| Powerboat P1 chairman Asif Rangoonwala, who has been behind the offshore racing championship’s resurgence over the past five years, was keen to have a unique boat with a sense of history to lead the Evolution and SuperSport competitors on the run to the race start at each Grand Prix of the Sea event. He tasked Mark McManus, owner of McManus Superboats, manufacturer of Apache Powerboats, with the task of finding such a machine. The end result was ‘Off Duty’, a 42-foot, 1993-vintage Apache that had previously been custom built for Mercury Racing president Fred Kiekhaefer. The boat has been heavily revamped for this year to reflect Powerboat P1’s new brand identity, although it retains the original paint scheme, which includes ‘K-Toons’ cartoons designed to Kiekhaefer’s personal taste, laser-etched into the anodized dash to indicate the functions of each switch. |
In order to fulfil its role as the Powerboat P1 pace boat, ‘Off Duty’ also has new Teqgue 900 engines and a 13-foot-high, high-visibility light tower, in an effort to better communicate the race start and incidents to Powerboat P1 crews, rather than race officials relying solely on the conventional green, yellow and red flags. “I feel fortunate to have had a chance to develop this boat, and to make an important contribution to Powerboat P1,” said McManus. “Asif wanted something memorable and historical for his world championship racing series, and he got it. There’s no other boat like this anywhere.” |
