Bertram all helped refine the concept but the winner has to be Ray Hunt who, along with Dick Bertram’s investment and encouragement, became the grandfather of today’s sportsboats.

Peter Dredge skims Vector Martini to an average speed of 94.5mph during the 2015 Cowes Torquay Cowes race. Photo: Alamy

9. Speed record breaker Peter Dredge

World Water Speed records set by the likes of Donald Campbell’s Bluebird and Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic Challenger II are momentous achievements in their fields but their designs have bred few, if any, current sportsboats. Offshore powerboat racing records may not be as well publicised but are arguably far more relevant.

The average speed records of historic races like the Cowes Torquay Cowes race are a perfect demonstration of the improvements made in powertrains, hull design and strength. The first race in 1961 was won by a 24ft wooden Christina averaging 24.5mph. It took another two years to break 40mph, and a further four to exceed 50mph. In 1969 the record tumbled again with an average speed of over 60mph.

A gap of six years then ensued before the record climbed over 70mph and a further 13 years for technology to reach an average exceeding 80mph. A very calm race in 1990 saw the Italians hit over 90mph average – and then we waited 25 years before that speed was finally exceeded in 2015.

So until that record is beaten, preferably with a speed of more than 100mph, our winner is the current record holder Peter Dredge who propelled the awesome 1,500bhp, 44ft Vector Martini to victory at a remarkable average speed of 94.5mph.

Dag Pike, the brains behind so many great powerboat victories

10. National treasure Dag Pike

No top ten list could be complete without mention of those quiet but significant contributors to the sport of offshore powerboat racing. Among those names must be Class-3 racer, commentator, sport historian and MBY ’s longest-serving contributor Ray Bulman, who passed away last year .

The racer, organiser, enthusiast and flamboyant, chain-smoking Tim Powell also has to be in the running. Other characters like Commander Petroni of Italy’s Tornado Racing Team and Tommy Sopwith’s regular crew Charles de Selincourt, who guided him to victory in several Cowes Torquay Cowes races also deserve mentions.

But my National Treasure award goes to Dag Pike; writer, raconteur and navigator extraordinaire who has been the brains behind countless race wins for dozens of different drivers. Having been shipwrecked eight times himself but also having rescued more than eight people in his long career offshore, he has in his own words ‘balanced the books’.

The last word

As with any top ten list it can never be comprehensive and will always be open to differences of opinion but that’s not the point of this article. We simply invite you to ponder that, whatever boat you drive and whatever propels it, its performance and seaworthiness possesses at least some of the DNA of the many great raceboats, designers, engineers and technologies, forged in the heat of offshore battle.

First published in the June 2019 issue of Motor Boat & Yachting.

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The Excitement of Running a P1 Offshore Race Boat

• By Charles Plueddeman
• November 16, 2023

In this age of 70 mph pontoons , 90 mph center-consoles and 150 mph sport cats, it’s pretty easy to experience eye-popping velocity on the water. So, there you are, the wind flapping your cheeks as you hold that throttle to the stop, one watering eye on the speedo as you bump the trim hoping to squeeze out the last bit of speed it will take to be the first boat to the poker-run card pickup. Maybe you even imagine that’s Reggie Fountain , Steve Curtis or Shaun Torrente at the helm of the boat you are pursuing, and instead of a king of hearts, there’s a big trophy waiting at the finish line. Well, dream on, Speed Racer. You’re going fast, but you are not racing, and your production-built motorboat is no race boat.

Steve Curtis throttles a real race boat. The Victory catamaran Huski Chocolate carried Curtis and drivers Travis Pastrana and Brit Lilly to the 2022 UIM Class 1 championship in the Powerboat P1 Offshore series. Last summer, we met Curtis and this boat, now rechristened Huski Ice Spritz, at the Mercury Racing Midwest Challenge in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, the fourth event on the five-race 2023 P1 schedule. The boat is owned by SVEA Racing Inc., based in Stuart, Florida, regarded as the benchmark in professionalism and experience in Class 1 and led by technical director Gary Stray, director of operations Scott Colton and crew chief Patrick Cleaveland.

Curtis, a 59-year-old Englishman and the son of Cougar Powerboats founder and racing catamaran innovator Clive Curtis, claimed his first Class 1 world championship in 1985 in Key West when he was 21 years old. In his career, Curtis has throttled more than 20 world champions. Who would be better to show us under the cowl of a Class 1 race boat than the acknowledged master of throttling racing cats?

Class 1 is the premier category of international offshore powerboat racing. A P1 Offshore event can include a number of classes, but only the Class 1 Championship is sanctioned by the UIM (Union Internationale Motonautique), the world governing body for all ­powerboating activities. Basic rules for Class 1 dictate a minimum boat length overall of 12 meters (about 39 feet) and a minimum weight of 5,400 kilograms (just over 11,900 pounds). There have been seven boats in the Class 1 field in 2023, ranging in length from the 43-foot Skater Monster Energy/MCON to the 51-foot Mystic dfYoung. The Huski Ice Spritz/SVEA Victory is 47 feet length overall, with a running surface of 41.5 feet, according to Curtis, and a 12-foot beam. Curtis explains that the bigger boats often have an advantage in rough conditions, but the smaller boats can be nimbler in a current on flatter water in a tight, multiturn closed course—the 5-mile course at Sheboygan had 10 turns.

“Courses have become smaller to make the event more spectator-­friendly,” Curtis says. “We used to run 40-mile laps and 200-mile races.”

The age of the Class 1 fleet is also surprising. Huski Ice Spritz/SVEA was built in 2007 by the Victory team in Dubai to a ­Michael Peters design.

“The boat has been rebuilt and repowered a number of times,” Curtis says. “I believe it was originally powered by Lamborghini V-12 engines. The boat has been crashed and repaired. The entire deck has been replaced, and the running surface adjusted as the engine package has changed.”

Carbon, Of Course

The overall theme of a race boat is that every element is functional, and this is the key difference between Huski Ice Spritz and your go-fast rig. Speed and safety are all that matter. The hull and deck are laid up with a combination of carbon fiber and Kevlar composite, with foam coring of various density. Bulkheads are carbon fiber, molded in a combination of triangulation and U-channel shape, and bonded within the hull. Each sponson has a pair of steps that are about 1.5 inches deep and a single strake. The tunnel between the sponsons is designed to trap and compress air, which lifts the boat at speed. The tunnel is about 33 inches deep at the bow but only 22 inches deep at the transom.

A V-hull boat could run in Class 1, but the catamaran offers a significant advantage, according to Randy Scism, who helped establish the Victory team as a force in offshore racing before returning to the United States in 1998 to start performance boatbuilder Marine Technologies Inc.

“A comparable V-hull boat will be 20 to 30 mph slower at top speed,” says Scism, who designed the 48-foot MTI Class 1 cat ­XInsurance/Good Boy ­Vodka. “In some conditions, it might corner better, but it could never make up the difference in total lap time. The air cushion under a cat can carry 30 to 35 percent of the boat’s weight, so the bottom is not even touching small waves and chop.”

Builders seek to produce a boat that is significantly below the class minimum-weight specification. This allows each team to make weight using lead ballast—water ballast is not allowed—that can be positioned right on the stringers to keep the center of gravity as low as possible to enhance handling and help trim the boat. Weight, either lead bars or bags of lead shot, can be placed aft to lift the bow in calm conditions or forward to hold the bow down in rough water. Fuel tanks are located directly on the boat’s center of balance so that balance does not change as fuel is consumed. At race venues, a crane fitted with a scale lifts the Class 1 boats from the trailer to the water; this way, each boat is weighed every time it goes in and comes out of the water to prevent cheating.

At Class 1 speeds, aerodynamics becomes critical. The boats literally fly over the water, and the deck is flush with the top of each sponson. The enclosed cockpit is a teardrop blister, hatch latches and cleats are carefully recessed and faired, and air intake is accomplished with low-drag NACA ducts. When conditions are ideal, these huge boats appear to levitate with a grace that belies the brutal thrust required to reach speeds that can exceed 160 mph on the open ocean.

Prescribed Power

There are no surprises below the engine hatches of a Class 1 boat. Since P1 led a revival of the class in 2019, the Mercury Racing 1100 Competition engine has been standard power, a spec engine for the class. The 9.0-liter V-8 engine features Mercury Racing QC4 quad-valve cylinder heads and is boosted by twin turbochargers. Power output is 1,100 hp and 1,100 lb.-ft. of torque per engine on 93-octane pump gasoline. Each big V-8 turns 6,000 to 6,500 rpm. The transmission is the stout model designed for the Mercury Racing 1750 engine with a stronger input shaft and ­internal components.

“Before the switch to the Merc 1100, we were running engines making 1,850 to 2,000 hp at 7,500 rpm,” Curtis says, “and top speeds pushed 190 mph. Those engines needed a rebuild after each race.”

The point of a specified engine for the class is to reduce cost and ensure power parity among teams with unequal resources. With that in mind, the engines are tightly controlled. Teams are not allowed to make any adjustments or modifications to the engines. With the exception of the valve covers, the engines are sealed with special fasteners. At the beginning of each race weekend, the Mercury Racing support team delivers propulsion control modules (PCM) to each team. The PCM units are painted bright ­yellow so they are easy to identify. ­Mercury ­Racing also installs a data logger on each engine.

“After every practice and ­every race, we download the data to make sure it makes sense and that nobody has tweaked on the engines and turned the power up,” says Steve Wynveen, Mercury Racing manager of development engineering. “The idea of Class 1 now is that winning is dependent on driving and boat setup, not on who has the most money to throw at an engine.”

The expectation is that if teams don’t abuse these engines by constantly banging into the rev limiter, each can last the season with just basic maintenance. Teams will put between two and three hours of run time on the engines at each race weekend. Teams are free to install their own PCM for testing between races.

The Huski Ice Spritz/SVEA team engineered a number of quick-disconnect fittings that allow it to remove an engine in about 20 minutes, according to Curtis. This team pulls its engines after each race for maintenance and inspects the bilge and engine mounts below the engines. Typical maintenance includes an oil and filter change, checking the valve lash and adjusting with shims, a compression and leak-down test, checking the turbocharger ­waste-gate adjustment, and ­torquing all fasteners and clamps.

Six of the boats in this Class 1 fleet use surface drives based on a BPM model to put power to the water. The Italian drive only articulates in the vertical plane, which provides a limited range of trim, generally less than 15 degrees or, according to Curtis, about 1.5 inches at the propeller. The prop is located about 58 inches abaft the transom. A drop box located on the exterior of the transom allows teams to quickly change gear ratios to best match engine torque to the prevailing conditions. Curtis explains that on today’s short courses, ­acceleration out of turns is often more important than top speed. Teams using a surface drive are limited to three prop sets but have unlimited gear ratios. Steering is accomplished by a center-mounted rudder—a knife-sharp polished stainless Italian Flexitab model on Huski Ice Spritz—and teams can change rudders based on water conditions.

A sterndrive is also permitted in Class 1, but if the sterndrive can steer, the boat is not allowed to use a rudder. The MTI XInsurance/Good Boy Vodka boat is rigged with modified Mercury Racing M6 sterndrives. Trim is retained, but the skegs are cut off and steering is locked. The boat is equipped with a rudder. Teams running sterndrives are allowed an unlimited number of propellers.

“The problem with trying to steer these boats with the sterndrives is that when you turn the drive, one prop is pushed into water and the other into the air coming through the tunnel,” Scism says. “The prop in the air loses thrust. You want to keep both props centered behind the sponsons. I prefer to use the M6 drives for the added trim authority. That drive is plenty rugged for these engines.”

Read Next: How to Boat Safely at Any Speed

Curtis throttles with his right hand gripping a pair of Mercury Zero Effort controls topped with red plastic knobs molded to the shape of his hand. To his left is a fixed, molded grip with radio/intercom control buttons, trim control, and a button to change the screen display. Curtis can communicate with his team using VHF and UHF radios, and a cellular connection. Below is a pair of Mercury ignition keys, which we were surprised to see.

“When we went to the standard Merc 1100 engines, we wanted to retain the entire stock wiring harness to prevent any sort of tampering,” Curtis says. “So, there are the keys, just like on your fishing boat. It was the ­easiest solution.”

Facing Curtis are a pair of Livorsi turbocharger boost gauges, a Livorsi trim indicator, and a multifunction display usually showing tachometers. In the center of the dash is a Garmin MFD split between navigation and a rearview camera. The driver sits before a quick-release steering wheel with a lap counter on top of the dash, which will also display a yellow-and-red flag signal from race control.

I wish I could describe the ­sensation of driving Huski Ice Spritz at speed while looking through the slit of a windscreen. But as it turns out, there is not enough liability coverage or legal cover to ever make that happen. Scism says MTI will build you a new 48 Race model to Class 1 specs, with a price tag of $2.2 million to $2.4 million with power. A $500,000 budget will cover a bare-bones Class 1 team for a season, Curtis says, with a well-financed team spending more than $1.5 million. SVEA Racing Inc. brings a crew of 10 to each race with a 70-foot race trailer, a tilting boat trailer and its Kenworth hauler, and a world-champion throttleman. They are not going to a poker run.

Safety First

When Steve Curtis won his first Class 1 championship, he was standing in an open cockpit. “There was very little concern for safety in those boats,” Curtis says. “If you stuffed the boat, it was very likely you’d be killed.”

Today the driver and throttle work in an enclosed cockpit that is all business. This is not your pleasure boat—there is no Alcantara upholstery, no bass-pumping audio system, and no LED-illuminated drink holders. Cockpit entry is through a hatch secured with four sliding bolts like a bank vault. In Huski Ice Spritz, Curtis throttles from the port seat, and the driver is at the wheel to starboard. Deep bucket seats have 2 inches of suspension travel, and the crew is strapped securely in place. “During a race, it can actually get rather violent in here,” Curtis says. “It’s not very noisy, but there is a lot of vibration, even in smooth water, because the boat is so rigid. We can feel pretty beat up after a race.”

A cage of carbon channels surrounds the cockpit, which Curtis says is backed by a very thick bulkhead. Crush zones around the cockpit are designed to absorb energy on impact. The interior is raw and black, with no thought of cosmetics. The forward portion of the cockpit structure is formed by a ¾-inch-thick polycarbonate shield modeled after a fighter-jet canopy. The clear portion is minimized for further crew protection. There’s an emergency escape hatch in the floor for egress if the boat flips. The driver and throttle have a 10-minute emergency air supply.

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Sarasota Powerboat Grand Prix Day One: Super Stock And Bracket Class Winners

The oldest saying in offshore powerboat racing is “to finish first, first you have to finish,” and that couldn’t have proven truer as the favorites in Super Stock and Bracket 500 succumbed well before the checkered flag waved on the first day of action at the 39th annual Sarasota Powerboat Grand Prix in Sarasota, Fla. Produced by Powerboat P1 , the Grand Prix is the third race of the  American Power Boat Association  Offshore National Championship Series and the second race of the  Union Internationale Motonautique  Class 1 World Championship Series.

The Super Stock fleet at the Sarasota Powerboat Grand Prix included 11 catamarans. Photos by Pete Boden/ Shoot 2 Thrill Pix

In Saturday’s final race, the 11 boats in the Super Stock class took to the Gulf of Mexico. Winds were picking up and there were white caps, but conditions were fast and racy. As they did in the first two races of the season, the 32-foot Victory catamaran, Jackhammer , with owner/driver Reese Langheim and throttleman Julian Maldonado bolted to the lead. Giving chase was a pack of boats including the 32-foot MTI cat, CMR, with driver/owner Sean Conner and John Tomlinson subbing for Shaun Torrente on throttles. Throttleman Rusty Williams and driver Myrick Coil in the 32-foot Doug Wright, Performance Boat Center /FASS Diesel Fuel Systems, were in the mix as were owner/driver Daren Kittredge and throttleman Grant Bruggemann in the 32-foot Doug Wright, Northwing Offshore.

A total of 64 teams descended on the city on the west coast of Florida that has become one of the favorite sites in offshore powerboat racing. A checkered flag from Sarasota is rivaled only by one from the world championships in Key West, Fla., in November. The weekend kicked off with a party on Friday evening where fans could meet the teams at the 10th Street ramp party followed by racing in the bracket 500, 600 and 700 classes and Super Stock boats, plus Class 1 pole position qualifying on Saturday.

The day started with calm conditions, but winds slowly built through the day and temperatures in the mid-90s added to the challenge.

It didn’t take long for the teams in the ultra-competitive Super Stock class to push the limits. The 32-foot Doug Wright, LPC, with owner/throttleman Loren Peters and driver Anthony Smith, started moving up through the fleet when it rolled on the outboard leg of the 6-mile course that had the racers navigating in a clockwise direction. Competition was halted after less than a lap. Peters and Smith were OK and the boat was hauled back to the pits.

The CMR team of Sean Conner and John Tomlinson ran a consistent race to earn the Super Stock-class checkered flag.

The carnage took its toll quickly. In that first lap, the 32-foot Doug Wright, Team Allen Lawn Care and Landscaping, appeared to have something torn off the stern and didn’t make the restart. Neither did the 32-foot Doug Wright, Team Bermuda.

After many Super Stock competitors voiced concerns about quick green flags in Cocoa Beach at the previous P1 Offshore race, the starters made sure the boats were grouped more fairly in Sarasota. When the green flag flew on the restart, Jackhammer jumped to the lead, with CMR, Performance Boat Center and the 32-foot Victory, Big East Construction, which is owned and driven by Cole Leibel and throttled by veteran Gary Ballough, giving chase in a tight pack.

It didn’t take long for attrition to rear its ugly head. Jackhammer had an engine go into guardian mode, which shuts down the 300-hp outboard to prevent more significant damage. “Nothing like stopping and going every 30 seconds,” Maldonado said. “We had a 14-second lead at the start and guardian started and never stopped.”

The team kept the boat on the same lap as the leaders and appeared to just be running for points.

CMR and Performance Boat Center battled for the lead, with each boat enjoying an advantage on different parts of the course.

“In head seas, they’d catch me, and in following seas, I’d catch them, and it went like that for a few laps,” said Tomlinson, who had raced with Coil in the Super Cat class previously and knew that he could enter a turn with his competitor/friend and not worry about any incidents or collisions.

Check out the slideshow above for more images from the Super Stock race.

Unfortunately, the battle to the finish didn’t materialize when Performance Boat Center pulled off with mechanical issues. Big East Construction moved into second and appeared to be in position for a much-needed podium finish until broken motor mounts forced Ballough to shut down one engine and limp around the course attempting to gain as many points as possible.

With CMR in the lead, Torrente, who qualified for the pole position at an F1H2O tunnel boat race on Saturday afternoon in France, watched on his cell phone while eating dinner with his family. Tomlinson and Conner took the checkered flag followed by Pete and A.J. Bogino in the 32-foot Doug Wright, CoCo’s Monkey, and Jackhammer, which kept running because the race isn’t over until the checkered flag waves.

“I’m pacing the streets of France as we walk back from dinner,” Torrente said in a message to speedonthewater.com from overseas. “It was an amazing race. Sean was turning the boat incredibly and Johnny was getting used to the boat and kept getting quicker and quicker. I’m so thankful for him sitting in for me.”

But as we always report on speedonthewater.com, all results are unofficial pending official inspections and video reviews. According to the APBA Offshore Commission chairman Rich Luhrs, four combined lane infractions at the start and post-accident restart that resulted in four yellow cards (Luhrs declined to name the penalized teams.) That, in turn, changed the official finishing order. Though CMR retained the checkered flag, Jackhammer moved into second place, followed by Big East Construction in thrid.

Almost serving as a harbinger of what was to come, the Class 1 boats took to the 6-mile course to see who would claim the coveted inside lane on Sunday afternoon. The boats ran a “get-comfortable-with-the-course” lap and then followed that with two timed laps. The fastest time would give a team the pole position on Sunday. First up was the team of throttleman Steve Curtis and driver Brit Lilly in the 47-foot Victory cat, Huski Ice Spritz.

In the end, owner/driver Darren Nicholson and throttleman Giovanni Carpitella in their own 47-foot Victory, 222 Offshore Australia , posted the fast number of the day—3:05:85. Tomlinson, who is pulling triple-duty this weekend, joined driver Travis Pastrana and clocked the third fastest time of the day in their 50-foot Victory, Pothole Heroes. The other three Class 1 entries had mechanical issues and didn’t complete a lap.

In the Bracket 500 class, throttleman Elijah Kingery and driver Eric Ullom ran a great race in their 29-foot Warlock, Bulletproof/Team Farnsworth.

