U.S. Speedboat Rally in Havana
A broad nautical plan is scheduled to be carried out this year between the United States and Cuba, with 18 events, including a speedboat rally on May 17.
“After 58 years, this city is going to host a race of cutting-edge speedboats coming from Miami”, they officially announced.
Commodore Jose Miguel Diaz Escrich, President of Havana’s Ernest Hemingway International Nautical Club, explained that 20 speedboats are going to be at the start line, with 90 crew members from the Florida Powerboat Club.
This race is set to be held on May 17 and the speedboats will stay in Cuba through the 19th. The voyage is going to be quite an event, since the motorboats will be reaching the buoy in Havana’s bay that very day.
After their arrival, they’ll come together at St. Lazaro Cove, in front of the capital’s seawall, for a demonstration and they’ll sail along the coastal to Hemingway Marina, west of the city.
The Cigaretta-style speedboats will be formed there to favor the filming, and the president of that club, Stu Jones, is going to sing a friendship agreement with Diaz Escrich.
With a speed of 55 miles per hour, the first speedboat is foreseen to make it to Cuba in two hours and half.
The executive of Hemingway Club gave details related to recreational nautical activities in Cuban this year, accompanied by the Commodore of Key West Yacht Club (United States), Robert Harvey, and the organizer of the Havana Cat Challenge Regatta, George Bellenger.
The president of the Cuban Sailing Federation, Raidel Calero, and the top responsible for Friendship Cup Regatta, Alain Dupont, were also taking part in the conversation. The regatta kicked off on May 14, also from the United States to Cuba.
They announced that, through this year and only from the northern country to Havana, 18 nautical competitions have been scheduled as part of a nautical and friendship plan.
The speedboat race was first held in 1922 and the last one took place in 1958, the same distance, but different boat technology.
Three US Hobie Cats vessels and the same number of Cuban ships, plus three Snipe, participated in the race on May 14. This is the third Friendship Cup held since 2000.
The list of nautical events includes the Havana Key West Yacht Club Challenge, on June 20, with 100 yachtsmen on 25 vessels, and the presence of boldface names from the fields of politics, economy and society of Key West.
The Havana World Record Challenge, in July, will have James Dennoyer, from Key West Yacht Club, trying to break the speed record and sail the distance between Key West and Havana in one hour (the present record was established by German Roger Kluh in August 2015).
The Key West Yacht Club Challenge is also going to include aviation enthusiasts, with sport aircrafts, and an association agreement will be signed with Cuba’s Aviation Club, Hemingway Club and Key West aviation club.
On the other hand, Robert Harvey said that the 130 members of his Club in Key West are already connected to Cuba’s Hemingway Club, and he thanked the organization and the possibility to carry out these events at the archipelago.
Cuba’s Ernest Hemingway Club (nestled in the marina with the same name) was founded on May 21, 1992 with 28 members from 10 countries and only one of them was a US citizen.
Nowadays, the membership is made up of 2,723 people from 65 nations. Over a thousand of them are Americans (there are some 11 thousand marinas in the United States).
