The need for liquid speed

By James M. Clash

updated 6:44 p.m. ET Nov. 29, 2006

We've gathered at Fountain Powerboats' headquarters on the secluded banks of the Pamlico River, in Washington, N.C. It's a humid, 91-degree day in August. Dressed in a helmet, wet suit and life jacket, I can feel my heart pounding and my palms sweating. A crew member connects a black cord from my waist to the 47-foot, 2,700-horsepower boat I'm about to ride. The cord seems flimsy for a seat belt, so I inquire. "Oh, that?" says the crewman nonchalantly. "That's the kill-cord. If you crash and get ejected, it'll kill the engine and stop the boat."

OK, but what about me? That depends. In a high-speed crash, he says, the angle at which I hit the water will determine the extent of my injuries. If I hit obliquely and skip along the surface like a flat stone, I'll have a decent chance of surviving. But if I hit like a sinker — if my body catches and stops suddenly — the g-forces will break my back and neck. I won't live to know what happened.

I've driven fast before — 200 miles per hour in an Indy car. But water isn't pavement. A river's surface is constantly changing in three dimensions, tugged by wind and current. Racing on it demands fast reflexes and perfect balance — as if you were running up a down escalator without handrails. There are also floating hazards — logs, sea turtles, garbage. Hit any of these at the speeds we are attempting, and the boat can flip, nose-dive or disintegrate, depending on the size of the object and the angle of collision.

I train rigorously for most of my adventures. But the last time I was in a boat was in 2000, and it was a Russian icebreaker en route to the North Pole. So, my first day at Fountain was devoted to instruction. I started in a 42-foot-long Super Vee canopy boat, the fastest and safest in its race class. Powered by twin 525-horsepower Mercury engines, the Super Vee is capable of speeds of over 110 mph.

Unlike auto racing, where it's just you in your car, boat racing requires a team of two — one to work the throttle, another to steer. Since steering is the "easier" of the two, I was assigned the wheel. On throttle was Reginald Fountain, 67, a champion racer of superboats and chief executive of the boat-building company he founded in 1978. John Carbonell, president of Super Boat International, a sanctioning body for high-speed races, was on hand to watch.

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Strapped into my seat with five belts clasped so tight that it was hard to breathe, I felt slightly claustrophobic, especially once the canopy was closed and sealed. Gauges litter the cockpit. Fountain told me not to pay them any heed; he would take care of them. All I had to do was steer — and in a straight line.

Courtesy of Super Boat International The 42-foot Fountain Super Vee race boat, uses a canopy for protection in case of a crash.

While still warming up and traveling maybe 70 mph, we hit a rogue wave. It came out of nowhere, and I had no time to prepare. The effect on the boat was intense and frightening. The nose lurched up — 45 degrees off the water — then plummeted. Fountain, out of instinct, backed off the throttle immediately. What would have happened, I asked, if we'd hit the wave at full speed? We could have flipped and submerged in the black water. When that happens, Fountain told me, the best thing to do is remain calm, upside down, inside the canopy. Oxygen masks attached to our belts would keep us breathing until divers arrived to extract us.

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