Whetting Fans’ Appetites The offshore racing action kicked off at 1 p.m. when the Bracket 500, 600 and 700 classes took to the course. Bracket racing takes a different approach because each class has a set speed limit. If a team exceeds the speed limit, it “breaks out” and is penalized for doing so.

The Bracket 500 fleet had nine teams including two 30-foot Phantoms that racing fans would consider to be favorites. Owner/driver J.J. Turk and throttleman Micheal Stancombe were the defending national champions in TFR/XINSURANCE and when the race started, they had a strong challenge from throttleman Elijah Kingery and driver Eric Ullom in the 29-foot Warlock, Bulletproof/Team Farnsworth, and the father-son team of Rob and Vincent Winoski in their 30-foot Phantom, Bronx Phantom.

Bracket racing is about more than just making sure you don’t exceed your class’ listed speed. It’s about letting your competitors drive away from you when they are going faster in the heat of competition and run the risk of doing just that. That story didn’t pan out because TFR/XINSURANCE pulled off the course with a mechanical problem first, followed by Bronx Phantom.

“We kind of knew that Bronx Phantom broke out because we were at 74.9 mph and they pulled away from us so we backed down a bit to make sure we didn’t break,” Kingery said. “We let them go and then when we saw J.J. break, half a lap later, we could hear Bronx Phantom’s motor starting to break up.”

Enjoy more pictures from the Bracket-class competition in the slideshow above.

This may have resulted in a historical finish with two 29-foot Warlocks finishing first and second in an offshore powerboat race. Hammerheads/Fly SRQ with driver Dennis Austin and throttleman Don Jackson took second followed by YabbaDabbaDo with driver Larry James and throttleman J.D. Ivines in third.

The second start of the day featured a deck-to-deck battle in Bracket 600 between a couple of 26-foot Joker V-bottoms for all five laps on the 6-mile course. George Ivey drove his new boat while Damon Marotta throttled Ivey Racing against a pair of 22-year-olds who have a big future in the sport, throttleman Ryan Stahlman and driver Reef Delanos in Freebird.

The two boats appeared to have a rope connecting their admiships cleats at the start. One took the lead and then the other but in the end Freebird continued its momentum after winning in Cocoa Beach.

“I’m definitely hooked,” said Stahlman, who started navigating in his father’s 41-foot Apache, Predator , last year. When asked what he learned from his race in Sarasota, the youngster said, “How to take corners when you have someone with you like that. You have to hold your lane.”

Finally, in the Bracket 700 class, Brian Guy, owner of the 21-foot Superboat, Jackhammer , gave a performance boat enthusiast the opportunity to check an item off his bucket list.

Instead of racing with his usual throttleman, Julian Maldonado, Guy ran with throttleman Francisco Duran, from San Juan, Puerto Rico, who is close with the Maldonado family.

Jackhammer owner and driver Brian Guy won the Bracket 700-class race with Puerto Rican Francisco Duran, who was racing in the United States for the first time, on the throttle.

“He never raced a boat in the states and he always wanted to do this,” Guy said.

Guy added that he broke a couple blades off his prop on the first lap but could still run about 56 to 57 mph in the class bracketed at a top speed of 60. The battle was behind him as a pair of 22-foot Velocitys powered by single Mercury Racing 300Rs fought for position. In the end, Dees Nuts/Meara Classic Cars took second followed by Statement Marine .

As if letting Duran check an item off his bucket list wasn’t enough, Guy’s five-year-old daughter, Kora, also was on hand to see dad win.

“She helps out and is a big supporter of mine,” Guy said.

That’s something attrition can never take away.

Spectators lined the beach in Sarasota to catch the racing action.

Related stories :  2023 Sarasota Powerboat Grand Prix The Super Cat Family Takes Care Of The Brothers Muller Gallery Of The Week: XINSURANCE/Good Boy Vodka Nails First Test Session In Sarasota Florida Sponsors Providing Backbone For Powerboat P1 In Sarasota And Beyond Triple Duty: Tomlinson Adds Throttleman For Super Stock CMR Team To Sarasota Race Responsibilities The Sarasota Powerboat Grand Prix Looms—And The Class 1 Plot Thickens Mod V Class Points Chase Tight Heading Into Sarasota Super Cat Team Spotlight: SV Offshore Racing’s Diorio Calls ‘Podium’ For Sarasota Super Stock Team Savage Set For Sarasota Debut Super Stock Team Spotlight: Northwing Ready To Defend Home-Water In Sarasota Powerboat P1 To Celebrate Race No. 700 In Sarasota The Sarasota Powerboat Grand Prix Looms—And The Class 1 Plot Thickens Pastrana And Tomlinson To Share Class 1 Pothole Heroes Cockpit In Sarasota Sarasota Powerboat Grand Prix Day No. 1 Essentials: Schedules, Storylines And More

2023 Offshore Powerboat Racing Coverage Man Of His Word: Valder Claims LOTO Powerfest Super Cat Victory Cocoa Beach Wrap Up: The Last Lap Is The One That Matters Living Up To Their Name In Cocoa Beach 7 Mile Offshore Grand Prix Wrap Up: Wild Weather, Eight Laps And Five Crashes

Torrente Snags Last-Gasp Pole Position For Tomorrow’s Grand...

Sarasota powerboat grand prix essentials day no. 2: schedule....

Powerboat P1 is the fastest growing marine motorsport series in the world and has a long term commitment to growing and developing the sport of power boating at all levels. The Powerboat P1 team works closely with the sport�s governing bodies, the UIM, APBA and the IJSBA. P1 has delivered more than 85 world championship events in over twelve different countries for more than a decade.

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Defalco Moves To Victory Boat In Class 1 Series

222 offshore receive uim class 1 trophy in monaco, alex pratt returns to class 1 with dfyoung, 222 offshore take class 1 world title, this year’s uim class 1 world championship showcased the sport at its absolute best, with 222 offshore’s darren nicholson and giovanni carpitella delivering a near faultless, season-long campaign to win the title and the sam griffith trophy, the most coveted prize in world powerboat racing..

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Powerboat P1 is the fastest growing marine motorsport series in the world and has a long term commitment to growing and developing the sport of power boating at all levels. The Powerboat P1 team works closely with the sport’s governing bodies, the UIM, APBA and the IJSBA. P1 has delivered more than 85 world championship events in over twelve different countries for more than a decade.

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• Address: 2320 Clark Street, Suite A1 Apopka, FL 32703 United States
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MCON Monster Energy race boat at Cocoa Beach

DF Young team in race action at Sheboygan

Racing off the iconic St. Pete Pier

Class 1 Boats racing at the Sarsota Grand Prix off Lido Beach

Drone Shot of the pit Area by the Van Wezel, Sarasota

Tue jan 09 2024, powerboat p1 unveils 2024 p1 offshore and class 1 race calendar.

• P1 race events to be part of the APBA national championship
• New end of season dates for Sarasota and St. Pete grand prix
• Mercury Racing event to return to Sheboygan after 2023 success

We love all forms of racing at Monster Energy and entering the UIM Class 1 World Championship and APBA National Championship, as well as the P1 AquaX National Championship, in 2023 genuinely thrilled us with the sport’s amazing and vibrant mix of racing, competition and amazing fan attention, interaction and enthusiasm. We’re thrilled to title sponsor the final round of the national championship. Dave Gowland Monster Energy

Powerboat P1 has today announced its P1 Offshore race calendar for the 2024 season, which sees the series heading to Wisconsin again and returning to favorite venues in Florida. The Sarasota and St. Petersburg grand prix events on Florida’s Gulf Coast move away from their traditional dates around the Independence Day and Labor Day vacations respectively and will provide an exhilarating climax to the season in September and October.

Cocoa Beach on the Space Coast will again host the season opener in mid-May with a weekend of ‘fast boats and cold drinks.’ Thunder On Cocoa Beach will be celebrating its 15th anniversary of staging this event and its Executive Director, Kerry Bartlett will be unveiling special plans to mark this milestone.

In August, racing will return to Sheboygan on the western shore of Lake Michigan for a second year. Sheboygan Area Tourism Zone reported that last season’s inaugural Mercury Racing Midwest Challenge delivered an economic impact of $4.7 million with more than 40,000 attending the three-day festival, and this year’s event in August will be open to all offshore classes. Mayor Ryan Sorenson said: “I am thrilled to welcome back this exhilarating event to the Malibu of the Midwest. It not only showcases our City’s stunning waterfront but also brings together the community in celebration of speed, skill and the thrill of competition. This sense of excitement and unity contributes to the vibrancy of Sheboygan.” City Administrator Casey Bradley added: “This event not only brings a surge of energy to our City but also underscores our commitment to hosting world class events. We appreciate the partnership with Powerboat P1 and Mercury Racing, and we eagerly anticipate the positive impact the race event will have on our local economy and community spirit.”

Another event milestone will be celebrated in September with the 40th anniversary of the Sarasota Powerboat Grand Prix, making it the second longest-running powerboat festival in the United States. For decades the racing has been a unique, prestigious event that brings significant value to the county. Local media reports that it generates millions of dollars in economic impact every year with up to 16,000 room nights, and P1’s national and international television deals showcase the city’s many attractions to an audience of more than 200 million homes. Pete Harvey, Director of Sports at Visit Sarasota County commented: “The Grand Prix draws enthusiastic crowds, capturing the attention of visitors and residents alike. It attracts a diverse range of attendees which generates a sizeable surge in tourism and spending.”

Our goal is to have a fleet of 12 Class 1 boats by 2025. We want to grow the world championship commercially and promote the series both in the United States and internationally to deliver enhanced value for race teams, host venues, sponsors and partners. Azam Rangoonwala Powerboat P1, CEO

The season finale will see the race teams head along the Gulf Coast to St. Petersburg for the Monster Energy St. Pete Grand Prix. Now in its fourth year, the event has quickly become a favorite venue will the racers and it will see the APBA national champions crowned in October. “We’re excited to see one of America’s best waterfront locations selected to host the Powerboat P1 grand prix event,” commented Visit St. Pete/Clearwater President/CEO Brian Lowack. “We love the opportunity to show off the spectacular downtown St. Pete waterfront and award-winning St. Pete Pier as spectators come from near and far to our beautiful destination or tune in on TV around the globe to see some of the most exciting action on water.”

Dave Gowland of Monster Energy said: “We love all forms of racing at Monster Energy and entering the UIM Class 1 World Championship and APBA National Championship, as well as the P1 AquaX National Championship, in 2023 genuinely thrilled us with the sport’s amazing and vibrant mix of racing, competition and amazing fan attention, interaction and enthusiasm. We’re thrilled to title sponsor the final round of the national championship.”

Seven teams are expected to compete in this season’s UIM Class 1 World Championship and races will be staged at the P1 Offshore events. Powerboat P1’s aim is to attract more teams and build the worldwide television audience to return Class 1 to the summit of the sport. “Our goal is to have a fleet of 12 boats by 2025” said P1 CEO Azam Rangoonwala. “We want to grow the world championship commercially and promote the series both in the United States and internationally to deliver enhanced value for race teams, host venues, sponsors and partners.”

“The 2023 offshore season was one of great change and growth” explains Rangoonwala. “This season we will seek further growth by focusing on attracting more competitors, particularly young racers, improving the fan experience, continuing to build our social media audience and broadening the international reach of our TV broadcast deals. Having celebrated our 20th anniversary last year, Powerboat P1 is embarking on its third decade as a promoter and we will continue to design our race events to encourage tourism and enhance the profile of the host venues. Partnerships are at the heart of our business and over the coming months we will be announcing new agreements as well as the renewal of existing sponsorships.”

For more information on this release:

Roy Mantle Powerboat P1 Management Ltd t: +44 (0)207 935 4977 e: [email protected]

Photo credits:

MCON Monster Energy race boat at Cocoa Beach, credit: David Lando DF Young team in race action at Sheboygan, credit: Ronny Mac Racing off the iconic St. Pete Pier, credit: Ronny Mac Class 1 Boats racing at the Sarsota Grand Prix off Lido Beach Pete Boden Drone Shot of the pit Area by the Van Wezel, Sarasota: credit: David Lando

P1 Offshore in brief

This increasingly important brand within the P1 family encompasses the APBA offshore national championship series, with P1 having been granted by the APBA exclusive rights to film and distribute its offshore events. P1 produces a one-hour television highlights show, featuring Class 1 racing and other APBA classes, broadcast in the United States and internationally. P1 coverage includes live streaming on its Facebook page.

P1Offshore.com

Class 1 in brief

Class 1 is the premier class of offshore powerboat racing in the world and is considered to be one of the most spectacular marine motorsports. A Class 1 race boat has twin inboard 1100HP engines and can reach speed in excess of 160mph. All boats are limited by a minimum weight of 4,950kg.

Class1World.com

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Shreveport-Bossier to Host Formula 1 Powerboat Racing in 2024

The may 24–26 event will feature 50 high-speed powerboats along the red river.

The Shreveport-Bossier Sports Commission has announced the return of Formula 1 Powerboat Racing to Lousiana with the Red River Rumble F1 Powerboat Showdown, scheduled to take place from May 24–26, 2024.

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“We are looking forward to bringing Powerboats back to the Red River and Shreveport-Bossier in 2024-2026,” said Sara Nelms , director of sports for the Shreveport-Bossier Sports Commission . “We are excited to host this event in conjunction with Mudbug Madness and showcase the world class Formula 1 drivers.”

This event will feature approximately 50 high-speed powerboats along the Red River. The Formula 1 Powerboat Championship is an 8-race series contested across North America. US Powerboat racing has a 120-year heritage that began with the formation of the American Powerboat Association.

“On behalf of the Formula 1 Powerboat Championship, we are very excited to bring Formula 1 powerboat racing back to Shreveport-Bossier for the first time since 2018,” said Tim Seebold , managing director of the Formula 1 Powerboat Championship. “Shreveport holds a special place in my heart as it was the site of my last National Championship before retiring from driving.”

In addition to the races, the event will feature an open pit area that allows fans to meet the drivers and get a closer look at the boats. The event will happen the same weekend as Mudbug Madness 2024 in Festival Plaza in downtown Shreveport. General admission viewing is free and there will also be a VIP area at the Shreveport Aquarium.

“On behalf of the Mudbug Madness Festival, we are excited that Formula 1 Powerboat Racing will be taking place the same weekend as our festival on the Shreveport Riverfront,” said Terri Matthews , event coordinator for Mudbug Madness. “Our mission is to support and promote projects and events to enhance downtown and the synergy this will bring will do just that.”

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Three collegiate national championships will also have adaptive sports activations as part of the overall event, the NCAA Office of Inclusion and USOPC have announced in the latest USOPC/NCAA Para-College Inclusion Project.

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Formula 1 Powerboat Racing is returning to Shreveport in 2024

Formula 1 Powerboat Racing is coming back to the Shreveport-Bossier area after six years.

“We are looking forward to bringing Powerboats back to the Red River and Shreveport-Bossier in 2024-2026,” said Sara Nelms, Director of Sports for the Shreveport-Bossier Sports Commission.

According to the Shreveport-Bossier Sports Commission, the Red River Rumble F1 Powerboat Showdown is scheduled to take place during the Memorial Day weekend, May 24 through May 26, 2024.

This event will feature approximately 50 high-speed powerboats along the Red River.

“On behalf of the Formula 1 Powerboat Championship, we are very excited to bring Formula 1 powerboat racing back to Shreveport-Bossier for the first time since 2018,” said Tim Seebold, Managing Director of the Formula 1 Powerboat Championship. “Shreveport holds a special place in my heart as it was the site of my last National Championship before retiring from driving.”

The Formula 1 Powerboat Championship is an 8-race series contested across North America.

US Powerboat racing has a 120-year heritage that began with the formation of the American Powerboat Association. For the last six decades, F1 powerboats have been recognized as one of the world's most spectacular racing vehicles.

This Powerboat event provides a prime opportunity for Shreveport-Bossier to highlight its expertise in hosting water-based sporting events.

The Red River Rumble F1 Powerboat Showdown will happen the same weekend as Mudbug Madness 2024 in Festival Plaza.

“On behalf of the Mudbug Madness Festival, we are excited that Formula 1 Powerboat Racing will be taking place the same weekend as our festival on the Shreveport Riverfront,’ said Terri Matthews, Event Coordinator for Mudbug Madness.

The F1 Powerboat event will present viewers with heart pounding, up close and personal, racing action in downtown Shreveport.

General admission viewing is also free to the public and there will also be a VIP area at the Shreveport Aquarium and tickets will go on sale at a later date.

“Events like this, held in conjunction with Mudbug Madness, help raise awareness and showcase the recreational opportunities available along the Waterway," said Dustin Hayes, Marketing Director for the Red River Waterway Commission.

For more information on the Formula 1 Powerboat Championship, visit  www.f1powerboatchampionship.com .

More: From CORK to BREW and the Revel: Here's the dates for the 2024 festivals in downtown Shreveport

Makenzie Boucher is a reporter with the Shreveport Times. Contact her at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Shreveport Times: Formula 1 Powerboat Racing is returning to Shreveport in 2024

E1 Series and PIF to Create World’s First Electric Powerboat Championship

Electric Sea Racing Limited (E1 Series) and PIF (the Public Investment Fund) have entered into a partnership that will see PIF support in creating the world’s first electric powerboat racing championship.

The news was revealed during a virtual launch event, where E1 Series organisers also unveiled the new design of the electric RaceBird powerboat.

The partnership represents a significant step forward in the long-term development of the championship, providing a strong foundation on which to build from and enabling the series to further accelerate preparations for the inaugural season, scheduled to take place in early 2023 – with Saudi Arabia to be one of the considered race locations.

As a major contributor to the global economy and partner of choice for innovative companies and investors, PIF’s investment in E1 is in line with its 2021-2025 strategy announced earlier this year, which focuses on 13 key strategic sectors, including sports and entertainment, and renewable energy. This includes major investments in renewable energy companies, such as ACWA Power and the Sudair Solar Energy project, as well as in the development of electric vehicles through its investment in Lucid Motors.

Series creators Alejandro Agag, Chairman of E1, and Rodi Basso, CEO of E1, were both joined live in the studio by the President of the Union Internationale Motonautique (UIM) Raffaele Chiulli, as well as SeaBird Technologies Founder Sophi Horne, and Founder & CEO of Victory Marine Brunello Acampora to present the RaceBird powerboat.

The vessel is a completely new design and was co-created by Horne and Acampora following an extensive validation process. The RaceBird is inspired by nature and birds flying low over the water and features an outboard motor, enclosed safety canopy and hydrofoil technology.

Using innovative hydrofoil technology, the electric RaceBird powerboats will rise high above the water’s surface, allowing for minimum drag and maximum energy efficiency. Being lifted above the waves will not only improve performance, but it will also promote close and competitive racing with a reduced wake when following an opponent.

The RaceBird is specially designed for foil-to-foil racing and is capable of reaching speeds up to 50 knots (93 km/h or 58 mph), with pilots showcasing their skills using tight and technical circuits located close to shore in the heart of urban areas.

With the design now validated, the RaceBird has entered into the production phase with the expert engineers at Victory Marine concentrating their efforts and resource over the coming months on manufacturing a full fleet of race-ready electric powerboats.

Alejandro Agag, co-founder & chairman of E1, said: “It gives me great pleasure to welcome on board PIF as a new partner in this exciting venture. To get the backing of PIF at this early stage of development emphasises the importance of our mission to electrify marine mobility. With the new design of the RaceBird boat you see today, we hope to accelerate change in the marine industry and provide sustainable solutions for future leisure craft. The new powerboat that Sophi and Brunello designed looks like a spaceship. I’ve compared electric racing cars to podracers from Star Wars in the past, but the RaceBird looks even more futuristic. Working together with PIF, I look forward to ushering in a new era of electric powerboat racing.”

Rodi Basso, co-founder & CEO of E1, said: “We’re thrilled to be working together with PIF to jointly shape the future direction of powerboating. Forming a strong partnership with a global investment powerhouse such as PIF provides a solid foundation on which to build a new sport. The RaceBird presents a unique challenge and one that the teams at SeaBird Technologies and Victory Marine have delivered on. They’ve managed to develop an innovative powerboat with an eye-catching design and factored in practical solutions ready to go racing. Shortly we’ll also be announcing our powertrain and electronics partners; we’re on schedule to hit the water soon.”

Commenting on the announcement, HE Yasir Al-Rumayyan, governor of the Public Investment Fund, said: “This exciting investment in a new premier sport format aligns with our strategy to enable innovation globally and unlock new industries, as well as build strategic partnerships with real value add to Saudi Arabia. We believe our support for future sports will also contribute to the growth of various sectors globally.

