If anyone has ever seen Powerboat racing on TV, they will know that it is a very fast and furious form of motorsport. Most of the time what is on the screen is a bunch of very fast and powerful motorboats flying over the water at insane speeds while trying to overtake each other and win first place. Also what is usually the case is that numerous times that I have watched the sport there is inevitably a very horrific and dangerous crash involving one of these speed machines. The breakneck speeds that these boats travel in are usually a pretty solid recipe for something to go wrong. This fact alone makes powerboat racing one of the most dangerous forms of serious motorsport around today.
Wikipedia defines the sport as the following, “Offshore powerboat racing is racing by large, specially designed ocean-going powerboats, typically point-to-point racing. Probably one of the largest, most dangerous, and most powerful racing machines of all, the extreme expense of the boats and the fuel required to participate make it an expensive and elite sport,” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Offshore_powerboat_racing). The boats that are used to race around in are very expensive and highly engineered pieces of technology with the speeds that they need to reach and the ability to survive the grueling race means they have to be highly engineered. This fact though doesn’t stop them from also being very dangerous to drive around in at those very high speeds. The issue with power boating and why it is so dangerous is the fact that the sport takes place on the water. Unlike typical car races that take place on a road or tarmac surface, power boating being held on water makes it very unique but also highly susceptible to crashes.
The speed at which the boats travel at when combined with the fact that the races take place on water make for a very deadly combination. The boats that are always following the lead boat have to constantly make sure they are able to maintain their positions with the trail of water left behind by the lead boat. If they are unable to maneuver well between those two streams of water they usually find themselves flipping over. And once the boats flip over, the water is so hard and brutal that the boats are usually ripped to shreds and the driver and navigator find themselves battered and bruised or worse seriously injured and in the water. So now the boat is broken in many pieces, the race is over for that team and they find themselves in sometimes very cold water and injured on top of that. It is the insane speeds that these boats travel in that makes them break apart and shatter so easily, even though they are very robustly made and well engineered.
Should the sport have more regulation to protect the driver and navigator of the boat better, or maybe the speed at which the boats travel in should be capped at an upper limit. Both scenarios have their own problems but also their own advantages. The biggest advantage to the higher level of regulation is that it will help to save more lives and stop boats from crashing so often and saving people from certain injury. But opponents of this will say that it will hurt their sport and take away the freedom and level of independence and fun that is a part and parcel of the motorsport. The advantage of capping the speed is that if the boats cannot go so fast there will be less crashes and at the same time it will result in a more even and balanced race. The people against this option will say that again it will take away the level of fun and excitement and adrenaline that is achieved by reaching those breakneck speeds.
Whatever happens though the sport needs some sort of reform to it to stop the insanely horrific crashes that are so often seen during a race and these reforms might help to stop injures and cut costs in replacing boats for the team owners.
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