Some boats showed up - hydros and cigars (cigarettes ? $$$)

Just to share (because horsepower), we had some cool boats here in Buffalo recently. Last weekend a Poker Run, and this weekend, two days of hydroplane racing (and a heat or two of the boat pictured at the bottom that is nearly out of the water).
I don't know much about the class structure (displacement, cylinders, size, weight, etc...), but it was neat to see all the water that gets flung around
I'll see if I can embed a photo (I put everything on Facebook, so this might not work....), but here are links to some of the photo albums for anyone interested:

Poker Run (top two photos)

Thunder on the Niagara 2015 (lower two photos)

We get a bit of that racing down here. (Sofla) I absolutely LOVE the sound of the big off-shore racers at idle. They have no concern for low end torque, so have really wild cams. Rumparumpa!!

Awesome, I love the high hp boats.

They had some high speed runs on the Hudson last week.

This was the first time I have seen anything like these other than on TV.
They didn't have any of the turbine-powered hydroplanes here (Unlimited I think they are called), except for one on a trailer for show (with engine removed),
but it was still neat to see.
It looks like there were some 4-cylinders (I don't know what kind of motors they were running),
some Chevy V-8s
and some supercharged V-8s as well.
It doesn't seem like there were any turbocharged motors, but I overheard someone talking about the importance of rev-limiters on these, for when the props skip in and out of choppy water... must be to keep them from over-revving the motors and damaging them I would guess.
Everything seemed to be, for the most part, very mechanical on the hydroplanes, whereas many of the boats from the Poker Run had some fancy looking electronics and screens in the cabin.
They said that the hydros here were hitting upward of 150mph. By comparison, at least one of the boats from the Poker Run had set a record of around 180mph somewhere in its career.

some of the scariest racing is in the smaller "jersey skiffs" like the bottom pic.. most of the time the only part of those boats that is in the water is the propeller and rudder

Cigarette boats make airplanes look cheap.

Appleseed wrote: Cigarette boats make airplanes look cheap.

Uh, no.

Not racing planes...

This is going fast on the water. The secret is no boat in the water!

Got to do a bunch of wrenching on these as a way to pay for University, and did some touring with a 36 foot Baja and a Skater that did the east coast circuit.

The money required to feed these is insane. $500 in gas just for a test session. Parts break like crazy.

I did this in the early 80's and had the chance to look over some boats in the 90's: the technology and cost had just escalated exponentially. Cant imagine where it is today. Probably a few boats with warp drive by now.

While all the inflight antics look kool and graceful, not having suspension does have consequences. A two hour race in rough water is akin to going for a two hour plane crash. Keep in mind that you are not belted in.

A handful of Jersey Speed Skiffs test in the canal behind my house, its always fun to see & hear them run. The design is a bit anachronistic but has stuck on for a long time. The one pictured (OP bottom pic) is likely a vintage boat, the more current racing ones have a rollcage over the driver and "mechanic". They run a 283 Chebby, around 80mph. Search on youtube, the racing is pretty wild.

Hydro classes vary by displacement, from 1L 2-strokes to 5L V8s, and the unlimiteds.

http://www.apba.org/inboard

Growing up my dad raced in a class like VP75:

I have this same model hull in pieces at home, about half way through a restoration.