By Philip Rushton
Whitecourt Reporter
Stick a T58 helicopter engine with 1350 horse-power in an sleek aluminum hulled boat and this isn't grandfather's fishing row-boat.
Grande Prairie racer, Gord Humphrey keeps his 23ft long jet-boat named Un-natural Disaster under control and hit speeds of over 130mph.
"It's a lot safer that you think," said Humphrey, World Champion in the unlimited class. "It's very solid in the water."
Jet-boat racers are part mechanic, part pilot, part pure lucky.
"Mentally, lots of seat time and multiple races will help keep sharp because it's easy to lose an edge.
With all that power, safety is still number one priority in the sport.
"It's a fine line between in control and out of control, depending on conditions," said Jim Greber, winner of the CX class.
With canard wings on the prow, an pair of electrically controlled short wings which act like airplane ailerons to give the jet-boat slight lift or downward force.
With a stock 525 HP GMC aluminum block, Greber can throttle his jet-boat up to 100mph in seconds.
"Once you giv'er, you're flying and you can feel quite a bit of G-force on a corner," said Greber who comes from Fort St. John.
“In the turns, it can go from 90 to 0 in seconds,” Greber said, “it bothers the heck out of me when it happened yesterday, then you're at the mercy of the river.”
At speed there are a lot of maintenance of gearbox, pumps, mounts and engine blocks or turbines.
"What happens to the boat is fairly violent so the most reliable part is the turbine," Humphrey said.
Though there are only a driver and navigator on board, Greber pointed out that he couldn't race without a dedicated support crew which launches and retrieves, repairs, and takes care of everything else that goes on behind the scenes.
“There was a lot of preparation and lot of luck at the end of day and it was on our side today,” said Humphrey.
With cresting river conditions and debris from the storms during the last week, the course changes hourly according to Humphrey.
With only 13 boats dropping out in a field of 49, it was a marathon effort of 500 miles from Fort Assiniboine to Whitecourt. Nobody was injured so it was a good race.
In the overall standings, Canadians Gord Humphrey at 4:15:53, Dale Whiteside at 4:21:05, and Darren Weaver 4:43:25 won the competition hands down.
Humphrey won in the Unlimited class, Darren Weaver won in the A class, Colby Davis won in the B class, and Tim Greber won in the CX class.
“It's exhilarating and being able to race with friends, it's definitely worth it,” said Greber.
With competitors from all over North America and New Zealand, where Lord William Hamilton invented the water-jet for a river-boat, a sense of camaraderie develops during the race season.
“It was a good event, despite all the issues with weather and high water levels,” said Richard Grant, Whitecourt River-boat Club president and co-coordinator of the event.
“The whole race is volunteer run with donated time, service and sponsorship,” said Grant.
There were less in the crowds watching but still 1,500 were estimated to be watching from river bluffs and campsites along the route, but all had a good time.
“It's one of those things in life if you ever get the chance to ride in those boats, the acceleration is second to none,” said Humphrey.
Next year's international championship race will be in Idaho.
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