“Our partnership with E1 will help drive the development of innovative sustainable technology, which in turn positions Saudi as an enabler in the industries of the future and the creation of new opportunities.”

Sophi Horne, founder of SeaBird Technologies, said: “It’s amazing to finally be able to share the new RaceBird design with the world. Obviously, I’ve seen it on a screen quite a lot in the past few months! But it’s great to show the new look of the boat that the pilots will race with. The bodywork and shape of the vessel is inspired by nature and birds flying above the water’s surface. What has been interesting is trying to find a balance between how you envisage the design and combining that with optimising both performance and efficiency. The solution we settled on fortunately doesn’t compromise on either the looks or performance capabilities.”

Brunello Acampora, founder & CEO of Victory Marine, said: “Today’s announcement is the result of many months of hard work, creating a completely new design and simulating it in a competitive racing environment. I’ve really enjoyed working together with Sophi to produce the vessel that will compete in the world’s first electric powerboat championship. Now that the design has been fully validated, we’ll begin engineering and manufacturing the boats in preparation for prototype testing and ready for the teams to receive their first delivery. For us at Victory Marine, the E1 Series is the greatest test bench for cutting-edge solutions that will change the future of navigation forever.”

Dr. Raffaele Chiulli, president of the UIM, said: “At the International Powerboat Federation, we’re delighted to be part of this groundbreaking development in the powerboating sport. The futuristic RaceBird design combined with the use of hydrofoil technology in the E1 Series reflects the pioneering spirit of this initiative and are an inspiring answer to today's challenges facing marine mobility. It’s an exciting moment for our sport and I cannot wait to see the RaceBird on the water.”

Released ahead of World Oceans Day, the RaceBird acts as a symbol of the future ambitions of the E1 Series, to revolutionise marine mobility and reduce the pressures being placed on fragile underwater ecosystems across the world.

The next major milestone in the RaceBird development is in September when the covers come off the first full-scale model at the Monaco Yacht Show, before the start of prototype testing which is set to get underway later this year.

E1 were advised by Shoosmiths law firm and financial advisers PJT Partners.

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Iconic yachts: 118 WallyPower

The 118 WallyPower remains as striking today as when it was first launched in August 2003. The futuristic lines are reminiscent of a Stealth bomber, and it’s easy to imagine Darth Vader at the controls, skimming over the waves. This boat still generates discussion, still turns heads, still mesmerises.

Luca Bassani , founder of Wally, is so in love with the 118 WallyPower that once a year he goes out on the tender, switches off the engine and instructs the crew to surge past him at top speed. ‘The motion is not actually the speed; the motion is first of all the shape of the boat and the fact that you don’t hear anything. It’s just this great, beautiful sheet passing by at high speed with the only sound a light whistle.’ He makes a hissing sound between his teeth and laughs. ‘Another thing I like is that from the outside, when the boat is anchored in a bay, you really don’t see it… the sage colour blends and changes with the colour of the coast, the rocks and the green of the water.’

Bassani took the plunge from sailboat to motor yacht design when he noticed a 15 to 20 per cent increase in the open power boat market over ten years. The 118 WallyPower took four years to develop. He had a client in mind but no contract, but this was enough to give him the impetus to move forward without the constraints of working within a client’s needs. The objective was to create a very fast boat perfect for short Mediterranean day cruises and able to maintain high speeds even in rough seas. The solution was a deep V hull which, with the shape of the bow and the use of interceptors, allows the boat to pierce the waves comfortably, even at high speeds. ‘Extensive research and tank testing resulted in a hull design different and better than any other,’ he claims. ‘Like our sailboats, the design is an evolution of all our experience. For us the ride of the hull is the key to our sales.’

The new hull design will be used for all the range, starting with the tender. ‘It is really fantastic. If weather conditions allow, you would rather cruise at 60 knots, but in reasonable conditions, at 40 knots you can do all the missions you have to do.’

After the hull, Bassani is most satisfied with the forward ‘liveable’ cockpit of the 118 WallyPower. ‘When I say liveable I’m talking about quality of life aboard. This foredeck feels as if you are on a sailboat, not a power boat, which I like a lot.’ He is also pleased with the water jet propulsion: ‘The noise is very low – no vibration, fantastic manoeuvrability, no problem with draught. We see only advantages.’ And he believes carbon fibre is essential for cutting through the waves: ‘You need a very rigid, light hull. You don’t use carbon fibre for the bottom of the hull because it would become too brittle, but the structure inside has to be carbon.’

The 118 WallyPower’s gas turbines deliver 17,000hp, and diesel is used for manoeuvring and cruising at night at up to 10 knots. ‘With the two diesels you have a great range – 1,800 miles – while if you went with the gas turbines at 40 to 60 knots the range is 400 to 500 miles, no more.’ This brings up the subject of sustainable power: ‘We are studying a new concept that will substantially improve the sustainability of powerboats,’ says Bassani.

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118 WallyPower, a stealthy superyacht for billionaire owners..

The 118 WallyPower is a 36 m superyacht built by the famous Wally shipyard in the 2000s. With its futuristic military inspired look and its 3 large gas turbines, she was a UFO when she was launched.

A futuristic construction

The 118 WallyPower is the largest motor yacht produced by the famous Monegasque shipyard Wally Yachts . It was built in the early 2000's according to the drawings of Luca Bassani for a client who wanted a motor yacht inspired by the 27 m sloop built by the shipyard and with the Argentinean naval architect Frers, called Tiketitan.

Luca Bassani Antivari, founder of Wally and an accomplished former sailor is passionate about sailing. But through this project of a 36 m superyacht, he will launch the Wallytender, then the 118 WallyPower.

Its angular lines associated with the glass superstructure are reminiscent of a stealth ship. The result is a sense of power and speed . In fact, Wally's founder describes it as ".. a stealth bomber with a sailboat bow, Formula One-style air intakes and a stripped-down Asian-inspired interior design."

An exceptional motorization

The engines - i.e. 3 gas turbines of 5?600 CH each - develop a total of 16?800 CH (12?500 kW). They power a Rolls-Royce Kamewa jet-type transmission consisting of 2 steerable side jets and a fixed central jet. Two 370 HP (280 kW) Cummins diesel engines can take over from the turbines. In the first configuration, the 118 WallyPower will reach more than 60 knots (110 km/h), but only 9 knots in the second version, which will be preferred for long distance manoeuvres.

State-of-the-art construction

The hull of the 118 WallyPower is the result of an extensive research and development program that included tests in the hull tank in Gothenburg, Sweden and in the wind tunnel at Ferrari in Maranello, Italy . Stability at high speed is guaranteed by a deep V-shaped hull (22° degrees) and a wave piercing straight bow. The air intakes of the gas turbines have been optimized to minimize vibration and exhaust backflow on deck and into the hull. The hull conceals a tender garage.

The bottom of the hull is constructed of monolithic fibreglass. The dead works with a hybrid of balsa sandwich and fiberglass/carbon. The deck is made of Nomex (Kevlar honeycomb)/carbon. The superstructure of the deck is made of a carbon frame on which glass panels are glued. Inside, part of the interior layout is made of carbon to reduce weight. The dark green metallic paint changes with the reflections of the changing lights and landscape. On the deck, in the cockpit, the bulwarks tilt to enjoy an incredible view of the sea from the saloon but also to take advantage of the large outside space.

A luxurious and uncluttered layout

Inside, on the main deck, the open space offers 3 distinct areas, from bow to stern: the helm station, the raised dining/meeting area and the large saloon below, which opens onto the outside without a break in continuity, introducing the concept of the inside-outside living area. A 360° view is available from the dining area thanks to the raised floor. Under the dining table - which seats 8 people - long rectangular glazing brings light to the lower floor. This keeps the dining area at the front away from the heat of the engines. The boat also has 6 plasma screen televisions.

Below deck, the owner's cabin is located forward and has a deck porthole for light. There is a large double bed, a private bathroom and a large dressing room. Two guest cabins have a queen-size bed, a dressing room and a bathroom.

The kitchen (with the pantry) includes an oven, stove, television and several refrigerators.

A millionaire's boat

The price of the 118 Wallypower is $33 million for the triple gas turbine version, or $22 million for the dual diesel engines. Its range is 1800 miles at 9 knots or 300 miles at 60 knots. Finally, its fuel tank has a capacity of 22 tons.

At the maximum speed of 60 knots, the gas turbine uses 58 litres of fuel per mile, or 3?500 litres per hour. For example, to travel from Cannes to Saint-Tropez and back at 50 knots, it takes 90 minutes for 6?000 to get from Cannes to Saint-Tropez and back, using dépensé?! The WallyPower 118 weighs 95 tons and can accommodate 6 crew members and 6 guests on board.

Prestigious awards

The 118 WallyPower won the MYDA, Millennium Yacht Design Award, organised by Seatec (the Carrarafiere sailing and navigation technology trade fair) for "Design for the third millennium". It was the only boat in the architecture and design exhibition of the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco in 2004/2005), for the exhibition "Glamour : Fabricating Affluence".

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World’s coolest boats: Wallypower 118 looks like Darth Vader’s superyacht

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Each month we pick out an iconic boat that can lay claim to the title of world’s coolest boat. This month, we take a closer look at the 118 Wallypower.

Michael Bay’s 2005 sci-fi thriller movie The Island was about a group of people isolated in a compound, they’re told, due to nuclear fallout.

As the film progresses, we learn that these people are in fact clones of wealthy individuals, created for organ-harvesting should it ever be needed.

Because they are clones, they experience dreams based on lives they have not lived. One of them is a clone of a famous yacht designer, and so his dreams are of superyachts .

The studio needed the most dramatic, the most outstanding, the most iconic superyacht on the water to illustrate this, and so, of course, they chose the Wallypower 118.

Article continues below…

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The brainchild of Luca Bassani, heir to a Milanese lighting fortune and owner of Monaco-based Wally Yachts , it was the first foray into large motor yachts for his yard, noted up until then for building edgy sailboat designs and being named after the Hanna-Barbera cartoon character, Wally Gator (a favourite of his young son).

The most outstanding feature of this sensational beast is the styling. At 118ft long and completely unique, it appears to have been constructed using origami. The hull is carbon fibre and GRP composite, and the superstructure is triple-laminated tinted glass on a carbon frame.

And if that’s not wacky enough, everything on the exterior of the yacht, from the cleats to the tables to the seating, is concealed – rising out of the deck when required. If Darth Vader had a superyacht, it would look like this.

Movie-star styling and minimal-luxe interiors combine to create the ultimate superyacht

Such an outstanding design deserves supreme performance, so the pair of 370hp diesel engines, producing a top speed of 9 knots, appears initially underwhelming. But fear not, these are merely an amuse-bouche, fitted only to manoeuvre the boat out of the harbour.

Once at sea the captain is free to light up the three Vericor TF50 gas turbines, unleashing over 16,800hp through three water jets (two steerable, one fixed) and propelling this incredible machine past 60 knots, according to the manufacturer.

Although conceived as a production yacht, reportedly only one was ever built. The price at the time? An impressive £17 million.

118 Wallypower specifications

Year: 2004 LOA: 118ft 1in (36.0m) Beam: 29ft 6in (9.0m) Power: 16,800hp Top speed: 65 knots Price: £17 million Cool rating: Absolute zero (-273° C)

To submit your suggestion for the world’s coolest boat, head over to the MBY forum .

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Wallypower 118

• By Dennis Caprio
• Updated: October 4, 2007

If Wallygator , the first of Luca Bassani’s brainchildren, was a breath of fresh air when it appeared on the sailing scene in the waning years of the last century, the Wallypower 118 motoryacht is a full gale. On the outside, she combines elements of Marcello Gandini’s masterpiece Lamborghini Countach of the middle 1980s and the U.S. Air Force Stealth Fighter. On the inside, she reinforces Bassani’s predilection for simple, open spaces defined by areas of use, instead of bulkheads. Bassani, il padrone of Wally Yachts, didn’t design the 118, but his signature is all over it.

Like the Countach and the Stealth Fighter, this 118-foot speedster is a riot of hard edges, straight lines and serious functionality. Her extraordinary elegance and simplicity suggest a child of 10 could have produced her topsides and house, but these elements are the work of modern artists set free from the shackles of traditional thinking about how boats should look.

As far as I can tell from the drawings, only one of the design elements above the waterline exists purely for its own sake. Everything else serves a purpose. The sheerline in profile is reversed, higher amidships than at either end. This is typical of high-performance boats and had its origin in an attempt to make the topsides aerodynamic. The Wally’s recessed deck kills that theory, so we have to regard the reverse sheer as a styling exercise that places the 118 in the high-performance category.

We could easily dismiss the prominent side pods as a gimmick, mostly because we’re so used to seeing fake scoops and vents on modern automobiles and boats. These, however, are real. They draw, via the forward opening, mega-volumes of fresh air to the gas turbine engines, and they house the exhaust system. The top section of each pod (above deck height) hinges outboard to become a teak-paved boarding platform served by a ladder/gangplank that appears to slide out of the pod.

As a styling device, the side pods, combined with the rise of the chine from amidships forward, carve the massive topsides area into manageable sections, letting us process her statement at our leisure instead of forcing us to absorb the whole in one glance. The design team’s confidence in the 118’s dramatic statement is illustrated by the choice of color. The designers rendered her in titanium gray on the topsides and charcoal gray for the house, proudly showing exactly how this sculpture defines itself in shadows and highlights. She may be the only large powerboat in the hyper-performance class that doesn’t need “oh boy” murals on her topsides.

Flat planes at various angles to one another form a deckhouse that reminds me of the Stealth Fighter. Claudio Lazzarini, of the Lazzarini & Pickering design firm, calls it a crystal prism. The entire structure is made of flat transparent panels-flat to permit the use of power-operated doors and windows, and to prevent the distorted view that often comes with transparent curvatures. This crystal prism, the designers said, creates in the saloon the relaxed atmosphere of a cockpit. Tinting the structure filters ultraviolet rays, keeps the interior from being too bright and too hot, and contributes to the yacht’s purposeful look. Decks of natural-finish teak color-a touch of the early 20th century on an otherwise futuristic concept-ease the extreme tension generated by her sharp edges and no-nonsense demeanor.

Teak planes, vertical and horizontal, inside the crystal prism divide the area into a landscape of functions, or islands in a sea of teak. Right abaft the helm, a sliding teak table seats 14 adults in a formal or a casual setting. Among the many islands, one contains a single seat for reading or working at a computer housed in a nearby cabinet. Beneath this chair is a small, drawer-style refrigerator most people would stock with mineral water, soft drinks and beer. Another island lets you stretch out to watch the TV perched atop an end table, which also contains a stereo.

“The navigation area,” Carl Pickering said, “is more similar to a flight deck than its usual nautical equivalent and can be used as an office or dining area, thanks to sliding tables.”

Lazzarini & Pickering continue the system of teak planes belowdecks to create the corridors and staterooms, though details about the area weren’t available. Outside, the teak theme appears in the after cockpit and a playpen on the foredeck. Here, we find picnic tables that retract flush with the deck, forming a sunbathing area.

The 118’s hull is narrow monohull with training wheels. It has its roots in high-speed naval craft and, as far as I can determine from the renderings, marries an extremely fine entry to an inverted W-shape planing surface. The design team volunteered only that the bow sections reduce vertical accelerations by 50 percent. This means a relatively smooth ride in a seaway. Her fine entry will split the waves, but the bow sections will gain buoyancy as the high chines dig into the water. By this time, most of the energy will have dissipated, so the crew won’t get slammed into the cabin sole. If I were drawing this bottom, I’d make the chine area a tunnel of something close to a semicircle. Ridding the bottom of flat surfaces reduces pounding. On the other hand, a flat surface at the planing area, which won’t leave the water, creates lift, so let’s look for a delta-shape flat way back aft.

Wally expects a top speed of 70 knots from the 118’s four engines-a pair of gas turbines and two diesel auxiliaries-turning two KaMeWa waterjets. I call the diesels auxiliaries because the helmsman will use them for low-speed maneuvering, turbines disengaged, and cruising at very low speeds. Each turbine/diesel duet couples to a clutched transfer box, which permits running one or both engines each side. This, too, is common on military craft.

If my assumptions about the bottom are skewed, I’ll be the first to admit it, but we’ll have to wait until hull number one splashes or I see her under construction. I do know the shape benefits from extensive tank testing.

Wally expects to launch hulls one and two during 2002. Right now, though, I think the Wallypower 118 is the most significant design of the past 14 years, the period I’ve devoted to studying how boats work and why. Like all brilliant works of art, functional or decorative, the 118 defies a simple interpretation. Her statement is far too powerful to permit any observer to settle on a middle ground. They’ll love her or hate her.

Let me be the first to say, “I love this design.”

Contact: Wally Yachts, (011) 377 93 1000 93; fax (011) 377 93 1000 94; [email protected] ; www.wallyyachts.com .

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Motor Yacht

Luxury motor yacht Wallypower 118 was built in 2002 by Italian shipyard Rodriquez Intermarine. With a composite hull and superstructure, she features naval architecture by Wally and Intermarine, and exterior and interior design by Lazzarini Pickering and Wally. This three waterjet and twin screw propulsion yacht measures 36 metres and can accommodate up to six guests cruising and sleeping.

Motor yacht Wallypower 118 is easily one of the most distinctive vessels on the water with her unique and striking exterior design. Capable of reaching high cruising speeds, her design was the result of extensive development and research that included exhausting testing. She has a steeply angled V-shaped and a stand-out deckhouse that crowns the super yacht.

Her hull colour can be likened to that of a chameleon; it’s dark green tone changes with alterations in the outside landscape and light. Her glass-sided deckhouse hides a generous saloon aft dressed in white and wood that creates somewhat of a beach house feel. Here also lies a dining table for 14, relaxing nooks and entertainment areas.

Her interior is of minimalist design, and instead of showy extras, the majority of her features serve a purpose; towards weight minimisation, speed enhancement or must-have comfort. However she also boasts her share of soft furnishings that give the interior a look not far from a New York style loft.

Amongst her three cabins are an indulgent owner’s stateroom, and two Queen-size guest cabins. The owner’s stateroom features an en suite with his and hers shower and large tub, while each guest cabin also features an en suite. The crew’s quarters on the lower deck includes three lower cabins that sleep six and include en suite facilities.

Luxury yacht Wallypower 118 is powered by three DDC TF50 gas Turbines and two Cummins 370 horsepower engines; a combination quite common on smaller warships but not so on super yachts. She can achieve a range of 380 nautical miles while cruising at a speed of 60 knots or 1,500 nautical miles at nine knots.

Featuring a dedicated crew, Wallypower 118 is an excellent charter yacht for luxury vacations. The yacht cruises comfortably at 60 knots while her crew of six ensure the needs of every guest are met. The luxury vessel has been built to R.I.N.A classification.

• Yacht Builder Intermarine No profile available

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Galeocerdo a WallyPower 118 Superyacht

Inspiration, galeocerdo has 5 photos.

Galeocerdo News

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If you have any questions about the Galeocerdo information page below please contact us .

Measuring 36 meters in length, luxury yacht Galeocerdo (Wally//118) represents undoubtedly one of the most distinctive and fastest motor yachts in the world. Motor yacht Galeocerdo features naval architecture by Wally and Intermarine, while her exterior styling is by Wally and Lazzarini Pickering Architects. Boasting a striking vertical bow, the vessel provides unmatched stability and control, even at high speeds.

Galeocerdo Specifications

WallyPower 118 superyacht Galeocerdo features bright and spacious interiors, comfortably sleeping 6 guests in total, looked after by a professional crew of 6. She represents a truly unique combination of the thrills of a high-performance sport boat, with the comforts of a luxury cruising yacht.

The impressive three gas turbine Vericor TF50 diesel engines produce 17,000 horsepower, propelling the WallyPower 118 yacht Galeocerdo to the amazing top speed of over 60 knots.

Yacht Accommodation

A total number of 6 guests are offered maximum comfort and luxury aboard WallyPower 118 superyacht Galeocerdo. There is also accommodation for an attentive crew of 6 members.

Amenities and Extras

We do have available further amenity, owner and price information for the 36m (118') yacht Galeocerdo, so please enquire for more information.

