THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 19, 1994 TAG: 9406180068
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ROBYNE R. COOKE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940619 LENGTH: Long
The Damn Donzi was in Florida for an offshore speedboat race when the marine patrol tried to pull it over so U.S. Customs agents could board the vessel to search for drugs. Of course, they found none.
{REST} ``We just never turned around to look,'' explained Ed Szilagyi. ``Then a helicopter came on top of us and another came alongside of us. They figured we were running drugs, but they couldn't find anything except my sunblock, which I had lost.''
Despite that little setback, and battling dense fog, 12-foot seas and little sleep, the Damn Donzi crew managed to take second place in the race from Florida to New York.
Boating Magazine's Cannonball Offshore Race for the Don Aronow Memorial Trophy was held to raise money for spinal cord research. It was the brainstorm of Brock Yates, who also created the Cannonball Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash 25 years ago. That race inspired several movies, including the one Yates wrote, ``Cannonball Run,'' starring Burt Reynolds.
Yates, who is a columnist for Boating Magazine, wanted the race to be a ``no-holds-barred, run-what-you-brung race.''
The 1,200-mile event, which started on April 29 in Miami, allowed boats up to 65 feet to race in the open seas, the Intracoastal Waterway or both.
\ The Damn Donzi, which features twin Volvo Penta 216-horsepower high-performance diesels and Volvo Penta's recently developed DPX sport-performance drive units, was beaten only by a custom-designed 40-foot Technocraft rigid inflatable boat driven by two-time world champion Fabio Buzzi. His time was 28 hours and 30 minutes. Buzzi's boat was specially built for long-distance offshore racing and military use. Third place went to the Cigarette Racing Team with a time of 43 hours.
The Damn Donzi, driven by Ed Szilagyi of Volvo Penta and Shaun Hall of Donzi Marine, came in with a time of 33 hours and 30 minutes. They traveled at about 50 mph, sometimes reaching as high as 54 mph.
Five of the 13 entries finished by May 3, when an awards ceremony was held.
``We don't normally enter races. We entered to demonstrate that our standard products - just as they come out of the box and without anything extra done to them - can both outperform and outlast their race-tuned high-performance competitors,'' said Lennart Hammarstrom, president and chief executive officer of Volvo Penta of the Americas.
``Although we came in second overall, we actually came in first in a number of areas,'' said Alan Revington, senior vice president of marketing for the company. ``Damn Donzi was the first production boat with stock diesel or gasoline engines; it was the first U.S. boat to cross the line; and it was the first boat not driven by professional racing drivers.''
``The exciting aspect of our success is the fact that we were in a boat built in the USA that any serious boater can afford,'' said Szilagyi, manager of applications engineering at Volvo Penta on Volvo Parkway. Szilagyi has owned boats since he was 8 years old.
He added that the boat costs between $125,000 and $140,000, depending on the components and upgrades purchased. The boat falls into the relatively new category of sport-performance, which is between family-style sport boats and ultraexpensive, high-performance ``muscle boats'' that require expensive, high-frequency maintenance.
In addition to Szilagyi and Hall, the crew consisted of Ken Grissom, who is a writer for Boating Magazine, and Allen Rieke, the navigator. Mark Huddleston, an applications engineer for Volvo Penta, drove the chase van filled with food, spare parts and clothing.
\ The race was exciting for Volvo Penta employees, who cheered the group on and welcomed them home with a party. An internal voice mail system had been set up so that employees could get updates on their team.
``It went so well, the momentum is there to do it again,'' said Elizabeth Witherspoon, a spokesperson for Volvo Penta.
The group refueled only twice, once in Charleston and once at Rudee Inlet in Virginia Beach. But some time was lost when the Damn Donzi had to pull into a marina to repair two throttle cables that had broken.
The 12-foot seas were hard on the bodies of the crew, said Szilagyi, even though foam rubber had been installed on the floor and everyone aboard fitted with back and neck braces.
``Ken said anytime he wants to remember this trip, he's going to go into the shower, turn it on, and have his wife beat him with a baseball bat,'' said Szilagyi with a laugh.
The group's strategy was simple: to go as fast as they possibly could, depending on the sea conditions.
``I was really looking forward to this,'' said Szilagyi. ``We play with boats for a living.''
The race was held to benefit the Don Aronow Foundation. Aronow is known among boaters as the ``father of offshore racing.'' The race was not for a purse, rather proceeds from each team's $1,000 entry fee will go to the foundation to benefit spinal cord research.
by CNB