Sunday, June 9, 2013

Lake Ozark Invitational Powerboat Race

We have a cabin along the shore of Lake Ozark about 2 and one half miles from the dam...   The lake is sort of curved, and we can see the dam out our front sliding doors...

Today the boats lined these shores for the first three miles of the channel...  They rafted together like they do in Party Cove, where boats are tied along side of each other and anchors are tossed  from each vessel..  This makes for a flotilla that can become hundreds of yards long....


I kept taking pictures with my Android phone...  They look about the same as they are all from our deck...  But more and more boats were arriving..


I think this second picture was actually taken first...  But across the main channel you can also see the boats lining up on that side too...

They had speed pontoon races first, which are pontoons with really big engines on them.....   The top speed boat was 65 mph...  They calculate this average over 5 laps...  Of course one boat was heads up faster than the rest....  As a comparison, our pontoon will go about 40 miles per hour with one person on board and the engine flat out...  We have 225 horsepower...  Some of the fast ones have twin 250s...

But later in the day the offshore racing boats from Florida raced, and they are some of the fastest boats ever made...  They fly helicopters overhead while the race is on with emergency divers on board...  Should an accident happen, the divers jump from the chopper into the water.

The top category of boats was listed as extreme...  This is for boats over 117 mph..  Some boats hit 150 as I understand....

 

The boats are in the distance in the middle of the lake....  If you double click on the video it will go to a larger screen...  Escape comes back...  Notice the helicopter is following the last boat in the video at just above the tree line...


I zoomed in to get a better view on the second lap...  They go by so fast, that it is hard to keep things in perspective...

I didn't have my cameras with me so these pictures were taken with my phone and the videos were with the Asus pad tablet...  It has an 8Mp camera which I would remember to be quite nice several years ago, but the lens on devices like phones and computers is essentially a piece of window glass...  So the pictures are what they are...

Anyway we had a ring side seat on the deck above the water....  Not planned that way, but it worked out to our advantage...

Retired Rod

5 comments:

  1. Hi Rod,

    How do you like your ASUS tablet? I'm thinking about buying a tablet and keep going back and forth. I wish they still made netbooks!

    I know a guy in my old RV club that raced boats. He has LOTS of broken bones to show for it!

    Cheryl
    http://www.desertdiva.net

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheryl, my Asus pad is last years technology and was purchased as a close out from Best Buy on Black Friday.... The new ones are much bigger and nicer....

      I also purchased the keyboard dock which fastens to the tablet with a hinge.. It then looks like a little bitty laptop.... The dock has the second battery and a USB port allowing for much longer usage before a charge is needed....

      None of these tablets will completely negate the need for a laptop, as they run the phone application style software.... Some things they cannot do!!! And things are not the same on the mobile versions of popular web sites... But it is evolving......

      Delete
  2. Great videos, Rod. I loved the sound of those big boat engines. Your 'cabin' on the lake is a bit of an understatement, some would call it Taj Mahal like!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Uh Rick, is the Taj Mahal covered in cheap vinyl siding??

      Delete

  3. Great video of the races !!!! Love that you explain the motor sizes and speeds .....a tutorial for me...
    Wonder if those are the same boats that race here in Sarasota over the 4th of July..... Your cabin is in a super spot to check out the activities and the scenery .... Great piece of real estate .... Thanks for sharing..

    ReplyDelete

Anonymous comments had to be eliminated.... For the most part this has removed unwanted responses.. If you can't post your comments, please email me and we will make other arrangements...