Galeocerdo Disclaimer:

The luxury yacht Galeocerdo displayed on this page is merely informational and she is not necessarily available for yacht charter or for sale, nor is she represented or marketed in anyway by CharterWorld. This web page and the superyacht information contained herein is not contractual. All yacht specifications and informations are displayed in good faith but CharterWorld does not warrant or assume any legal liability or responsibility for the current accuracy, completeness, validity, or usefulness of any superyacht information and/or images displayed. All boat information is subject to change without prior notice and may not be current.

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“You look around the market today and I would say that 95 per cent of yachts from 40 to 140 feet have copied Genie of the Lamp. That kind of layout, that kind of style and deck, it’s clear. I don’t think it’s too much to say that Genie has influenced the last 20 years.” - "Today, everyone has ‘invented’ the vertical bow. We didn’t invent it, it was invented in the 19th century, even before that, but when we introduced it in 2003, everyone was against it. Even the naval architects, they were saying, ‘no, this boat will have big problems’. And now everyone understands that there are a lot of advantages in having a vertical bow. And everyone is claiming they invented it!” - Luca Bassani, founder and president of Wally

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118 WallyPower High Speed Luxury Yacht

The 118 WallyPower is one of the most eye-catching yachts in today’s luxury boating market, created by the Monaco-based Wally Yachts. It is narrow and angular in design with black glass housing. It is 118 feet long and is capable of reaching speeds as fast as 60 knots (70 mph, 110 km/h). It is capable […]

The 118 WallyPower is one of the most eye-catching yachts in today’s luxury boating market, created by the Monaco-based Wally Yachts. It is narrow and angular in design with black glass housing.

It is 118 feet long and is capable of reaching speeds as fast as 60 knots (70 mph, 110 km/h).

It is capable of this feat due to three Vericor TF50 gas turbines generating 16,800 hp. The three gas turbines each drive a Rolls-Royce Kamewa water jet, two steerable outboard and a non-steering booster on centerline. The steerable water jets also have a diesel engine input for a 370 hp Cummins diesel hence these two wing drive trains are Combined Diesel and Gas Turbine (CODOG).

Wally Yachts did extensive testing in the SSPA facility in Gothenburg, Sweden and at Ferrari’s windtunnel in Italy.

The 118 WallyPower is superbly crafted of exotic materials in and out, with thin wood veneers over honeycomb cores and lots of exposed black carbon fiber.

The 118 WallyPower won the MYDA, Millennium Yacht Design Award, organised by Seatec (the yachting and shipping technology show of Carrarafiere) for the “Layout of the Third Millennium.”

The WallyPower is also being honoured by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art as the sole boat in its major architecture and design exhibition, ‘Glamour: Fabricating Affluence’, which ran from October 9 2004 to January 16 2005.

Wally Yachts has only produced one, and it currently resides in the Mediterranean. The 118 is known by most from its role as the “Renovatio” in the 2005 science-fiction film The Island.

Price? $24 million- and the Wally owner should budget, say, $400,000 a year for a professional crew. Wally is awaiting a firm order before building the next 118.

The company might have to wait a while. “I don’t think it’s a marketable product,” says Roger Marshall, a yacht designer and boating writer.

“It’s a high-speed boat that is way overpowered and expensive as hell to run, so the market consists of very few people.”

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VERICOR NEWS

Vericor power systems’ tf50 gas turbines to power wallypower 118 high-speed yachts.

Three Vericor Power Systems' TFT50 marine aeroderivative gas turbines have been selected to power the 118 Wallypower high-speed yacht being built by Intermarine Shipyard, Sarzana, Italy for Wally Yacht.

This is Wally Yacht's first foray into high-speed power yachts, and the company's initial application of gas turbines. Wally Yacht, based in Monte Carlo, Monaco, is a world-renowned designer of high-speed sailing and power yachts.

The 118-foot yacht will feature three TF50 gas turbines in a Combined Diesel Or Gas (CODOG) turbine configuration. Two TF50s will be used as side or "wing" engines, with one small auxiliary diesel engine connected to each wing engine. The diesels will provide for very slow maneuvering only. The wing engines will drive steerable waterjets while the center boost TF50 will drive a fixed waterjet. Total propulsion system output will be 16,800 horsepower/ 12,533 kilowatts (see attached line drawing of the propulsion system configuration).

Cruising speed will be 60 knots, with a maximum speed of 70 knots. Table 1 shows the technical specifications for the 118 Wallypower yacht.

Detroit Diesel Corporation (DDC) packaged the CODOG system for the 118 Wallypower yacht. DDC, a Vericor Power Systems marine systems distributor, is part of MTU-Friedrichshafen, a division of DaimlerChrysler Powersystems. DaimlerChrysler is one of the world's leading manufacturers of marine propulsion engines and systems.

The integrated system includes three TF50 gas turbines, controls, Maag gears, as well as fuel, lube, cooling and exhaust components. Table 2 illustrates the commercial marine specifications for the TF50 gas turbine.

A team comprised of Vericor Power Systems and DDC field service engineers will install and conduct sea trials for the high-speed yacht. Installation of the CODOG system on the Wally Yacht is scheduled for March 2002. Sea trials are to follow in April/ May 2002.

Yacht Experience Other commercial applications of Vericor's TF engines include the high-speed yacht Detroit Eagle. The vessel uses a TF50 aeroderivative marine gas turbine, marking the first such engine to begin operation. The megayacht, which can reach a comfortable cruising speed of approximately 35 knots, completed sea trials in the spring of 2001 and is now in operation.

The yacht was built at the Feadship de Vries shipyard in The Netherlands. This is the second Feadship yacht fitted with TF gas turbines. The 161-foot Sussurro yacht launched in 1998 features a TF80 (2xTF40) gas turbine system.

The "Mangusta" series yachts, being built by Overmarine Shipyard, in Viareggio, Italy, use TF40 and TF50 gas turbines. Five yachts use a total of five TF40 and two TF50 gas turbines in a variety of configurations. Four Mangusta yachts are now in full operation, with the fifth yacht in the series under construction.

The TF engines for all of the above applications were provided by Vericor Power Systems.

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WALLYPOWER 118 YACHT TRIBUTE

We are delighted to introduce you to our tribute to an iconic model of the nautical industry, such as the WallyPower 118 .

Through visual storytelling , we show the uniqueness of this yacht in its marine habitat. Our goal is to bring the viewer on a short emotional journey.

Research is at the core of our work.

A meticulous study that aims to enhance every project and make it unique.

VIDEO ANIMATION

Through the careful direction of the video, the story takes shape. WallyPower 118 has been gradually revealed through its details. At last, shown in all its magnificence, sailing in the open sea.

The change of light throughout the day enhances the details of the yacht’s materials and highlights its realism .

Above all our aim was to make the viewer feel part of the scene. We’ve shown the yacht from different perspectives. The military-inspired design, elegant style, and technological innovations make the Wally yacht so iconic.

In addition to our creative approach, all our 3D visualizations start from a meticulous analysis of the characteristics of the model, we take care of every aspect of the project, achieving realistic and unique visual communication for WallyPower 118.

Wallypower 118 - the coolest luxury yacht in the world

The Wallypower 118 is a luxury yacht that gained widespread attention after it was featured in the 2005 science-fiction thriller movie "The Island." The yacht was designed and built by the Italian yacht manufacturer Wally Yachts and was launched in 2006. It is an ultra-modern and luxurious vessel that is designed to combine speed, style, and comfort.

In the movie "The Island," the Wallypower 118 is the personal yacht of the main antagonist, Dr. Merrick, played by Sean Bean . The yacht is depicted as an impressive vessel, sleek and stylish with a futuristic design that is fitting for the movie's sci-fi theme.

It measures 118 feet in length, thus the name, with a beam of 26 feet, and a draft of 5 feet. It can accommodate up to ten guests in five staterooms, and it has a crew of six. The yacht is powered by three gas turbines that generate a total of 16,800 horsepower, allowing it to reach a top speed of 60 knots, or about 70 miles per hour, making it one of the fastest yachts on the open seas .

It's exterior design is striking and unique, with sleek lines and a minimalist style. The superstructure is made of carbon fiber, which makes the yacht lightweight and adds to its impressive speed. It's innovative propulsion system includes water jets instead of traditional propellers , which further contribute to its speed and maneuverability.

The interior is equally impressive , with a contemporary minimalist design, much like the outside. The main salon features floor-to-ceiling windows that offer stunning views of the surrounding water. The yacht's state-of-the-art entertainment system includes a plasma screen TV, satellite TV, and a surround-sound system. The master suite is located on the main deck and features a king-size bed, an en-suite bathroom, and a private balcony. The guest cabins are located on the lower deck and offer similar amenities and luxurious finishes.

It has become an icon in the world of yachting, renowned for its futuristic design and advanced technology. In "The Island," the Wallypower 118 is portrayed as the ultimate symbol of power and luxury , a fitting representation of the antagonist's character.

In conclusion, this is a remarkable yacht that has captured the imagination of people worldwide. Its characteristics have made it a standout vessel in the yachting world, and its appearance in a hollywood production has only added to its mystique.

The price of the 118 Wallypower is US$33 million for the triple gas turbine version , or $22 million for twin diesels. It has a range of 1,500 nautical miles (2,800 km) at 9 knots (17 km/h), or 300 nautical miles (560 km) at 60 knots (110 km/h). Fuel capacity is 22,000 liters (5800 US gallons). At the maximum speed of 60 knots (110 km/h) the gas turbine uses 15 US gallons / 58 liters of fuel per nautical mile, 900 gallons / 3500 liters per hour . The boat displaces only 95 tons because of the sophisticated building technology that uses a hybrid structure to save weight, and can accommodate six guests and six crew.

It is worth noting that the final cost of a Wallypower 118 can be significantly higher than the base price due to the customization options available. Owners of the yacht can choose from a range of options such as interior finishes, materials, and technology upgrades, all of which can add to the cost of the yacht.

Exactly one has been built .

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118 WallyPower Yacht… The Majesty of the See

The 118 WallyPower yacht is, to put it in the briefest terms, an undisputed masterpiece. Christened the “Galeocerdo”, it has grabbed the eye of all who see its dark visage, and though its appearance alone is, to say the very least, impressive, the finer details are just as incredible. You could scour the excellent yacht harbours of Monaco or Abu Dhabi, glimpse all their seafaring wonders and yet fail to spot something that carries the same honed, dramatic presence. Beneath the exterior lies three gas turbines. These turbines pump out a gargantuan 5,600 bhp, and each drives a Rolls Royce KaMeWa Waterjet. A 370 bhp diesel engine aids the two jets that help steer the vast craft. Overall, the 118 WallyPower rockets across the waves with a combined output of 16,800 bhp. Such colossal power bolts the yacht to a top speed of 60 knots or 70 mph. Such speed is hardly reached even for far smaller boats.

And it can keep up such a speed for a range of 300 nautical miles. However, its power source isn’t totally thanks, as the sharp knife body shape, with smoke testing conducted at Ferrari’s wind tunnel in Maranello, helps cut through the waves like scissors through the cloth.

Beyond its mechanical prowess lies the most exquisite interior, where the focus on performance can still be visible. Inside the cabin are carbon fibre window frames, and the whole deck’s superstructure is a carbon frame in the 118 WallyPower’s pursuit of lightness. Even the bath fixtures and the dining tables are made from the carbon in the drive to keep the weight low. Such advanced and clever building ideas allow the boat only to weigh 95 tons.

This less is more approach cannot only be seen in its engineering but also in its cabin style. The dining area, deck, navigation and cockpit are all continuous elements, creating an open space that suits the 118 WallyPower’s breezy nature. Comparisons can easily be drawn to that of a swanky, new-age metropolitan apartment or even the understated flamboyance of a spy villain’s lair! The deck’s appearance has a sense of practicality too. Two of the dining tables can be mechanically lowered to offer more room, and the dining and lounge area is placed away from the heat of the engines.

Head deeper inside this gloriously suave vessel, and you’ll find six televisions at your leisure and a small, stainless steel kitchen that wouldn’t look too out of place on the set of science fiction films. Coincidently, the 118 WallyPower did indeed gets its moment in the spotlight by appearing in the 2005 thriller “The Island”.

Three bedrooms can be found below the deck. The owner’s stateroom acts as the largest, bearing the comfort of a king-size bed and a pair of en suites, complete with a skylight. A couple of guest rooms are also available, each with a queen-size bed and an en suite. Putting into detail how a yacht perfectly capable of housing six people in refined, palatial splendour truly puts into perspective the technological brilliance in achieving such a low weight and high speed.

In such a vast world of water, it seems a shame to have such a masterpiece be so rare to find. That being said, perhaps it only fits and remains one of a kind. Currently, the 118 WallyPower is one of a kind and owned by the Kondakji family. That exclusivity level can reinforce its place as an icon on the waves and a marvellous representative of pushing the boundaries of yacht design. Some day there will be faster and more luxurious power yachts than the 118 WallyPower, but they will never make anyone forget their mesmerising presence.

Enjoy even more @  Wally Yacht World

Edit by  Roberto Castellucci

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WALLYPOWER 118

WallyPower 118 is the fastest motor yacht on water. Three gas turbines generating 16,800 HP power allows the 118 WallyPower to cruise a leisurely 60 knots in flat seas and tackle rough waters with ease. The yacht is narrow and angular in design, driven by three Vericor TF50 gas turbines generating 5,600 horsepower (each driving a Rolls-Royce Kamewa water jet), two steerable outboard and a non-steering booster on the centerline. The steerable water jets also have a diesel engine input for a 370 hp, thus making the ship a Combined Diesel or Gas Turbine configured vessel.  If the gas turbine engines are all out, the 118 WallyPower uses 14 gallons for every mile at 60 knots. At this rate it uses 951 gallons an hour.

The hull of the 118 WallyPower is the result of an extensive R&D program including tank testing at the SSPA facility in Gothenburg, Sweden, and smoke testing in the Ferrari Wind Tunnel Facility in Maranello, Italy. It is stable at speed thanks to the deep V (22 degrees) hull shape and a straight stem bow designed to pierce waves.

The 118's deck, cockpit, navigation, dining and saloon areas have been designed as one continuous element. The open space incorporates three areas, from stern to bow: the saloon, the dining/seating area, and the navigation cockpit. There is a 360-degree view from the dining area. The deck of the Wally 118 has a hidden crane and compartment for a tender. 

This primarily wood model of the WallyPower 119 features detailed Rolls-Royce Kamewa water jet, with two steerable outboard and a non-steering booster on the centerline. Only the owners of our models can see them, as we do not want to reveal that to copycat builders.

30" long x 9" tall  x 8" wide   $2,970 Shipping and insurance in the contiguous USA included, other places: $300.  

24" long $2,740 Shipping and insurance in the contiguous USA included, other places: $200.  

We have another beautiful Wally here: Wallytender 48

Learn more about the Wallypower 118: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/118_WallyPower

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Strange Glow Over Moscow Skies Triggers Panic as Explosions Reported

B right flashes lit up the night sky in southern Moscow in the early hours of Thursday morning, new footage appears to show, following reports of an explosion at an electrical substation on the outskirts of the city.

Video snippets circulating on Russian-language Telegram channels show a series of flashes on the horizon of a cloudy night sky, momentarily turning the sky a number of different colors. In a clip shared by Russian outlet MSK1.ru, smoke can be seen rising from a building during the flashes lighting up the scene.

Newsweek was unable to independently verify the details of the video clips, including when and where it was filmed. The Russian Ministry of Emergency situations has been contacted via email.

Several Russian Telegram accounts said early on Thursday that residents of southern Moscow reported an explosion and a fire breaking out at an electrical substation in the Leninsky district, southeast of central Moscow.

Local authorities in the Leninsky district told Russian outlet RBC that the explosion had happened in the village of Molokovo. "All vital facilities are operating as normal," Leninsky district officials told the outlet.

The incident at the substation in Molokovo took place just before 2 a.m. local time, MSK1.ru reported.

Messages published by the ASTRA Telegram account, run by independent Russian journalists, appear to show residents close to the substation panicking as they question the bright flashes in the sky. One local resident describes seeing the bright light before losing access to electricity, with another calling the incident a "nightmare."

More than 10 villages and towns in the southeast of Moscow lost access to electricity, the ASTRA Telegram account also reported. The town of Lytkarino to the southeast of Moscow, lost electricity, wrote the eastern European-based independent outlet, Meduza.

Outages were reported in the southern Domodedovo area of the city, according to another Russian outlet, as well as power failures in western Moscow. Electricity was then restored to the areas, the Strana.ua outlet reported.

The cause of the reported explosion is not known. A Telegram account aggregating news for the Lytkarino area described the incident as "an ordinary accident at a substation."

The MSK1.ru outlet quoted a local resident who speculated that a drone may have been responsible for the explosion, but no other Russian source reported this as a possible cause.

Ukraine has repeatedly targeted Moscow with long-range aerial drones in recent months, including a dramatic wave of strikes in late May.

On Sunday, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the region's air defense systems had intercepted an aerial drone over the city of Elektrostal, to the east of Moscow. No damage or casualties were reported, he said.

The previous day, Russian air defenses detected and shot down another drone flying over the Bogorodsky district, northeast of central Moscow, Sobyanin said.

There is currently no evidence that an aerial drone was responsible for the reported overnight explosion at the electrical substation in southern Moscow.

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40 facts about elektrostal.

Written by Lanette Mayes

Modified & Updated: 02 Mar 2024

Reviewed by Jessica Corbett

Elektrostal is a vibrant city located in the Moscow Oblast region of Russia. With a rich history, stunning architecture, and a thriving community, Elektrostal is a city that has much to offer. Whether you are a history buff, nature enthusiast, or simply curious about different cultures, Elektrostal is sure to captivate you.

This article will provide you with 40 fascinating facts about Elektrostal, giving you a better understanding of why this city is worth exploring. From its origins as an industrial hub to its modern-day charm, we will delve into the various aspects that make Elektrostal a unique and must-visit destination.

So, join us as we uncover the hidden treasures of Elektrostal and discover what makes this city a true gem in the heart of Russia.

Key Takeaways:

• Elektrostal, known as the “Motor City of Russia,” is a vibrant and growing city with a rich industrial history, offering diverse cultural experiences and a strong commitment to environmental sustainability.
• With its convenient location near Moscow, Elektrostal provides a picturesque landscape, vibrant nightlife, and a range of recreational activities, making it an ideal destination for residents and visitors alike.

Known as the “Motor City of Russia.”

Elektrostal, a city located in the Moscow Oblast region of Russia, earned the nickname “Motor City” due to its significant involvement in the automotive industry.

Home to the Elektrostal Metallurgical Plant.

Elektrostal is renowned for its metallurgical plant, which has been producing high-quality steel and alloys since its establishment in 1916.

Boasts a rich industrial heritage.

Elektrostal has a long history of industrial development, contributing to the growth and progress of the region.

Founded in 1916.

The city of Elektrostal was founded in 1916 as a result of the construction of the Elektrostal Metallurgical Plant.

Located approximately 50 kilometers east of Moscow.

Elektrostal is situated in close proximity to the Russian capital, making it easily accessible for both residents and visitors.

Known for its vibrant cultural scene.

Elektrostal is home to several cultural institutions, including museums, theaters, and art galleries that showcase the city’s rich artistic heritage.

A popular destination for nature lovers.

Surrounded by picturesque landscapes and forests, Elektrostal offers ample opportunities for outdoor activities such as hiking, camping, and birdwatching.

Hosts the annual Elektrostal City Day celebrations.

Every year, Elektrostal organizes festive events and activities to celebrate its founding, bringing together residents and visitors in a spirit of unity and joy.

Has a population of approximately 160,000 people.

Elektrostal is home to a diverse and vibrant community of around 160,000 residents, contributing to its dynamic atmosphere.

Boasts excellent education facilities.

The city is known for its well-established educational institutions, providing quality education to students of all ages.

A center for scientific research and innovation.

Elektrostal serves as an important hub for scientific research, particularly in the fields of metallurgy, materials science, and engineering.

Surrounded by picturesque lakes.

The city is blessed with numerous beautiful lakes, offering scenic views and recreational opportunities for locals and visitors alike.

Well-connected transportation system.

Elektrostal benefits from an efficient transportation network, including highways, railways, and public transportation options, ensuring convenient travel within and beyond the city.

Famous for its traditional Russian cuisine.

Food enthusiasts can indulge in authentic Russian dishes at numerous restaurants and cafes scattered throughout Elektrostal.

Home to notable architectural landmarks.

Elektrostal boasts impressive architecture, including the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord and the Elektrostal Palace of Culture.

Offers a wide range of recreational facilities.

Residents and visitors can enjoy various recreational activities, such as sports complexes, swimming pools, and fitness centers, enhancing the overall quality of life.

