Image Of The Week: Offshore Rag Dolls In Marathon

For most of the 65 offshore powerboat racing teams in Marathon, Fla., this weekend for the 7 Mile Offshore Grand Prix produced by Race World Offshore, today’s races were an exercise in frustration. The weather-hampered, American Power Boat Association Offshore National Championship Series season-opener saw Bracket-class racing and Super Cat pole-position qualifying go off smoothly yesterday—and you can read about all that and more in offshore racing correspondent Eric Colby’s comprehensive story this evening on speedonthewater.com—but today’s teams didn’t fare nearly as well in the wind-whipped squalls that came and went.

Without question, the Bracket 500-class team of Erwin Grant and Rob O’Connell had the wildest ride of the weekend in Marathon, Fla. Photos by Pete Boden copyright Shoot 2 Thrill Pix.

But perhaps no team had a harder outing than the Bracket 500-class cockpit duo of driver Ervin Grant and throttleman Rob O’Connell in Team Farnsworth. Not long after the Bracket 500 boats took the green flag, their open-cockpit, 27-foot V-bottom spat them out into the frothy Atlantic Ocean. (A mechanical issue with the boat’s drive reportedly appeared to be the culprit, though no definitive caused has been established.)

And through the mist, speedonthewater.com chief photographer Pet Boden captured the scary moment. Neither Grant nor O’Connell was seriously hurt, though Grant reportedly injured one of his feet in the incident.

When this article went live, Race World Offshore officials were still working on how to “score” today’s action, which saw cancelations of the Super Cat and Super Stock contests. The United States Coast Guard officially called off today’s action, but not before two 450R Factory Stock Boats—Canados Yachts and GC Racing—also went over.

Even from a longer perspective, the Team Farnsworth (far left) incident looked terrifying.

But you can read about all that and more when Colby’s story goes live later today.

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