It is risky enough to blast a sports car along a track at speeds up to 180 m.p.h. But in a boat, it borders on the suicidal. Powered by supercharged 2,000-h.p. engines, the big, unlimited-class hydroplanes just about fly—touching the water only with the propeller and two sponsons each the size of a water ski. A patch of rough water can send a boat somersaulting to destruction, and woe to the hapless driver who gets caught behind a rival's arcing 30-ft.-high rooster-tail wake. Last week, as 200,000 boat-racing buffs lined the shores of Seattle's...
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