Provides a high standard of healthcare.

Elektrostal is equipped with modern medical facilities, ensuring residents have access to quality healthcare services.

Home to the Elektrostal History Museum.

The Elektrostal History Museum showcases the city’s fascinating past through exhibitions and displays.

A hub for sports enthusiasts.

Elektrostal is passionate about sports, with numerous stadiums, arenas, and sports clubs offering opportunities for athletes and spectators.

Celebrates diverse cultural festivals.

Throughout the year, Elektrostal hosts a variety of cultural festivals, celebrating different ethnicities, traditions, and art forms.

Electric power played a significant role in its early development.

Elektrostal owes its name and initial growth to the establishment of electric power stations and the utilization of electricity in the industrial sector.

Boasts a thriving economy.

The city’s strong industrial base, coupled with its strategic location near Moscow, has contributed to Elektrostal’s prosperous economic status.

Houses the Elektrostal Drama Theater.

The Elektrostal Drama Theater is a cultural centerpiece, attracting theater enthusiasts from far and wide.

Popular destination for winter sports.

Elektrostal’s proximity to ski resorts and winter sport facilities makes it a favorite destination for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter activities.

Promotes environmental sustainability.

Elektrostal prioritizes environmental protection and sustainability, implementing initiatives to reduce pollution and preserve natural resources.

Home to renowned educational institutions.

Elektrostal is known for its prestigious schools and universities, offering a wide range of academic programs to students.

Committed to cultural preservation.

The city values its cultural heritage and takes active steps to preserve and promote traditional customs, crafts, and arts.

Hosts an annual International Film Festival.

The Elektrostal International Film Festival attracts filmmakers and cinema enthusiasts from around the world, showcasing a diverse range of films.

Encourages entrepreneurship and innovation.

Elektrostal supports aspiring entrepreneurs and fosters a culture of innovation, providing opportunities for startups and business development.

Offers a range of housing options.

Elektrostal provides diverse housing options, including apartments, houses, and residential complexes, catering to different lifestyles and budgets.

Home to notable sports teams.

Elektrostal is proud of its sports legacy, with several successful sports teams competing at regional and national levels.

Boasts a vibrant nightlife scene.

Residents and visitors can enjoy a lively nightlife in Elektrostal, with numerous bars, clubs, and entertainment venues.

Promotes cultural exchange and international relations.

Elektrostal actively engages in international partnerships, cultural exchanges, and diplomatic collaborations to foster global connections.

Surrounded by beautiful nature reserves.

Nearby nature reserves, such as the Barybino Forest and Luchinskoye Lake, offer opportunities for nature enthusiasts to explore and appreciate the region’s biodiversity.

Commemorates historical events.

The city pays tribute to significant historical events through memorials, monuments, and exhibitions, ensuring the preservation of collective memory.

Promotes sports and youth development.

Elektrostal invests in sports infrastructure and programs to encourage youth participation, health, and physical fitness.

Hosts annual cultural and artistic festivals.

Throughout the year, Elektrostal celebrates its cultural diversity through festivals dedicated to music, dance, art, and theater.

Provides a picturesque landscape for photography enthusiasts.

The city’s scenic beauty, architectural landmarks, and natural surroundings make it a paradise for photographers.

Connects to Moscow via a direct train line.

The convenient train connection between Elektrostal and Moscow makes commuting between the two cities effortless.

A city with a bright future.

Elektrostal continues to grow and develop, aiming to become a model city in terms of infrastructure, sustainability, and quality of life for its residents.

In conclusion, Elektrostal is a fascinating city with a rich history and a vibrant present. From its origins as a center of steel production to its modern-day status as a hub for education and industry, Elektrostal has plenty to offer both residents and visitors. With its beautiful parks, cultural attractions, and proximity to Moscow, there is no shortage of things to see and do in this dynamic city. Whether you’re interested in exploring its historical landmarks, enjoying outdoor activities, or immersing yourself in the local culture, Elektrostal has something for everyone. So, next time you find yourself in the Moscow region, don’t miss the opportunity to discover the hidden gems of Elektrostal.

Q: What is the population of Elektrostal?

A: As of the latest data, the population of Elektrostal is approximately XXXX.

Q: How far is Elektrostal from Moscow?

A: Elektrostal is located approximately XX kilometers away from Moscow.

Q: Are there any famous landmarks in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal is home to several notable landmarks, including XXXX and XXXX.

Q: What industries are prominent in Elektrostal?

A: Elektrostal is known for its steel production industry and is also a center for engineering and manufacturing.

Q: Are there any universities or educational institutions in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal is home to XXXX University and several other educational institutions.

Q: What are some popular outdoor activities in Elektrostal?

A: Elektrostal offers several outdoor activities, such as hiking, cycling, and picnicking in its beautiful parks.

Q: Is Elektrostal well-connected in terms of transportation?

A: Yes, Elektrostal has good transportation links, including trains and buses, making it easily accessible from nearby cities.

Q: Are there any annual events or festivals in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal hosts various events and festivals throughout the year, including XXXX and XXXX.

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Our commitment to delivering trustworthy and engaging content is at the heart of what we do. Each fact on our site is contributed by real users like you, bringing a wealth of diverse insights and information. To ensure the highest standards of accuracy and reliability, our dedicated editors meticulously review each submission. This process guarantees that the facts we share are not only fascinating but also credible. Trust in our commitment to quality and authenticity as you explore and learn with us.

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118 WallyPower, christened Galeocerdo, is a 118-foot (36 m) luxury motor yacht with a maximum speed of 60 knots (69 mph; 110 km/h), designed by Lazzarini Pickering Architetti, produced by Wally Yachts. [1] The yacht is narrow and angular in design with black glass housing, driven by three Vericor TF50 gas turbines generating 5,600 horsepower ...

The 118 WallyPower's gas turbines deliver 17,000hp, and diesel is used for manoeuvring and cruising at night at up to 10 knots. 'With the two diesels you have a great range - 1,800 miles - while if you went with the gas turbines at 40 to 60 knots the range is 400 to 500 miles, no more.'. This brings up the subject of sustainable power ...

The WallyPower 118, is this the fastest Superyacht?This iconic stealth carbon fibre superyacht produces 16,800 mHP through three gas turbines with waterjets ...

The WallyPower builds on the soft beige of teak and the pure black of carbon fiber to create a contrast complemented by loose cushions and modern furnishings in the same hues. The WallyPower 118's design consists of sharp lines and a vertical bow. Courtesy Wally Yachts. The WallyPower has three en suite queen-berth staterooms below, the ...

Apr 25, 2003. The futuristic-looking 118 is exactly what yachtsmen have come to expect of Wally, which turned the sailing world on its ear several years ago with decidedly different, angular, speedy-looking craft. The trend continues with the new line of power yachts, of which the 118 is the largest thus far—in fact, according to Wally, the ...

The 118 WallyPower is the largest motor yacht produced by the famous Monegasque shipyard Wally Yachts. It was built in the early 2000's according to the drawings of Luca Bassani for a client who wanted a motor yacht inspired by the 27 m sloop built by the shipyard and with the Argentinean naval architect Frers, called Tiketitan.

Although conceived as a production yacht, reportedly only one was ever built. The price at the time? An impressive £17 million. 118 Wallypower specifications. Year: 2004 LOA: 118ft 1in (36.0m) Beam: 29ft 6in (9.0m) Power: 16,800hp Top speed: 65 knots Price: £17 million Cool rating: Absolute zero (-273° C)

36-meter motor yacht Wally Yachts 118 Wallypower was built in 2002 at the Wally Yachts shipyard. The yacht is maintained and operated by 6 crew members. Characteristics of the superyacht 118 Wallypower. Main Features. Length, m. 36. Beam, m. 9. Draft, m. 1.4. Tonnage and capacity. Displacement, t. 95. Fuel Capacity (liters) 22000.

If Wallygator, the first of Luca Bassani's brainchildren, was a breath of fresh air when it appeared on the sailing scene in the waning years of the last century, the Wallypower 118 motoryacht is a full gale.On the outside, she combines elements of Marcello Gandini's masterpiece Lamborghini Countach of the middle 1980s and the U.S. Air Force Stealth Fighter.

Motor yacht Wallypower 118 is easily one of the most distinctive vessels on the water with her unique and striking exterior design. Capable of reaching high cruising speeds, her design was the result of extensive development and research that included exhausting testing. She has a steeply angled V-shaped and a stand-out deckhouse that crowns ...

The impressive three gas turbine Vericor TF50 diesel engines produce 17,000 horsepower, propelling the WallyPower 118 yacht Galeocerdo to the amazing top speed of over 60 knots. Yacht Accommodation. A total number of 6 guests are offered maximum comfort and luxury aboard WallyPower 118 superyacht Galeocerdo. There is also accommodation for an ...

So much so, in fact, that the 118 WallyPower recently won the MYDA, the Millennium Yacht Design Award organised by Seatec (the yachting and shipping technology show of Carrarafiere) for the ...

The 118 WallyPower is one of the most eye-catching yachts in today's luxury boating market, created by the Monaco-based Wally Yachts. It is narrow and angular in design with black glass housing. It is 118 feet long and is capable of reaching speeds as fast as 60 knots (70 mph, 110 km/h). It is capable of this feat due to three Vericor TF50 ...

And I could point to any number of his designs—from the iconic flush-deck sailing yachts to the one-of-a-kind 118 Wallypower—to back that claim up. WHY200 has massive amounts of space.

Wally Yacht, based in Monte Carlo, Monaco, is a world-renowned designer of high-speed sailing and power yachts. The 118-foot yacht will feature three TF50 gas turbines in a Combined Diesel Or Gas (CODOG) turbine configuration. Two TF50s will be used as side or "wing" engines, with one small auxiliary diesel engine connected to each wing engine.

WallyPower 118 has been gradually revealed through its details. At last, shown in all its magnificence, sailing in the open sea. The change of light throughout the day enhances the details of the yacht's materials and highlights its realism. Above all our aim was to make the viewer feel part of the scene. We've shown the yacht from ...

The Wallypower 118 is a luxury yacht that gained widespread attention after it was featured in the 2005 science-fiction thriller movie "The Island." The yacht was designed and built by the Italian yacht manufacturer Wally Yachts and was launched in 2006. It is an ultra-modern and luxurious vessel that is designed to combine speed, style, and comfort. ...

The 118 WallyPower yacht is, to put it in the briefest terms, an undisputed masterpiece. Christened the "Galeocerdo", it has grabbed the eye of all who see

WallyPower 118 is the fastest motor yacht on water. Three gas turbines generating 16,800 HP power allows the 118 WallyPower to cruise a leisurely 60 knots in flat seas and tackle rough waters with ease. The yacht is narrow and angular in design, driven by three Vericor TF50 gas turbines generating 5,600 horsepower (each driving a Rolls-Royce ...

173 likes, 3 comments - zetovince on March 17, 2024: "Wally 118 WallyPower #lego #legomoc #moc #afol #legostagram #superyacht #yacht #marinelife #legoboat #legoship #motoryacht #powerboat #w ...

Elektrostal, city, Moscow oblast (province), western Russia.It lies 36 miles (58 km) east of Moscow city. The name, meaning "electric steel," derives from the high-quality-steel industry established there soon after the October Revolution in 1917. During World War II, parts of the heavy-machine-building industry were relocated there from Ukraine, and Elektrostal is now a centre for the ...

Established in 1978, Mimsa Aluminium is one of the prominent companies in the industry with over 40 years of industrial experience and aluminum applications which are suitable for any project ranging from large-scaled commercial structures to small-scaled private residences. Company Profile ->.

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Known as the "Motor City of Russia." Elektrostal, a city located in the Moscow Oblast region of Russia, earned the nickname "Motor City" due to its significant involvement in the automotive industry.. Home to the Elektrostal Metallurgical Plant. Elektrostal is renowned for its metallurgical plant, which has been producing high-quality steel and alloys since its establishment in 1916.

U.S. updates how it classifies people by race, ethnicity for first time in decades

The changes, announced thursday by the u.s. office of management and budget, aim to better capture an increasingly diverse country and give policymakers a fuller view of americans.

The federal government updated how it classifies people by race and ethnicity for the first time in over a quarter-century, aiming to better capture an increasingly diverse country and give policymakers a fuller view of the Americans their work impacts.

The U.S. Office of Management and Budget announced Thursday it would combine questions about race and ethnicity on federal forms and encourage people to select multiple options if applicable. The government also will add “Middle Eastern or North African” ( MENA ) as a new category for the combined question, which will include seven total choices.

The changes mark the first time since 1997 that the OMB has revised a policy on the federal collection of such data.

“This is truly a momentous day,” said Meeta Anand, senior director for census and data equity at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a national coalition of over 200 civil rights groups. The combined question, she added, is “one of the biggest changes we’ve ever seen.”

Karin Orvis, the United States’ chief statistician, said in a Thursday blog post on the White House website that the revision will “enhance our ability to compare information and data across federal agencies, and also to understand how well federal programs serve a diverse America.”

The changes are expected to show up on a range of federal data collection forms, including the census surveys that the government sends out every 10 years. They will also be reflected in the American Community Survey, which is conducted more regularly and includes more questions.

Such data guides how federal officials analyze everything from health-care outcomes to the redrawing of congressional districts.

The revised standards go into effect immediately, though agencies have 18 months to devise plans to comply and five years to implement them.

The Census Bureau said in a statement that it “commends the scientific integrity and collaboration” that led to the new standards.

The process that led to these changes began in June 2022, when Orvis convened a working group of career staff members across 35 agencies in the federal government. The group received over 20,000 public comments and held 94 listening sessions.

“As a society, we cannot properly ensure equal rights and protections for all if we are not able to properly identify those impacted by overt and covert discrimination through systemic biases in the first place,” read one comment from an Egyptian American attorney who agreed with the new MENA category.

Momentum toward the changes has long been building, though it slowed during Donald Trump’s presidency. His administration sought to include a citizenship question on the 2020 Census, a move the Supreme Court blocked .

Advocates have especially pushed for a combined question on race and ethnicity, with research showing that the separate questions have hindered data collection among Latino respondents.

“Since many Latinos do not see themselves in any of the race categories under the current standards, a large proportion (nearly 44 percent) select ‘Some Other Race’ or skip the race question entirely,” Anand’s group said last year in a document outlining its case for a combined question.

The 2020 Census marked the first time that “Some Other Race” rose to the second-largest racial group in the United States.

“That means we had a lot of people who were not seeing themselves in the forms,” Anand said.

The Arab American Institute, a Washington-based nonprofit that advocates on behalf of Arab Americans, called the revised standards a “major accomplishment.”

“The new Standards will have a lasting impact on communities for generations to come, particularly Arab Americans, whose erasure in federal data collection will finally cease,” the institute’s executive director, Maya Berry, said in a statement.

At the same time, Berry said the institute has “deep concerns” that Arab Americans will continue to be undercounted because the new “Middle Eastern or North African” category does not fully capture the diversity of those groups.

Among those who had pushed for a MENA category was Sen. Gary Peters, a Democrat who represents Michigan, which has a large Arab American population. Peters said in a statement that the changes “will help finally count Arab Americans as a distinct community, so that the government can ensure this community receives the resources and support they need.”

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US is changing federal race and ethnicity categories for first time in 27 years

Americans of Middle Eastern descent used to have to identify as white on government forms – new categories will change that

For the first time in 27 years, the US government is changing how it categorizes people by race and ethnicity, an effort that federal officials believe will more accurately count residents who identify as Hispanic and of Middle Eastern and North African heritage.

The revisions to the minimum categories on race and ethnicity, announced Thursday by the Office of Management and Budget, are the latest effort to label and define the people of the United States. This evolving process often reflects changes in social attitudes and immigration, as well as a wish for people in an increasingly diverse society to see themselves in the numbers produced by the federal government.

“You can’t underestimate the emotional impact this has on people,” said Meeta Anand, senior director for census and data equity at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. “It’s how we conceive ourselves as a society. ... You are seeing a desire for people to want to self-identify and be reflected in data so they can tell their own stories.”

Under the revisions, questions about race and ethnicity that previously were asked separately on forms will be combined into a single question. That will give respondents the option to pick multiple categories at the same time, such as “Black”, “American Indian” and “Hispanic”. Research has shown that large numbers of Hispanic people aren’t sure how to answer the race question when that question is asked separately because they understand race and ethnicity to be similar and they often pick “some other race” or do not answer the question.

A Middle Eastern and North African category will be added to the choices available for questions about race and ethnicity. People descended from places such as Lebanon, Iran, Egypt and Syria had been encouraged to identify as white, but now will have the option of identifying themselves in the new group. Results from the 2020 census, which asked respondents to elaborate on their backgrounds, suggest that 3.5 million residents identify as Middle Eastern and North African.

“It feels good to be seen,” said Florida state representative Anna Eskamani, a Democrat from Orlando whose parents are from Iran. “Growing up, my family would check the ‘white’ box because we didn’t know what other box reflected our family. Having representation like that, it feels meaningful.”

The changes also strike from federal forms the words “Negro” and “Far East”, now widely regarded as pejorative, as well as the terms “majority” and “minority”, because they fail to reflect the nation’s complex racial and ethnic diversity, some officials say. The revisions also encourage the collection of detailed race and ethnicity data beyond the minimum standards, such as “Haitian” or “Jamaican” for someone who checks “Black”.

Grouping together people of different backgrounds into a single race and ethnicity category, such as Japanese and Filipino in the Asian classification, often masks disparities in income or health, and advocates argued having the detailed data will allow the information about the subgroups to be separated out in a process called disaggregation.

“To be able to disaggregate can really be helpful to distinguish different kinds of discrimination, the ability to enforce laws around discrimination and do research on public health and economic outcomes,” said Allison Plyer, chief demographer of The Data Center in New Orleans.

The changes to the standards were hammered out over two years by a group of federal statisticians and bureaucrats who prefer to stay above the political fray. But the revisions have long-term implications for legislative redistricting, civil rights laws, health statistics, and possibly even politics as the number of people categorized as white is reduced.

The changes will be reflected in data collection, forms, surveys and the once-a-decade census questionnaires put out by the federal government, as well as in state governments and the private sector because businesses, universities and other groups usually follow Washington’s lead. Federal agencies have 18 months to submit a plan on how they will put the changes in place.

The first federal standards on race and ethnicity were produced in 1977 to provide consistent data across agencies and come up with figures that could help enforce civil rights laws. They were last updated in 1997 when five minimum race categories were delineated – American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, and white; respondents could pick more than one race. The minimum ethnic categories were grouped separately as not Hispanic or Hispanic or Latino.

Not everyone is on board with the latest revisions.

Some Afro Latinos feel that combining the race and ethnicity question will reduce their numbers and representation in the data, though previous research by the US Census Bureau did not find significant differences among Afro Latino responses when the questions were asked separately or together.

Mozelle Ortiz, for instance, is of mixed Afro Puerto Rican descent. She feels the changes could eliminate that identity, even though people can choose more than one answer once the race and ethnicity questions are combined.

“My entire lineage, that of my Black Puerto Rican grandmother’s and all other non-white Spanish speaking peoples, will be erased,” Ortiz wrote the interagency group.

Others are unhappy about how some groups of people such as Armenians or Arabs from Sudan and Somalia were not included in the examples used to define people of Middle Eastern or North African background.

Maya Berry, executive director of the Arab American Institute, said that while she was “incredibly happy” with the new category, that enthusiasm was tempered by the omissions.

“It is not reflective of the racial diversity of our community,” Berry said. “And it’s wrong.”

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In a post-affirmative action world, Harvard admits its first class — discounting race

• KirkCarapezza

For the first time since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down more than 40 years of legal precedent that had said colleges can consider applicants’ race, Harvard on Thursday released admissions data for the accepted class of 2028. Remarkably, recent legal and political events do not appear to have affected the demand for a Harvard degree or the economic makeup of those students offered a seat.

According to data provided by the College, Harvard admitted 1,937 applicants from a pool of more than 54,000 students, so its acceptance rate is now 3.6%. That’s up, nominally, from 3.4% last year.

These figures give the public its first glimpse behind the ivy of how this country’s oldest college plans to build a class in a post-affirmative action world. Still, Harvard is not releasing racial or ethnic demographic data of students to whom it has offered admissions, citing potential litigation.

“Based on advice from counsel, admissions readers will not be accessing applicants’ self-reported race or ethnicity data or aggregated data about applicants’ self-reported race or ethnicity at any time until the admissions process has concluded,” Harvard spokesperson Jonathan Palumbo said in a statement.

