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Special home run
By Pete Barth
Sheboygan Press staff
Under the bright blue sky of home, Mark and
Paul Nemschoff skipped their beautiful big powerboat across
Lake Michigan Tuesday afternoon, combining a rare practice
outing with an even rarer Lake Michigan father-son ride.
Most of the children who played on the beach at King Park
on Sheboygan’s south side were oblivious to the awesome
40-foot, 10,000-pound Tommy Bahama powerboat that zoomed past,
several hundred feet offshore.
But the white and gold vessel was quite a sight as its
twin-750 horsepower engines pushed it to speeds in excess of
100 mph and kicked up a rooster tail of impressive
proportions. At full throttle, 90 percent of the boat was out
of the water, literally almost riding on air as the engines
roared.
The Nemschoff team and its vessel were in town Tuesday to
prepare for this weekend’s Offshore Grand Prix of Milwaukee,
which will be held Aug. 8-10 at Veterans Park.
This event, sanctioned by the American Power Boat
Association (APBA), will feature some of the nation’s most
powerful boats. The Nemschoffs plan to practice Saturday, then
race Sunday at about 2:30. Admission is free to the public,
and the Nemschoffs are excited.
“We’re ecstatic to have an event like this so close to
home,” said Paul, the driver of the Tommy Bahama.
Throttleman Mark Nemschoff wrote recently in an email that
his team is assessing its future, and backing off from the
hectic race schedule it used to keep. That’s in part because
sponsorship isn’t easy to find in this economic climate, and
sponsorship is vital when it comes to keeping a boat worth
more than $500,000 running competitively.
Consider that the Nemschoff team keeps up to four engines,
which are constantly going through various levels of
rebuilding (partial rebuilds after every race; complete
rebuilds after every four races or so). Hundreds of gallons of
high-octane racing fuel isn’t cheap either, and there are
plenty of other costs associated with competing at the
nation’s top level of power boating.
“It’s a sizeable investment,” Mark Nemschoff said. “For the
love of the sport, we’ve participated without trying to make
money.”
It certainly won’t be about the money this weekend when the
Sheboygan Nemschoffs go for a win on their home lake. They may
be generally stepping back a bit from the racing grind, but
this is one event they wouldn’t miss.
“We can’t have a race in our backyard and not be in it,”
Mark said. “And we not only want to be in it; we want to win
it. This is the first time one of these national events has
been in Wisconsin.”
This powerboating kick started for the Nemschoff team in
1995, when Mark and Paul combined to set a new
Chicago-to-Detroit record.
Since then, the Nemschoffs have earned 27 powerboat wins,
set seven world records, and won four world championships and
two national championships.
They have steadily moved up in class, to the pinnacle of
powerboat racing in this country – the Super Cat class.
That class has been taxing, as the competition has been
extremely fierce. The Tommy Bahama boat didn’t finish its last
race, in Savanah, Ga. a couple of weeks ago, and has only won
three races the past two years.
“This is the most competitive (class) we’ve ever been in,”
said Paul.
“This is as fast as it gets,” said Mark of the Super Cat
class. “We’ve won a few races with this boat, but we haven’t
dominated this (series). In this class, there are seven,
eight, sometimes 10 boats in every race that could win. It’s
very competitive, and we do this very part-time. A lot of
other guys are doing it professionally, or at least like a
second profession.”
The Nemschoffs have been chasing their hunger for
harnessing speed together for eight years now. From talking to
them, it seems likely that change is in the air. Mark said
Tuesday he’s thinking seriously about not racing any more.
Paul may look to hook up with another team.
“I’d really like to combine our team with another team,”
Mark said. “I’m at the point where I don’t need to be in a
boat anymore. Paul is on the front end of his career. He’s
young and he’s good.”
Their days of sharing the cockpit might be coming to an
end. But that’s in the future. The present is this weekend in
Milwaukee, and if they’re going out, the Nemschoff father-son
team would love nothing more than to go out with a win – on
their home lake.
• For more information, see: www.apba-offshore.com