German businessman and speedboat fanatic Roger Klüh broke the Florida-to-Cuba record on August 1st. The old record was 6 hours and 23 minutes and was set in 1958 by the American boater Forest Johnsen on the 145 km route.
In the years that followed, however, there was a communist revolution in Cuba and diplomatic relations with America went down the drain. Boat races between the USA and Cuba were practically no longer possible.
Since Barack Obama and Raul Castro have been trying to restore relations, the stage has been cleared for Roger Klüh, who used the advances in speedboat technology and was finally able to set a new record.
The Apache Star competed in a speedboat world championship for the first time in 1992 and immediately won the world title. In 1993, the Apache Star, then still called "Apache Heritage", again won the world championship. Unique for a V-hull boat, especially since speedboat catamarans dominate the top. And this is where the passion for the boat begins, because Roger Klüh was there live at the time. Interview with Klüh: "It was love at first sight"
But after that it was quiet around the boat, it seemed like it had disappeared from the ground. The owner at the time no longer had the time or priority to use the boat, but did not want to part with it either. And so it happened that the boat was languishing until Roger Klüh rediscovered the boat in a shipyard in early 2012 and immediately bought it.
The effort was definitely worth it!
Basic boat data:
- Shipyard: Apache Powerboats
- Year of construction: 1993 / complete refit from February 2012 - February 2014
- Length: 15 meters
- Width: 2.44 meters
- 2 Mercury Racers with a total of 2,700 hp
- Fuel tank: 1200 liters
- Water tank: 300 liters
- Cruising speed: 90 knots
- Passengers Allowed: 4
- Colour of the boat: ApacheStar Orange (unique and designed and produced in Europe)
Other data:
- Recaro racing bucket seats exclusively in leather - silver
- Tanks integrated in the hull made of titanium
- Air conditioning in the cockpit
- Latest security standards, Security Safety System
- Racing cockpit window from US fighter jet in green to size incl. heat and breakage; Tests about 6 months, same material tested on engines/turbines for 2000 degree heat resistance
- After the boat won both world championships in all categories twice (1993 and 1994) in Key West, it was then always in the Apache Powerboats shipyard
- Today Apache Star has a German flag certificate with homeport Miami
- The logo on the boat was created by an Indian artist from New York and took around 800 hours to paint
- Logo and name (ApacheStar) were developed and patented by me
- Only materials from aircraft construction were used for the technology of the boat
- The hull is rebuilt and reinforced, virtually indestructible for the next 100 years
- Furthermore, the hull has a free-floating titanium floor, which is attached to the hull with a suspension mount and absorbs extremely hard impacts
- Apache-Star is the highest quality V-hull powerboat in the USA
Source: Boote-Magazine