Since the Supreme Court’s decision in June 2023, Harvard said it reworked its holistic, widely replicated admissions process, making sure that officers do not have access to applicants’ race or even their application essay answers about race and ethnicity.

In his majority decision, Chief Justice John Roberts, a graduate of Harvard and Harvard Law, wrote that nothing in the ruling prohibits universities from considering “an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise.”

That means the Court allows applicants to mention their racial identity and experiences in admissions essays or interviews and that colleges may take those narratives it into account when making decisions.

This application season Harvard included new essay questions asking students to talk about, for example, how their life experiences have influenced who they are and how they might contribute to the campus community.

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The admitted class come from all 50 states and 94 countries. Fifty-three percent of admitted students are women; 47% are men.

First-generation students make up 20% of the class, mirroring previous years.

That disappointed Natasha Warikoo, a sociologist at Tufts University and author of the book “Is Affirmative Action Fair?”.

Warikoo said she’d like to see Harvard’s incoming class better reflect the U.S. population’s racial and economic composition.

Warikoo, who has long studied and researched race in admissions, said it is “disconcerting” but “not surprising” to see this fresh data without racial demographic breakdowns.

“I assumed that we wouldn’t find out until the recruiting season is over so that there’s no worry about getting sued by saying, ‘Well, you recruited these groups harder than these groups,’” Warikoo said. “But I am waiting with bated breath to see what the outcome of admissions this year looks like at Harvard and all selective colleges that used to practice race-conscious admissions and can’t anymore.”

Anthony Jack, a sociologist at Boston University and author of the book “The Privileged Poor,” said it’s troubling not to have access to racial and ethnic data.

“A lot of the inequalities that we were starting to pay attention to are now hidden,” Jack said. “We never really knew how many students [were] Black from Caribbean or African descent versus Black who can trace their legacy back to slavery.”

Jack said he’s encouraged that Harvard has continued to recruit low-income, underrepresented students. To build this class, Harvard said its admissions officers traveled to 150 cities in the United States and around the world to recruit applicants, joining a new consortium of 30 public and private colleges working to raise awareness in rural communities.

Jack suggested Harvard and other selective colleges “double down” on first-generation and rural students through geographically targeted outreach.

“Place-based initiatives will allow us to recruit not just economically disadvantaged students but also those who come from racially segregated communities because of the history of exclusion and housing in America,” Jack said. “We know how segregated America’s cities are. We know which schools support students from minority groups.”

Before Thursday’s data release, experts had openly questioned whether Harvard’s reputation and brand would be undermined by the Court’s decision and the way administrators, including former president Claudine Gay, handled the University’s response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

For now, recent events don’t appear to have affected the decisions of high school seniors to seek an education at a certain college in Cambridge.

“High-school seniors are much more likely paying attention to financial aid,” Warikoo said.

According to Harvard, nearly a quarter of students attend without paying anything and the average parent contribution for students who received financial aid this academic year was $13,000.

For students who don’t receive need-based aid, the total cost of attendance is set to increase 4.3% to $82,866 in the fall.

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U.S. changes how it categorizes people by race and ethnicity, its first revision in 27 years

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For the first time in 27 years, the U.S. government is changing how it categorizes people by race and ethnicity , an effort that federal officials believe will more accurately count residents who identify as Hispanic and of Middle Eastern and North African heritage.

The revisions to the minimum categories on race and ethnicity, announced Thursday by the Office of Management and Budget, are the latest effort to label and define the people of the United States. This evolving process often reflects changes in social attitudes and immigration, as well as a wish for people in an increasingly diverse society to see themselves in the numbers produced by the federal government.

“You can’t underestimate the emotional impact this has on people,” said Meeta Anand, senior director for Census & Data Equity at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. “It’s how we conceive ourselves as a society. ... You are seeing a desire for people to want to self-identify and be reflected in data so they can tell their own stories.”

Under the revisions, questions about race and ethnicity that previously were asked separately on forms will be combined into a single question. That will give respondents the option to pick multiple categories at the same time, such as “Black,” “American Indian” and “Hispanic.” Research has shown that large numbers of Hispanic people aren’t sure how to answer the race question when that question is asked separately because they understand race and ethnicity to be similar and they often pick “some other race” or do not answer the question.

World & Nation

Census change may result in fewer ‘white’ Americans

The Census Bureau is considering changes to its race and ethnicity questions that would reclassify some minorities who were considered “white” in the past, a move that may speed up the date when America’s white population falls below 50%.

Nov. 22, 2015

A Middle Eastern and North African category will be added to the choices available for questions about race and ethnicity. People descended from places such as Lebanon, Iran, Egypt and Syria had been encouraged to identify as white, but now will have the option of identifying themselves in the new group. Results from the 2020 census, which asked respondents to elaborate on their backgrounds, suggest that 3.5 million residents identify as Middle Eastern and North African.

“It feels good to be seen,” said Florida state Rep. Anna Eskamani, a Democrat from Orlando whose parents are from Iran. “Growing up, my family would check the ‘white’ box because we didn’t know what other box reflected our family. Having representation like that, it feels meaningful.”

The changes also strike from federal forms the words “Negro” and “Far East,” now widely regarded as pejorative, as well as the terms “majority” and “minority,” because they fail to reflect the nation’s complex racial and ethnic diversity, some officials say. The revisions also encourage the collection of detailed race and ethnicity data beyond the minimum standards, such as “Haitian” or “Jamaican” for someone who checks “Black.”

The changes to the standards were hammered out over two years by a group of federal statisticians and bureaucrats who prefer to stay above the political fray. But the revisions have long-term implications for legislative redistricting, civil rights laws, health statistics, and possibly even politics as the number of people categorized as white is reduced.

Census numbers — more diverse, more urban — present a challenge to GOP

Republicans have the upper hand in drawing voting lines, but a sharp drop in America’s white population underscores the party’s long-term dilemma.

Aug. 13, 2021

Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee for president, recently alluded to arguments made by people who allege Democrats are promoting illegal immigration to weaken the power of white people. As president, Trump unsuccessfully tried to disqualify people who were in the United States illegally from being included in the 2020 census.

Momentum for changing the race and ethnicity categories grew during the Obama administration in the mid-2010s, but was halted after Trump became president in 2017. The effort was revived after Democratic President Biden took office in 2021.

The changes will be reflected in data collection, forms, surveys and the once-a-decade census questionnaires put out by the federal government, as well as in state governments and the private sector because businesses, universities and other groups usually follow Washington’s lead. Federal agencies have 18 months to submit a plan on how they will put the changes in place.

The first federal standards on race and ethnicity were produced in 1977 to provide consistent data across agencies and come up with figures that could help enforce civil rights laws. They were last updated in 1997 when five minimum race categories were delineated — American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander and white; respondents could pick more than one race. The minimum ethnic categories were grouped separately as not Hispanic or Hispanic or Latino.

It’s official: Latinos now outnumber whites in California

The demographers agreed: At some point in 2014, Latinos would pass whites as the largest ethnic group in California.

July 8, 2015

The interagency group that worked on the latest revisions noted that categories are sociopolitical constructs, and race and ethnicity are not defined biologically or genetically.

Racial and ethnic categories used by the U.S. government reflect their times.

In 1820, the category “Free Colored People” was added to the decennial census to reflect the increase in free Black people. In 1850, the term “Mulatto” was added to the census to capture people of mixed heritage. American Indians were not explicitly counted in the census until 1860. Following years of immigration from China, “Chinese” was included in the 1870 census. There was not a formal question about Hispanic origin until the 1980 census.

Not everyone is on board with the latest revisions.

Some Afro Latinos feel that combining the race and ethnicity question will reduce their numbers and representation in the data, though previous research by the U.S. Census Bureau did not find significant differences among Afro Latino responses when the questions were asked separately or together.

Mozelle Ortiz, for instance, is of mixed Afro Puerto Rican descent. She feels the changes could eliminate that identity, even though people can choose more than one answer once the race and ethnicity questions are combined.

Time to retool census? Some think so after minorities are missed

Policymakers and demographers ask if it’s time to rethink the census after results show Black, Latino and American Indian residents were undercounted.

March 20, 2022

“My entire lineage, that of my Black Puerto Rican grandmother’s and all other nonwhite Spanish speaking peoples, will be erased,” Ortiz wrote the interagency group.

Others are unhappy about how some groups of people such as Armenians or Arabs from Sudan and Somalia were not included in the examples used to define people of Middle Eastern or North African background.

Maya Berry, executive director of the Arab American Institute, said that while she was “incredibly happy” with the new category, that enthusiasm was tempered by the omissions.

“It is not reflective of the racial diversity of our community,” Berry said. “And it’s wrong.”

Schneider writes for the Associated Press.

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Census will offer Hispanic or Latino and Middle Eastern or North African as race categories for the first time

For the first time, Hispanic or Latino is listed as one race/ethnicity category and people of Middle Eastern or North African descent will have their own checkbox under new race and ethnicity standards adopted by the Biden administration.

Up to now, Hispanics had a two-part question for their identity: They were asked whether they were Hispanic or Latino and then asked to pick a race of white, Black, American Indian or some other race.

The change now uses one question for race and ethnicity and allows people to check as many as apply to their identity. Each category has subcategories with examples that may apply and room for those that may not be listed.

The addition of a Middle Eastern or North African, or MENA, identifier would allow 7 million to 8 million people to no longer have to identify as “white” or “other” on the census and other forms in which such data is collected.

The changes are only the second update by the federal government to categories for data about the American population. The update — the last was in 1997 — of standards used by the federal government for the census and other agencies is meant to better capture the expanding multicultural identity of the country.

“These updated standards are going to help us create more useful, accurate and up-to-date federal data on race and ethnicity,” said an official with the Office of Management and Budget , who spoke to reporters Tuesday on the condition that the person not be identified.

“And these revisions will enhance our ability to compare information and data across federal agencies and also understand again how our federal programs are serving a diverse America,” the official said.

The changes were effective Thursday, and agencies have 18 months to devise plans for complying and then up to five years to put those plans in place, though some are likely to do so sooner, the OMB said.

The newest standards reflect results from the 2020 census that showed that most Hispanics did not identify their race as white, Black or Asian and instead were more likely to choose "some other race" on the decennial survey or to check "two or more races."

Research showed that the two-part question is confusing and that since 1980, nonresponse to the race question has increased, the OMB said in an explanation of its recommendations. On the 2020 census, 4 in 10 Hispanics, or 42%, marked “some other race. A third selected two or more racial groups, and 20% chose white as their race, according to a Pew Research Center analysis .

The two new categories will have subcategories; the ones listed for Hispanic or Latino are "Mexican, Puerto Rican, Salvadoran, Cuban, Dominican, Guatemalan and other Central or South American or Spanish culture or origin."

Arturo Vargas, chief executive officer of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund, praised the revised standards, calling them “long overdue and critical step toward ensuring our nation collects the most complete and accurate data possible on the Latino community.”

But he also expressed concern that "OMB is being very prescriptive in how to ask the question" about race by designating subcategories and "not allowing for flexibility to reflect new research and improve questions in the short term."

He said there is a need to signal to Latinos who may, for example, identify as Black or African that they should mark that box, as well.

For the Middle Eastern or North African category, the subcategories are listed as “Lebanese, Iranian, Egyptian, Syrian, Iraqi, Israeli etc.”

Labels considered derogatory and racist, such as “Negro” and “Far East,” were eliminated. Asian is now defined as "individuals with origins in any of the original peoples of Central or East Asia, Southeast Asia or South Asia, including, for example, Chinese, Asian Indian, Filipino, Vietnamese, Korean and Japanese.”

Black or African American now includes people with origins in Africa, including "for example African American, Jamaican, Haitian, Nigerian, Ethiopian and Somali."

The new standards also remove the use of "majority" and "minority" as descriptors of specific groups.

Some in the Afro Latino or Black Latino population had raised concerns that the combined question would dilute their visibility.

After the new race categories were announced, the Afro-Latino Coalition said a statement: "By listing Latino ethnicity as co-equal with racial categories, Latinos are inaccurately portrayed as a population without racial differences, despite all the research showing how Black Latinos are treated differently from other Latinos."

The OMB said its research showed Afro Latino populations estimates were slightly higher with a combined race/ethnicity question that also provides detailed checkboxes and write-in fields. But the working group recommended more research into the issue because about half of Afro Latinos interviewed during research for the update chose only Hispanic or Latino on a combined question, even though they selected the Hispanic or Latino and Black or African American categories when they were recruited for the interviews.

Although the standards are intended for federal agencies, the effect goes beyond that realm. Many researchers, local and state governments and nonprofit groups follow the standards, which also shape policy and affect representation in government through redistricting and, in some ways, societal perspectives.

The revisions were developed by a working group made up of career staff members from 35 agencies, which received more than 20,000 comments after first recommending the changes in January 2023, according to the OMB. The working group held 94 "listening sessions," three virtual town halls and a tribal consultation about its proposed revisions, the agency said.

In addition, the OMB said it is creating the Interagency Committee on Race and Ethnicity Statistical Standards to continue research, because the process of updating the standards "showed that racial and ethnic identities, concepts and data needs continue to evolve."

Along with researching and capturing accurate data about Afro Latinos, it will also consider collecting data about descendants of people enslaved in the U.S., among other topics. The OMB said groups consulted on identification of descendants of slaves did not agree on whether or how to collect the information.

The others race and ethnicity categories are American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Middle Eastern or North African, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and White.

For more from NBC Latino,  sign up for our weekly newsletter .

Suzanne Gamboa is a national reporter for NBC Latino and NBCNews.com

For the first time Rosatom Fuel Division supplied fresh nuclear fuel to the world’s only floating nuclear cogeneration plant in the Arctic

The fuel was supplied to the northernmost town of Russia along the Northern Sea Route.

The first in the history of the power plant refueling, that is, the replacement of spent nuclear fuel with fresh one, is planned to begin before 2024. The manufacturer of nuclear fuel for all Russian nuclear icebreakers, as well as the Akademik Lomonosov FNPP, is Machinery Manufacturing Plant, Joint-Stock Company (MSZ JSC), a company of Rosatom Fuel Company TVEL that is based in Elektrostal, Moscow Region.

The FNPP includes two KLT-40S reactors of the icebreaking type. Unlike convenient ground-based large reactors (that require partial replacement of fuel rods once every 12-18 months), in the case of these reactors, the refueling takes place once every few years and includes unloading of the entire reactor core and loading of fresh fuel into the reactor.

The cores of KLT-40 reactors of the Akademik Lomonosov floating power unit have a number of advantages compared to the reference ones: a cassette core was used for the first time in the history of the unit, which made it possible to increase the fuel energy resource to 3-3.5 years between refuelings, and also reduce the fuel component of the electricity cost by one and a half times. The FNPP operating experience formed the basis for the designs of reactors for nuclear icebreakers of the newest series 22220. Three such icebreakers have been launched by now.

For the first time the power units of the Akademik Lomonosov floating nuclear power plant were connected to the grid in December 2019, and put into commercial operation in May 2020. The supply of nuclear fuel from Elektrostal to Pevek and its loading into the second reactor is planned for 2024. The total power of the Akademik Lomonosov FNPP, supplied to the coastal grid of Pevek without thermal energy consumption on shore, is about 76 MW, being about 44 MW in the maximum thermal power supply mode. The FNPP generated 194 million kWh according to the results of 2023. The population of Pevek is just a little more than 4 thousand, while the FNPP has a potential for supplying electricity to a city with a population of up to 100 thousand people. After the FNPP commissioning two goals were achieved. These include first of all the replacement of the retiring capacities of the Bilibino NPP, which has been operating since 1974, as well as the Chaunskaya TPP, which has already been operating for more than 70 years. Secondly, energy is supplied to the main mining companies in western Chukotka in the Chaun-Bilibino energy hub a large ore and metal cluster, including gold mining companies and projects related to the development of the Baimsk ore zone. In September 2023, a 110 kilovolt power transmission line with a length of 490 kilometers was put into operation, connecting the towns of Pevek and Bilibino. The line increased the reliability of energy supply from the FNPP to both Bilibino consumers and mining companies, the largest of which is the Baimsky GOK. The comprehensive development of the Russian Arctic is a national strategic priority. To increase the NSR traffic is of paramount importance for accomplishment of the tasks set in the field of cargo shipping. This logistics corridor is being developed due regular freight voyages, construction of new nuclear-powered icebreakers and modernization of the relevant infrastructure. Rosatom companies are actively involved in this work. Rosatom Fuel Company TVEL (Rosatom Fuel Division) includes companies fabricating nuclear fuel, converting and enriching uranium, manufacturing gas centrifuges, conducting researches and producing designs. As the only nuclear fuel supplier to Russian NPPs, TVEL supplies fuel for a total of 75 power reactors in 15 countries, for research reactors in nine countries, as well as for propulsion reactors of the Russian nuclear fleet. Every sixth power reactor in the world runs on TVEL fuel. Rosatom Fuel Division is the world’s largest producer of enriched uranium and the leader on the global stable isotope market. The Fuel Division is actively developing new businesses in chemistry, metallurgy, energy storage technologies, 3D printing, digital products, and decommissioning of nuclear facilities. TVEL also includes Rosatom integrators for additive technologies and electricity storage systems. Rosenergoatom, Joint-Stock Company is part of Rosatom Electric Power Division and one of the largest companies in the industry acting as an operator of nuclear power plants. It includes, as its branches, 11 operating NPPs, including the FNPP, the Scientific and Technical Center for Emergency Operations at NPPs, Design and Engineering as well as Technological companies. In total, 37 power units with a total installed capacity of over 29.5 GW are in operation at 11 nuclear power plants in Russia. Machinery Manufacturing Plant, Joint-Stock Company (MSZ JSC, Elektrostal) is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of fuel for nuclear power plants. The company produces fuel assemblies for VVER-440, VVER-1000, RBMK-1000, BN-600,800, VK-50, EGP-6; powders and fuel pellets intended for supply to foreign customers. It also produces nuclear fuel for research reactors. The plant belongs to the TVEL Fuel Company of Rosatom.

Rosatom obtained a license for the first land-based SMR in Russia

On April 21, Rosenergoatom obtained a license issued by Rostekhnadzor to construct the Yakutsk land-based SMR in the Ust-Yansky District of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).

ROSATOM and FEDC agree to cooperate in the construction of Russia's first onshore SNPP

ROSATOM and FEDC have signed a cooperation agreement to build Russia's first onshore SNPP in Yakutia.

Rosatom develops nuclear fuel for modernized floating power units

Rosatom has completed the development of nuclear fuel for the RITM-200S small modular reactor designed for the upgraded floating power units.

Home  News  All Eyes on Mallorca for International Season Opener Ahead of Paris 2024

All Eyes on Mallorca for International Season Opener Ahead of Paris 2024

PALMA DE MALLORCA, SPAIN (29 March, 2024) – Fourteen US Sailing Team athletes and ten additional USA representatives across all ten Olympic classes will go head-to-head with representatives from 70 other countries for the 53 rd edition of the Trofeo S.A.R. Princesa Sofía racing April 1-6. Over 1,000 athletes on over 850 boats and boards are set to hit the water in Mallorca for a critical progress checkpoint for many athletes closing in on the Paris 2024 Olympics.  

Per US Sailing’s selection procedures for Paris 2024 , this year’s Princesa Sofía marks both the end of 49erFX athlete selection and the beginning of Nacra 17 athlete selection for Paris 2024. For both classes, the team with the lowest combined point total of two regattas will earn US Sailing’s nomination for Paris 2024. The points are calculated based on the final finishing position of each event. Following the 49erFX World Championships , team Roble and Shea have 11 points and team Henken and Tunnicliffe Tobias have 26 points. Similarly, the Nacra 17 will enter this week as the first of two events with their World Championship in La Grand-Motte, France from May 7-12 serving as the final selection regatta.  

The Trofeo S.A.R. Princesa Sofía is the first event each calendar year to gather all 10 Olympic classes, and all eyes will be on the Bay of Palma this week with the Olympic Games less than 120 days away. For many competitors, it’s been months since they’ve battled their international fleets, so the timing of this event is well positioned to provide crucial information on how to adjust final preparation plans for Paris 2024.  

“The last time I saw this fleet was in The Netherlands at the World Championships last year so it’s been about seven months,” said Erika Reineke, US Sailing Team ILCA 6 athlete and Paris 2024 Nominee. “I’m feeling great – it’s good to hop back into the boat and compete internationally again. A lot of the goals surrounding this week will be trying to capitalize on my strengths and work on little improvements I need to work on by the time the Games hit. This is a really good stepping stone in the right direction.”  

On the water for the USA:  

• Stephanie Roble (Tokyo 2020) & Maggie Shea (Tokyo 2020), US Sailing Team  
• Paris Henken (Rio 2016) & Anna Tunnicliffe Tobias (Beijing 2008 & London 2012)  
• Sarah Newberry Moore & David Liebenberg, US Sailing Team  
• Carson Crain & Lindsay Gimple  
• Stu McNay (4x Olympian) & Lara Dallman-Weiss (Tokyo 2020), US Sailing Team  
• Andrew Mollerus & Ian MacDiarmid, US Sailing Team  
• Adam Keaton  
• Daniela Moroz, US Sailing Team & Paris 2024 Nominee  
• Erika Reineke, US Sailing Team & Paris 2024 Nominee  
• Charlotte Rose, US Sailing Team  
• Isabella Mendoza Cabezas  
• Lilly Myers  
• Christina Sakellaris  
• Ford McCann, US Sailing Team & Paris 2024 Nominee (pending country qualification*)  
• Thomas Kraak  
• Marshall McCann  
• Noah Lyons, US Sailing Team & Paris 2024 Nominee (pending country qualification*)  
• Dominique Stater, US Sailing Team & Paris 2024 Nominee  

*Representing Team USA in Sailing at an Olympic Games consists of two parts: a “ country qualification ” in each of the 10 disciplines or “classes,” and “ athlete selection ” to decide who will compete in the earned spot for each class. The “ Last Chance Regatta ” April 20-27 in Hyeres, France will be the final country qualification opportunity for Olympic berths. To qualify the country in the final three classes (Men’s Kite, Men’s iQFOiL, and ILCA 7), any American athlete must place high enough at the Last Chance Regatta for a spot in their class at the Games. Find more information regarding the country qualification system  here .     

Event website: https://www.trofeoprincesasofia.org/en/default/races/race    

Entry list: https://www.trofeoprincesasofia.org/en/default/races/race-inscriptions    

Results: will become available when regatta begins – check above event website for updates  

Tracking : https://palma2024.sapsailing.com/gwt/Home.html#/event/:eventId=04ae52ad-cf21-4ff2-9c8e-59c2e8e3faf1  

Race Schedule: April 1-6 with medal races and on April 6  

Editorial photos: https://usst.photoshelter.com/galleries/C00000bzBIpBuyOw/Palma-Princesa-Sofia-Trophy-2024 (USA to download) – provided by Allison Chenard & Lexi Pline | US Sailing Team (please reference metadata for credits)  

Contact: Allison Chenard, [email protected] | US Sailing Team Media & Communications  

Copyright ©2018-2024 United States Sailing Association. All rights reserved. US Sailing is a 501(c)3 organization. Website designed & developed by Design Principles, Inc. -->

Detection of the First Soviet Nuclear Test, September 1949

Joe-1, 29 August 1949. Photo from Peter Kuran’s film "Trinity and Beyond: The Atomic Bomb Movie," as displayed on nuclearweaponsarchive.org, and used with permission of Peter Kuran.

Newly Declassified Documents Trace Beginnings of Superpower Nuclear Arms Race

Soviet Atomic Project Posed Major Challenge to U.S. Intelligence

Records Expand Knowledge of the Role of German Scientists in Advancing the Soviet Nuclear Program

Washington, D.C., September 9, 2019 – Seventy years ago, on 9 September 1949, Director of Central Intelligence Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter handed President Harry Truman a carefully worded report of “an abnormal radio-active contamination" in the Northern Pacific that greatly exceeded normal levels in the atmosphere.  While uncertain as to the cause, the DCI’s first hypothesis was “An atomic explosion on the continent of Asia.”  This proved to be accurate – it was the first Soviet test of a nuclear device.

Moscow’s success in building a nuclear bomb was a monumental development made all the more alarming for U.S. strategists by the fact that it occurred one-to-four years sooner than analysts had expected.  The White House chose to preempt possible Kremlin triumphalism by announcing the finding to the world on 23 September 1949, a move that evidently came as a shock to the Soviets who had no idea the U.S. had the capability to isolate and identify the signs of a nuclear blast.

Hillenkoetter’s memo, never before published, is at the core of a new posting today by the National Security Archive offering previously classified information and context surrounding the U.S. discovery of the landmark Soviet test.  The documents are an update to an earlier Archive compilation and focus on the state of U.S. intelligence about the Soviet nuclear program before and after the test.  They help address lingering questions about the unexpected abilities of U.S. nuclear detection technology but also about the disturbing failure to predict the Soviet atomic breakthrough more accurately.

_____________________________________________

Seventy years ago, on 9 September 1949, Director of Central Intelligence Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter handed to President Harry Truman a report that “samples of air masses” collected in the Northern Pacific included evidence of “abnormal radioactive contamination.” According to the report, published for the first time today by the National Security Archive, the intelligence community was not sure whether the contamination was evidence of a Soviet nuclear test or a nuclear accident or something else altogether, but by 21 September it advised Truman that the Soviet Union had staged a nuclear test. Two days later, on 23 September 1949 , Truman made headlines with an announcement that the Soviet Union had tested a nuclear device several weeks earlier.

The White House did not explain how the United States had detected the test, which had occurred on 29 August 1949 at Semipalatinsk, in northeastern Kazakhstan. What made the detection possible was that an Air Weather Service plane controlled by the secret U.S. Air Force organization, Air Force Office of Atomic Energy/1 [AFOAT/1], had collected radiological debris produced by the test and that an Air Force contractor confirmed that the material was from an atomic test.

Today’s publication on the detection of “Joe I”, as U.S. intelligence analysts dubbed it, is an update of a National Security Archive posting published ten years ago. [1] That posting drew on previously unpublished declassified material, documenting how the U.S. Air Force and other organizations collaborated to detect a nuclear event that intelligence analysts had not expected for another year or longer. This update includes recently declassified information on the intelligence picture prior to and after Joe 1, including:

• An intelligence report from 1948 on East German production of calcium metal of such high purity that intelligence analysts believed “beyond any shadow of a doubt” that it was “intended for an atomic energy project.” Calcium metal helped produce the uranium reactor fuel that generated plutonium for Moscow’s first bomb.
• A State Department memorandum from July 1949 reporting the existence of “evidence indicating that a chemical extraction plant [with] the earmarks of a plutonium extraction plant has been completed in the USSR,” but no evidence of a nuclear reactor.
• A CIA report from 1957 on the role of German scientists at a Soviet factory that produced uranium metal (used for reactor fuel) of sufficient purity that they “may have advanced the Soviet atomic energy program by about 6 months.”

Detecting Joe 1

The White House announcement on 23 September may have stunned Stalin and the Soviet Politburo; they did not know that the U.S. had a surveillance system geared to detect the tell-tale signs of nuclear activities and they wanted to avoid giving Washington an incentive to accelerate its own nuclear weapons activities. [2] The Soviet test was also a jolt to U.S. intelligence analysts who had estimated that Moscow was unlikely to have the bomb before mid-1953, although they had deemed mid-1950 as a possibility. A few weeks after the test, CIA Director Roscoe Hillenkoetter argued that "I don't think we were taken by surprise" because of an error of only a "few months," but not all of his Congressional overseers accepted that.

How did the Truman administration discover Moscow’s secret? Why had U.S. intelligence been so mistaken?

A few days after the Soviet test, on 3 September 1949, a WB-29 ["W" for weather reconnaissance] operated by the Air Force's Weather Service undertook a routine flight from Misawa Air Force Base (Japan) to Eilson Air Force Base (Alaska) on behalf of the secretive Air Force Office of Atomic Energy-1 [AFOAT-1] [later renamed the Air Force Technical Applications Center, or AFTAC ]. The plane carried special filters designed to pick up the radiological debris that an atmospheric atomic test would inevitably create. So far none of the flights in the Northern Pacific had picked up such debris, but after this flight returned to Eilson and a huge Geiger counter checked the filters, the technicians detected radioactive traces. This was the 112th alert of the Atomic Energy Detection System (the previous 111 had been caused by natural occurrences, such as earthquakes).

After a complex chain of events, involving additional flights to collect more air samples, consultations among U.S. government scientists, consultants, and contractors, including radiological analysis by the AFOAT/1 contractor, Tracerlab, and consultations with the British government, the U.S. intelligence community concluded that Moscow had indeed conducted a nuclear test. The test data was codenamed “Vermont.” On 23 September 1949, the White House announced that "We have evidence that within recent weeks an atomic explosion occurred in the U.S.S.R." [3]

That the U.S. government had a system for spotting overseas nuclear activities was a deep secret. During and after World War II, the possibility of detecting radioactive particles and emissions (as well as seismic and acoustic signals) became the subject of protracted research and development work, including the collection of radioactive samples from U.S. atomic tests. In September 1947, Army Chief of Staff Dwight D. Eisenhower assigned the Army Air Force, not yet an independent service, with responsibility for establishing an Atomic Energy Detection System (AEDS). Later that year, the Air Force created what would later become known as AFOAT-1, with responsibility for the surveillance program. AFOAT/1 began to operate an "Interim Surveillance Research Net" that was functional by the spring of 1949. A more comprehensive surveillance system integrating radiochemical, seismic, acoustic, and other methods was not yet in place. [4]

Atomic Energy Commissioner Lewis Strauss sought detection capabilities to avoid an "atomic Pearl Harbor," but U.S. intelligence analysts did not see a Soviet test as a near-term likelihood. Thus, estimates during the years before Joe-1 projected mid-1953 as "the most probable date," although conceding that mid-1950 was also possible. No one in U.S. intelligence realized how quickly the Soviets were moving ahead, or that intelligence gathered by Soviet spies in the U.S. and the United Kingdom would save Moscow a year or two in building its own bomb. [5]

Tight security measures in the Soviet Union made it difficult to produce accurate estimates, but British and U.S. intelligence had collected information that had implications not fully considered by analysts Especially relevant was intelligence on the production in an East German factory of metallic calcium, integral for the production of the uranium metal used to fuel Soviet reactors. Apparently, no one in the intelligence establishment asked why so much metallic calcium was being produced, although it was at levels that suggested that the Soviets could be producing significant quantities of reactor fuel. [6] One of the major analytic units, CIA’s Office of Research and Estimates (ORE), was so disengaged from scientific intelligence that several weeks after the detection of the Soviet test and three days before the White House announcement it produced a paper repeating the estimate of mid-1953 "as the most probable date." [7]

The US Announcement

Once senior scientific advisers confirmed AFOAT/1’s findings, a U.S. announcement was by no means automatic. President Truman was not entirely convinced that a test had taken place and top officials debated whether to announce, with some (AEC Chairman David Lilienthal) arguing that the public had a right to know, while others (Secretary of State Acheson) were more reluctant. Moreover, another important announcement was pending – devaluation of the British pound, and Truman thought two shocks were too many. Yet, he feared that the information would leak (hundreds of U.S. government officials were already in the know), and concluded that an official U.S. announcement was better than a Soviet one. [8]

After Truman’s press secretary handed out the mimeographed announcement, no further information about the discovery was made available, even the estimated date of the test. The U.S. government kept the details secret, although that did not stop informed speculation by journalists and academics about how the test was detected, with some correctly deducing that the U.S. had used radiological analysis. Senator Edwin Johnson (D-CO) inadvertently released an important clue when, during a television interview, he said that the Soviet bomb contained "plutonium," indicating that the United States had acquired traces of the device that it could analyze. [9]

It took years before the fuller story became publicly available. Doyle Northrup, one of the leading officials at AFOAT-1/AFTAC, wrote several narratives that were eventually declassified (with excisions). It was not until the 1990s, however, that two anthropologists at Brandeis University, Charles A. Ziegler and David Jacobson, pieced together the declassified archival record to produce an authoritative and accomplished account of the early history of AFOAT-1 and the detection of Joe-1: Spying Without Spies: Origin of America's Secret Nuclear Intelligence Surveillance System (Praeger, 1995). [10]

Implications

The discovery that the United States had lost its nuclear monopoly created alarm about falling behind Moscow and a resolve to stay ahead. Among the measures that reinforced a spiraling nuclear competition were Truman’s decision to approve a Joint Chiefs of Staff proposal to expand fissile material production and his 31 January decision to authorize a thermonuclear weapons program. Moreover, the Soviet test gave impetus to a major policy report, NSC 68 (14 April 1950) calling for massive military spending to offset the political and military impact of Stalin's bomb. [11]

Stalin may have hoped that secrecy could prevent such U.S. reactions or even a war. Indeed, when the Soviets made a counter-statement on 25 September, they did not acknowledge a weapons test, claiming (preposterously) that the U.S. must have detected “blasting” caused by construction work. Moscow also tried to put a damper on U.S. preventive action by suggesting that it had possessed the bomb since 1947. In any event, the Soviet Union's entrance into the nuclear club may have had a direct impact of an entirely unexpected kind – emboldening Stalin to support Kim Il-sung's plan for a North Korean invasion of the South. As Evgueni Bajanov put it, when Stalin approved Kim's proposal, he was "more confident of the Communist bloc's strength." [12]

Notwithstanding all of the significant declassifications, a complete picture of the role of U.S. intelligence in the events of September 1949 is not yet possible. The part played by AFOAT/1 in detecting the test is well documented, but more needs to be learned about the role of the CIA, which played a central part in coordinating intelligence about the test. Moreover, reports that were of the nature of post-mortems on the intelligence failure remain largely unavailable, such as one by the Office of Scientific Intelligence for which only the conclusions have been declassified. Moreover, in response to a National Security Archive request, the CIA recently denied an unspecified number of documents concerning the detection of Joe I.

Read the Documents

Part i: overview of the discovery.

Document 01

American Institute of Physics, Neils Bohr Library, R.C. Williams Papers, box 3, Letters/Interviews (copy courtesy of Michael Goodman)

Thirteen years after the event, Doyle Northrup, who was a key player at AFOAT/1, wrote what may have been the first detailed account of the detection of Joe I, providing a narrative of the creation of the Atomic Energy Detection System and the analytic effort that followed Alert No. 112. He also showed how U.S. intelligence was able to develop a more accurate estimate of the date and location of the test. While acoustic records were analyzed, they did not immediately provide useful information. "On subsequent review these records revealed weak signals at two stations. These acoustic signals were very useful because they helped after the fact to establish the location, time, and size of Joe-1 with greater precision than was possible otherwise." (See page 17). Although this report provides no further information, apparently U.S. intelligence was able to determine the site of Joe-1 to "within 100 miles and the time to within 10 minutes." [13]

Document 02

This version of the Northrup-Rock study, written for an audience in the intelligence establishment, included additional details. The authors recalled that what precipitated the White House announcement was news that the Associated Press had picked up rumors of the test. The actual decision was more complex, but fear of leaks did influence the announcement. The authors also provided details of the contribution of acoustic intelligence to determining the time, date, and location of the test: 0100 GMT, Semipalatinsk, 29 August 1949, Moreover, the yield of the device was 20 kilotons.

Part II: Estimates, Analysis, and Information on the Soviet Nuclear Program

Document 03

Lowenhaupt, who was involved in the Manhattan Project and was present at the creation of the CIA's nuclear intelligence work, elucidates the painstaking and complex effort to learn about Soviet progress in the nuclear field during the 1940s. Through such methods as opening mail and acquiring bills of lading, CIA scientific intelligence acquired insight into the Soviet nuclear program even if most of it was beyond the Agency's ken.

Document 04

National Archives, Record Group 59 (hereinafter RG 59), Records of the Special Assistant to the Secretary of State for Atomic Energy, General Records Relating to Atomic Energy Matters, 1948-1962, box 83, 21.91 Country File USSR c. Estimates of the Russian Bomb 1947-1952

The archival file that includes this scientific intelligence report provides no clues on its provenance. So far it is only available primary source in U.S. archives concerning the results of a secret U.S.-British intelligence operation: to glean information on an industrial plant in the Soviet Zone of Germany that produced large quantities of distilled calcium, an important input into the Soviet nuclear program. Apparently, MI-6 sources at the plant provided most of the intelligence and this report may be derived from British information. [14] Early in the Soviet Union’s occupation of East Germany at the close of World War II, the Soviets took over a huge I.G. Farben complex at Bitterfeld (southeast of Berlin) that produced calcium products, including calcium metal. One of the plant’s products, metallic calcium, can be used for processing uranium ore into uranium metal, the fuel for a nuclear reactor. U.S. and British intelligence learned that the plant’s Soviet director had demanded high levels of purity for distilled calcium. That demand informed the report’s principal conclusion: “on the basis of the analytical specifications presented by the Russians to the German Directorate of the plant … the calcium is intended for an atomic energy project beyond any shadow of a doubt.” During 1946-1947, Bitterfeld produced 112 tons of distilled calcium, about half of which had the desired purity. The product went directly to the Soviet Union, either by air or by rail. One of the forwarding addresses was “Elektrostalwork Moskau, Bisonbahn Bozirk.Kursk:Postfach 3” The reference to Elektrostal was a good clue for the possible location of the Soviet uranium metal plant. Elektrostal, an industrial town near Moscow, was the site of factory 12, the plant designed by the German scientist Nikolaus Riehl [See document 27] Besides supplying distilled calcium, the report indicates that the Germans provided the Soviets with designs for a similar plant to be built at Dzherzhinsk. The plant at Bitterfeld and the Soviet plant produced enough calcium metal to help the Soviets produce up to 60 tons of metallic uranium per month, far more than CIA intelligence analysts were estimating. The Soviets had enough uranium metal to start their nuclear reactor operations and to produce enough plutonium to fuel a nuclear device.

Document 05

Harry S. Truman Library, Presidents Secretary's File, box 249, Central Intelligence-Memoranda 1945-1948 (copy courtesy of Jeffrey Richelson)

CIA director Hillenkoetter reaffirmed a 1947 estimate: while it was "remotely possible" that the Soviets would test a weapon by mid-1950, the "most probable date" was mid-1953.

Document 06

RG 59, Records of the Special Assistant to the Secretary of State for Atomic Energy, General Records Relating to Atomic Energy Matters, 1948-1962, box 83, 21.91 Country File USSR c. Estimates of the Russian Bomb 1947-1952

Probably written as an input for a yet to be identified report, this memo included estimates of output ofU 3 O 8 (triuranium octoxide), a form of yellowcake, and low-grade uranium.

Document 07

RG 59, Records of the Special Assistant to the Secretary of State for Atomic Energy, General Records Relating to Atomic Energy Matters, 1948-1962, box 54, 21.91 USSR General 1947-1952

In this memorandum to State Department intelligence, Gordon Arneson, special assistant to the secretary of state for atomic energy matters, asked for information on possible graphite production facilities in the Soviet Union. By making this request, he demonstrated his understanding of a basic issue: that the Soviets could possibly develop an atomic reactor moderated by graphite, along the same lines as the U.S.’s Hanford, Washington plant. While suggesting some possible locations for graphite production, Arneson did not know about the prime source, the Moscow Electrode Factory. [15]

Document 08

Apparently, a draft for a 1 January 1949 estimate of the USSR atomic energy program, this memorandum restated the findings of the July 1948 estimate about mid-1950 and mid-1953 (see document 4). It made a special point that new intelligence on Soviet uranium mining from “well-placed sources” surpassed early appraisals based on “geological theory and low-grade intelligence reports on uranium mining.” Nevertheless, the reliability of the sources had to be tested

Document 09

Another draft for the 1 January 1949 estimate (not yet declassified), this memorandum cited unspecified “fragmentary” evidence on a plutonium bomb and other information furnishing a “picture of the organization of the Soviet atomic energy program and certain localities involved.” Whether such sites as Elektrostal had been identified as one of the relevant “localities” remains to be learned. According to this estimate, the Soviets had enough uranium to operate one reactor (“production pile”). Moreover, the quantity of uranium could be “considerably higher than that previously estimated.”

Document 10

National Archives, Record Group 341, Records of Headquarters, United States Air Force (Air Staff), Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, Directorate of Intelligence Top Secret Control & Cables Section, July 1945-Dec 1954, box 45, folder "2-8100 to 2-8199."

A highly compressed report by the recently created Joint Nuclear Energy Intelligence Committee [JNEIC], produced only weeks before the Soviet test, reached the same basic conclusion as the earlier reports. Thus, it generally upheld the mid-1950 and mid-1953 dates, except for one modification: if the Soviets were using only "one method” for fissile material production, then mid-1951 was the earliest possible date for an atomic bomb. “One method” was probably a reference to a heavy water reactor.

Document 11

Gordon Arneson provided Secretary of State Dean Acheson with an explanation of the intelligence information (or lack of information) that shaped the JNEIC’s recent assessment. U.S. intelligence concluded that before mid-1951 Moscow would not have enough heavy water at hand to operate a reactor for producing plutonium. As for a graphite pile reactor Arneson’s earlier efforts to collection information on Soviet graphite production had failed: “There are not even low grade rumors of Soviet manufacture within, or acquisition outside the USSR, of pile grade graphite.” Nevertheless, Arneson could not dismiss the possibility of a “uranium-graphite pile,” which is what the Soviets already had, a copy of the U.S. reactor at Hanford. U.S. intelligence had assigned a mid-1950 date as the “earliest possible date” for a Soviet bomb because it had “evidence indicating that a chemical extraction plant [with] the earmarks of a plutonium extraction plant has been completed in the USSR.” Arneson acknowledged that the evidence might be incorrectly interpreted and noted that the “Soviets, as we did during the war, have built a ‘flexible’ extraction plant before they had anything to extract.” Arneson cited estimates for Soviet stocks of U 3 O 8 that were significantly lower than the August 1948 estimate: in the range of 1324 to 2150 tons, “the lower figure being the most probable.” The estimate for Soviet bloc production of U 3 O 8 in tons was 570-850, as 1 July 1949, with “470-700 coming from outside the USSR--Saxony (250-400), Czechoslovakia (200-250), and small quantities from Poland and Bulgaria.” Arneson made a technical point about the rate of plutonium production by noting that intelligence analysts had assumed that by the 1950s, the Soviets would compensate for a postulated shortage of uranium by extracting “twice the amount or plutonium that we have been extracting to date.” The United States was seeking to achieve a “higher rate by keeping the slugs longer in the pile, after a recalculation of the risks involved in such a procedure.” The “risk” may have been a reference to the greater probability that the plutonium could have a higher fraction of spontaneously fissioning Pu-240; that could cause the weapon to fail by detonating prematurely before reaching maximum criticality.

Part III: The Discovery

Document 12

Harry S. Truman Library, President's Secretary's Files, Intelligence File, Central Intelligence, Memoranda-1949 folder

In this closely held memorandum, DCI Hillenkoetter notified the White House of the detection of radioactive materials in the Northern Pacific but cautioned that the intelligence community was still trying to determine whether it had found evidence of “an atomic explosion” or of some other phenomenon (volcanic activities, effluents from the Hanford production reactor, or an atomic accident in Russia). According to George Elsey’s interview with NSC Executive Secretary Sidney Souers [See document 16B], the latter showed this document to President Truman.

Document 13

President Truman had been doubtful that the Soviets had tested the bomb, but on 21 September 1949, he, his aide Steven Early, and Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson saw this memorandum and the supporting documents. Air Force Chief of Staff Vandenberg had written that that "I believe an atomic bomb has been detonated over the Asiatic land mass during the period 26 August 1949 to 29 August 1949. Drawing on the findings of Tracerlab, the AFOAT-1 report concluded that an atomic bomb had been detonated, that the “fission products resulted … from the fission of plutonium” and that the “observed phenomena are all consistent with the view that the origin of the fission products was the explosion of an atomic bomb whose nuclear composition was similar to the Alamogordo bomb.,” with the test occurring between 27 and 30 August. Vandenberg noted that "[c]onclusions by our scientists based on physical and radiochemical analyses of collected data have been confirmed by scientists of the AEC, United Kingdom and Office of Naval Research" [See documents that follow], In one of the attached memoranda, top scientific and military experts on nuclear weapons, including J. Robert Oppenheimer and Vannevar Bush, endorsed AFOAT/1’s findings. [16] Presumably, this dispelled Truman’s doubts. The excisions on PDF pages 3 and 5 may be references to the role of the Air Weather Service in providing the aircraft used for the collection of fallout samples.

Document 14

Harry S. Truman Library, President's Secretary's Files, box 199, NSC-Atomic

When Washington alerted the British government that an air mass containing radioactive particles was going to pass north of Scotland, London ordered special air sampling flights to collect more traces of the Soviet test. While the British had their own routine air sampling flight program, the next one was not scheduled until 14 September so important evidence could have been missed had it not been for the U.S. alert.

Document 15

Harry S. Truman Library, President's Secretary's Files, box 200, NSC-Atomic

Some months before the Soviet test, in April 1949, the U.S. Navy began "Project Rain Barrel" to analyze debris from nuclear weapons tests that might show up in rain water collected secretly at stations in Kodiak, Alaska, and Washington, D.C. "Rain Barrel" information described in this report was critically important to forming the scientific consensus about the nature of the Joe-1 test. [17]

Document 16

This detailed report shows how U.S. analysts back-tracked the radioactive samples collected in early September to a nuclear detonation that occurred sometime between 27 and 29 August 1949.

Part IV: Whether to Announce the Discovery

Document 17

Harry S. Truman Library, George Elsey Papers, box 88, National Defense- Atomic Energy – Announcement of Russian Atomic Bomb – September 23, 1949

White House staffer George Elsey had been involved in foreign policy issues, but as he wrote on the first page of this document, the intelligence on the Soviet test was so secret that he knew nothing of it until the time of the announcement. A trained historian, he wanted to know about the decision-making process and interviewed Truman and NSC executive secretary Sidney Souers to find out who knew what when, how it was decided that a statement would be made, and what problems had to be resolved before President Truman was willing to approve one. According to Elsey’s notes, Truman wanted to hold up the announcement because of the impending devaluation of the British pound (two shocks were “too much”) and he wanted to be “sure” that the Soviets had tested a device.

Document 18

Souers was as close as anyone to the discussions and decisions concerning the intelligence on the Soviet test and he provided Elsey with detailed information on the considerations behind the decision to make a public announcement, including the timing of the statement. While some, such as the Joint Chiefs of Staff and top civilian defense officials, wanted an early announcement to prevent a leak, as Truman had told Elsey, concern about the devaluation of the pound sterling led to some delay of the announcement. Indeed, these notes demonstrate that Secretary of State Dean Acheson, in New York for the UN General Assembly meetings, closely coordinated the timing and the language of the announcement with British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin. Just as important was concern about a leak to the press. That concern increased when the White House became aware that the news had already reached Senator Brian McMahon, chairman of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy. Moreover, by the morning of 23 September, White House officials and others had learned that Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Vyshynsky would be giving a speech at the United Nations that afternoon. Perhaps they hoped that an announcement would force Vyshynsky to respond to the U.S. statement.

Document 19

The chronology in this draft is off (the Soviet test had not been detected on 28 August) but it includes an interesting account of how Deputy Secretary of Defense Steven Early tried to find out whether Truman knew about the early intelligence on the Soviet test. He asked if Truman knew about the “dust storm.”

Part V. Some Implications

Document 20

RG 59, Policy Planning Council Subject Files, 1947-1962, box 2, Atomic Energy-Armaments 1949

Once senior State Department officials, including Policy Planning Staff director George F. Kennan, were read into “Vermont” intelligence, Kennan tasked several staff members to prepare a questions-and-answers document [See following item] that could be used to brief officials “in the field” after a White House announcement had been made. Here, Savage recounts how the document was prepared and what he learned about the White House decision-making on the announcement.

Document 21

RG 59, Policy Planning Council Chronological Files, 1947-1962, box 1, Chronological 1949

This is the questions-answers document mentioned above. . Much of the text was incorporated into a confidential telegram sent to all U.S. embassies and consulates on 23 September 1949 as background information. The document conveyed great optimism that the Soviet Union had not benefitted from purloined intelligence information. But it also posited that the Soviet bomb did not make war more likely and U.S. policy was directed at policies designed to avoid war. The documents raised the possibility that “consciousness of possessing this terrible and destructive weapon will bring to [Soviet] leaders something of that same sense of responsibility to [the] peoples of world” that President Truman had previously acknowledged.

Document 22

Taking into account the “Vermont” findings, the latest assessment by the JNEIC tried to put the best face on things by noting that the test confirmed previous estimates that the Soviets were working on a plutonium bomb (but not mentioning the mistaken estimates of mid-1950 and mid-1953). Nevertheless, the claim that the test occurred in Siberia suggested that acoustic and seismic data, which later indicated that the test had occurred at Semipalatinsk, had not yet been analyzed. Taking into account the plutonium findings, the report estimated that the Soviets had one or possibly two “graphite-moderated production piles in operation since October 1948” [only one pile, operating since July 1948]. On that basis, the committee estimated that the Soviets would have a stockpile of ten weapons by the end of 1949 and 25 by mid-1950, an overestimate because Moscow had only a handful of deliverable weapons in 1951 and did not produce them in quantity until 1953. [18]

Document 23

Roderick Spence, who had worked at the Manhattan Project’s Metallurgical Laboratory during World War II, directed Los Alamos Laboratory's Radiochemistry Group. AFOAT-1 sent Spence a sample of the radioactive material for independent analysis. Spence's report, written up several weeks after the analytical work had occurred, concluded that the "samples supplied to us contained radioactive isotopes and that the bulk of the activity was due to fission products of fairly recent origin, their age probably being one month or less.” [19]

Document 24

Record Group 341. Records of Headquarters, United States Air Force (Air Staff), Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, Directorate of Intelligence, Top Secret Control & Cables Section Jul 1945-Dec 1954, box 46, 9300 to 2-9399

With the U.S. nuclear monopoly, if not superiority, ending, U.S. intelligence began to look at the military implications. Air Force intelligence prepared what turned out to be an exaggerated estimate of Soviet capabilities to produce atomic weapons and deliver them to targets in the United States and the United Kingdom. The Air Force projected that the Soviets already had the capability to deliver atomic weapons to targets in the Northwest United States, using TU-4 bombers on two-way missions. Striking significant industrial, political, and military installations further east would require one-way missions until the Soviets had an aerial refueling capability.

Document 25

National Archives, Record Group 128, Records of Joint Committee on Atomic Energy, box 3, JCAE Transcripts

During this hearing of the Joint Committee of Atomic Energy (JCAE), a defensive Director of Central Intelligence Roscoe Hillenkoetter argued that "our estimate was not too far off in the first place" because it was an "error of a few months" (p. 5) and that "I don't think we were taken by surprise." (p. 46). Nevertheless, a fuller picture emerged when Chairman Sen. Brian McMahon (D-Conn) read from the Joint Nuclear Energy Intelligence Committee’s 1949 report (see document 3 above) estimating mid-1953 as the "most probable" date. One of the Republicans, Senator Eugene D. Milliken (CO), observed that it was a "very bad mis-estimate" and that "we have not had an organization adequate to what is going on in the past and [Hillenkoetter] gives me no assurance that we are going to have one in the future." The DCI had his defenders. For example, Rep. Chester Holifield (D-CA) observed that "you can't order a piece of intelligence out of Russia like you order groceries in the morning." Senator Edwin C. Johnson (D-CO) questioned why the Soviets would "stumble on to the very best way to do this job without a little assistance from some place or the other." Hillenkoetter cited the high proficiency of Soviet science, but a full answer depended on intelligence sources, such as the Venona intercepts, that the DCI was unlikely to discuss in this setting.

Document 26

A brief analysis of the Soviet test in this CIA publication found that the Soviets had gained a political advantage. Despite the test, it did not fundamentally change the U.S.’s military-security position; the “superior US stockpile” remained a “significant” advantage. To identify a prospective military threat, it would be necessary to “determine the time at which the rising curve of a Soviet stockpile will reach a point at which it can be considered operationally effective.” The fact that the Soviets had an “ability to stockpile” was another matter because it raised “psychological and political imponderables.” Moscow’s access to atomic technology “permits [it] to exert psychological and political pressures in Western Europe.” While the Soviets had not yet exerted such pressure, and there was no way to gauge European reactions to pressure, “it is certain that the USSR has an enhanced ‘cold war’ capability.”

Document 27

To deal with the strategic issues raised by the Soviet bomb, the CIA produced a long analysis, focusing not only on Soviet nuclear capabilities but also on Moscow's intentions and the extent to which a nuclear weapons capability increased the risk of U.S.-Soviet conflict. The analysts reached the general conclusion that they saw “no firm basis for an assumption that the USSR presently intends deliberately to use military force to attain a Communist world or further to expand Soviet territory if this involves war with a potentially stronger US .” Even with atomic weapons, Soviet intentions were unlikely to change although “a Soviet capability for effective direct attack upon the continental US must be considered to increase the danger that the USSR might resort to military action to attain its objectives.” Dissents by the intelligence organizations of the State Department, the Navy, the Army, and the Air Force indicated profound misgivings about the ORE estimate of Soviet intentions. For example, the State Department dissented from the conclusion that “except under extreme and apparently unlikely circumstances, the USSR will not deliberately employ military force in its struggle against the US.”

Part VI: The German Factor: Future Findings

Document 28

Mandatory declassification review request to CIA

While U.S. and British intelligence were well aware that captured German scientists were playing multiple roles in the Soviet nuclear program, they did not have the details until they could interview the scientists when they began to return during the 1950s (Operation DRAGON). Some of the interview-based reports have already been declassified and published in a National Security Archive posting . This report, along with the next two documents, add to the knowledge base of the work on the German scientists, although they have to be checked against other sources. [20] According to the report, German scientists at the Agudzeri Institute successfully developed a mass spectrometer which is essential to measure the results of uranium isotope separation activities. Another success was Heinz Barwich’s contribution to the gaseous diffusion program, including theoretical work on cascade theory, for which he was awarded a Stalin Prize. By contrast, Nobel Prize winner Gustav Hertz’s effort to develop an industrial-scale method to separate uranium isotopes was a failure. At the end of this document, like the two that follow, are excised pages that probably list the German scientists and technicians who had been interviewed.

Document 29

The Sinop Institute, like Agudzeri, focused on isotope separation, but with greater success, according to the CIA. The leading figure was Baron Manfred Von Ardenne, whom some of the Germans saw as a “charlatan,” although with very good organizational skills. Research on electromagnetic separation of uranium isotopes began at Sinop but was eventually given low priority because the gaseous diffusion method proved more successful. In that respect, “The contributions of [Peter Adolph] Thiessen and of his group … at Sinop must be ranked high among the German contributions to the Soviet atomic energy program,” largely because of their development of the barriers used in gaseous diffusion plants. [21] Another major project at Sinop was the ultracentrifuge research directed by Max Steenbeck. The Germans may have convinced the Soviets that the gas centrifuge was an “ideal” method for isotope separation compared to gaseous diffusion, but technical problems were difficult to solve: the high speeds required (100,000 RPM) caused the rotors and bearings to fail. In 1953, key personnel in the Steenbeck group were sent to Leningrad for further R&D work. Gernot Zippe, identified as the head of Ultracentrifuge Team I, later became an important source on the progress of the Soviet gas centrifuge program. The drafters of this report did not have access to Zippe and the Steenbeck group, who did not return to the West until late 1956. Consequently, the report’s findings were rather downbeat: the “Steenbeck group probably made no substantial contribution to the overall success of the Soviet atomic energy program other than to vigorously investigate one possible means of isotope separation.”

Document 30

The German scientists at Elekrostal led by Nikolaus Riehl made a contribution to the Soviet atomic project that CIA analysts believed had saved the Soviets about “six months” of work. Born in Russia, Riehl directed research at the Auer Company, which manufactured uranium metal for the Nazi atomic weapons project. According to this report, two key Soviets, Iulii Khariton and General A.P. Zaveniagin who were in Berlin after the Nazi collapse made Riehl an offer to produce uranium in a Soviet laboratory. [22] The Soviets gave top priority to the production of “pure uranium metal in sufficient quantity for the operation of reactors producing plutonium.” At Elektrostal, Riehl’s group tried to reduce uranium oxide to metallic form but the results were not sufficiently pure. They then successfully processed uranium tetrafluoride (UF 4 ) into pure uranium metal. In both instances, the reducing element was the pure calcium produced by the plant at Bitterfeld, East Germany (see document ….). Much of the work was accomplished during 1946-1947, although the scientists “retained much value” for the Soviets. By 1952 all of the German scientists at Elektrostal had been sent to Sukhumi, Georgia, for a period of “forgetfulness” or “quarantine” before returning to Germany in 1955. A note on page 9 indicates that the CIA’s sources of information on Elektrostal included Nikolaus Riehl, Gunther Wirths, and Karl Heinrich Riewe.

[1] . For the naming of “Joe 1,” see Michael D. Gordin, Red Cloud at Dawn : Truman, Stalin, and the End of the Atomic Monopoly ( New York: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 2009). 357, note 3.

[2] . David Holloway, Stalin and the Bomb: The Soviet Union and Atomic Energy, 1939-1956 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994), 266-267.

[3] . For the detection the Soviet test, see Jeffrey Richelson, Spying on the Bomb: American Nuclear Intelligence from Nazi Germany to Iran and North Korea (New York: W.W. Norton, 2007), 88-92.

[4] . For details, see Charles A. Ziegler and David Jacobson, Spying Without Spies: Origin of America's Secret Nuclear Intelligence Surveillance System (Praeger, 1995)

[5] . David Holloway, “Barbarossa and the Bomb: Two Cases of Soviet Intelligence in World War II,” Jonathan Haslam and Karina Urbach, eds ., Secret Intelligence in the European State System, 1918-1989 (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2013), 62.

[6] . Donald P. Steury, "How the CIA Missed Stalin's Bomb," Studies in Intelligence 49 No. 1 (2005), 19-26, and Richelson, Spying on the Bomb , 92l; Henry Lowenhaupt "Chasing Bitterfeld Calcium," Studies in Intelligence (pdf) Studies in Intelligence 17 (Spring 1973): 21-30.

[7] . Intelligence Memorandum No. 225, "Estimate of Status of Atomic Warfare in the USSR," 20 September 1949, in Michael Warner, editor, The CIA under Harry Truman (Washington, D.C.: History Staff, Center for the Study of Intelligence, 1994), 319.

[8] . For a detailed account, see Gordin, Red Cloud at Dawn , 216-238. For Lilienthal’s role, see Journals of David Lilienthal Volume 2: The Atomic Energy Years (New York: Harper & Row, 1964), 569-572.

[9] . Truman later reprimanded Senator Johnson for the disclosure. "Science: So It Was Plutonium," Time , 5 December 1949

[10] . See also Richelson, Spying on the Bomb , especially 62-104, and Michael S. Goodman, Spying on the Nuclear Bear: Anglo-American Intelligence and the Soviet Bomb (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2007

[11] . Melvyn P. Leffler, A Preponderance of Power: National Security, the Truman Administration, and the Cold War (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1992), 325-333, and Gordin, Red Cloud at Dawn , 247-275.

[12] Holloway, Stalin and the Bomb , 266-267; Evgueni Bajanov, "Assessing the Politics of the Korean War, 1949-51," Bulletin of the Cold War International History Project 6/7 (1995): 87; Vladislav Zubok, A Failed Empire: The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Khrushchev (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007), 86 (citing Bajanov). For the Soviet announcement and further discussion, see Gordin, Red Cloud at Dawn , 240-244.

[13] . Ziegler and Jacobson, Spying Without Spies , 210.

[14] . For Bitterfeld in context, see Henry Lowenhaupt, “ Chasing Bitterfeld Calcium .”

[15] . For Soviet production of highly pure graphite and the construction of a production reactor near Kyshtym, see Holloway, Stalin and the Bomb , 100-101 and 183-187.

[16] . See also, Ziegler and Jacobson, Spying Without Spies , 210-211; Richelson, Spying on the Bomb , 90

[17] . For the Navy project, see Herbert Friedman, Luther B. Lockhart, and Irving H. Blifford, "Detecting the Soviet Bomb: Joe-1 in a Rain Barrel," Physics Today 49 (No v ember 1996): 38-41.

[18] . Steven Zaloga, The Kremlin's Nuclear Sword: The Rise and Fall of Russia's Strategic Nuclear Force, 1945-2000 (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2002), 10-12

[19] . The Los Alamos findings corresponded to the findings of the AFOAT-1 contractor, Tracerlab. See Ziegler and Jacobson, Spying Without Spies, 187-189, 207.

[20] . Pavel V. Oleynikov’s “German Scientists in the Soviet Atomic Project,” The Nonproliferation Review , 7 (2000), 1-30, provides a valuable account of these developments.

[21] . For more on gaseous diffusion, see Holloway, Stalin and the Bomb , 191-192.

[22] . Ibid., 109-112. See also Oleynikov, “German Scientists,” at 7. During this trip, the Soviets also acquired 300 hundred tons of uranium oxide that the Germans had hidden.