What is the APACHE STAR?

The APACHE STAR is a one-of-a-kind 45-foot custom Apache powerboat — a length not available as standard from Apache Powerboats. She is powered by twin-engine racing V8s totaling 2,700 horsepower, with a top speed of more than 100 mph. She holds the civilian speed record for the Florida Strait crossing from Key West to Havana, completed in 1 hour 30 minutes on August 1, 2015, by Roger Klüh and an international 4-person crew.

Who captained the APACHE STAR’s Florida-Cuba crossing?

Roger Klüh — founder of APACHE STAR®, World-Record Setter and Entrepreneur — captained the APACHE STAR on her record-breaking Florida–Cuba crossing in August 2015. The APACHE STAR herself is a two-time Powerboat World Champion.

Is the Florida-Cuba crossing officially recognized?

Yes. The crossing was officially recognized by the Cuban government on arrival in Havana, and personally acknowledged by U.S. President Barack Obama in a signed letter to Roger Klüh.

How fast can the APACHE STAR go?

The APACHE STAR reaches speeds in excess of 100 mph (over 160 km/h), driven by twin V8 racing engines producing a combined 2,700 horsepower.

What is the relationship between the boat and the APACHE STAR® brand?

APACHE STAR® is the lifestyle and apparel brand founded on the heritage of the APACHE STAR powerboat. The brand fuses offshore-powerboat heritage with modern performance — rugged luxury that actually performs.

APACHE STAR® — The Boat

Born from a
World Record

Two-time Powerboat World Champion. One-of-a-kind 45-foot custom Apache. 2,700 HP twin-engine. 100+ mph. The offshore powerboat that crossed the Florida Strait in record time — and gave a brand its name.

2,700 HPTwin Mercury 1350

100+ mphTop speed

1 h 30 minKey West → Havana

1992 · 1993World Champion

Her story

Five Chapters

Apache Heritage #50 · from the magazine feature “Offshore’s Living Legend”

A young Roger Klüh in a white cap climbing into the cockpit of Apache Heritage at the dock; Richie Powers stands at the far right — Roger Klüh, in the white cap, climbing into the cockpit before Apache Heritage won her first world championship. Far right: Richie Powers.

1992 · Key West, Florida

Apache Heritage #50
Built for an Idea No One Believed In

Before APACHE STAR was a brand, she was Apache Heritage — the world’s first canopied sit-down V-bottom offshore race boat. Three people built her in five months. She would change the sport.

5: months development, concept to water
47 → 45’6”: Apache hull mold, 14″ freeboard removed, 900 lb lighter
Kevlar: military-grade DuPont formulation, never used in boat construction before or since
Triple 1000SC: MerCruiser race engines, developed with Mercury Marine

The Three Who Built Her

Mark McManus · Builder. Apache Powerboats founder. Two decades of carbon fiber and Kevlar composite experience with a zero-failure record. The man who would later operate the throttles on APACHE STAR’s world-record run.

Omar Danial · Designer & Driver. 22 years old. LeMans and Daytona endurance racer. Conceived a boat that had never existed. Would become the youngest offshore world champion in history.

Richie Powers · Throttleman. Multiple world offshore champion. Widely considered among the greatest throttlemen in the sport’s history. Saw the vision from the first conversation.

View over the driver’s shoulder onto the instrument panel in the cockpit of Apache Heritage — In the cockpit of Apache Heritage #50

1992 · 1993

Two World Championships
Two Consecutive Years

Apache Heritage #50 is, by record, the most valuable deep-V powerboat of the last twenty-five years of powerboat racing. Many manufacturers copied the design. None ever duplicated the laminate formulation.

1992 · Key West World Championships

Superboat Vee · World Champion

94.74 mph average over 147-mile course
First overall in points
Omar Danial, 22 — youngest offshore world champion in history
Out-raced four-engine catamarans with three V8s

1993 · SBI World Championship · Key West

SuperBoat · Overall Champion (Repeat)

88.73 mph in eight-foot breaking seas
Out-ran every V-bottom and every cat in the field
Mark McManus called it “the greatest day of my life”
Won every race entered together, except one

Two white quilted racing bucket seats in the cockpit of APACHE STAR — The racing bucket seats in the restored cockpit

View into the cockpit of the orange powerboat APACHE STAR at the dock — The cockpit of APACHE STAR

2012 · The Acquisition

7,000 Hours
To Bring a Legend Back

Roger Anthony Cassius Klüh didn’t see a retired race boat. He saw a vessel with unfinished business. The most iconic Apache hull ever built — engineered to withstand punishment no ordinary hull could survive — was about to write its greatest chapter.

7,000+: hours of painstaking restoration to as-new condition
Twin Mercury 1350: Mercury Racing bi-turbo V8s, 2 × 1350 HP = 2,700 HP combined
Recaro: racing bucket seats, fighter-jet-grade technology
#50: the original racing number, preserved on the hull

She was rebuilt, re-equipped, and given a new name: APACHE STAR®. The legend had been reborn.

The APACHE STAR at speed across the Florida Strait, August 1, 2015 — APACHE STAR at speed · Florida Strait · August 1, 2015

Roger Klüh post-arrival — APACHE STAR Trophy · Speed Racing Record · August 1, 2015 · Key West to Havana — Roger Klüh after the arrival · August 1, 2015

August 1, 2015 · The Crossing

Florida to Cuba.
One Hour, Thirty Minutes.

On a hot August morning in 2015, Roger Klüh pointed the APACHE STAR south out of Key West, opened twin Mercury Racing 1350 bi-turbo V8s totaling 2,700 horsepower, and crossed the Florida Strait to Havana faster than any civilian powerboat had done before.

Date: August 2015
Route: Key West → Havana
Distance: ~110 nautical miles
Crossing Time: 1 h 30 min
Recognition: Cuban Government
Captain: Roger Klüh

The APACHE STAR is a one-of-a-kind 45-foot custom Apache powerboat — a length not available as standard from Apache Powerboats. Twin-engine offshore racing configuration totaling 2,700 HP. A hull engineered for open-ocean speed, not for showrooms. At top speed she runs north of 100 mph — territory most civilian craft never see.

The crossing wasn’t a stunt. It was a working record: GPS-verified, witnessed on both shores, and acknowledged by the Cuban government on arrival in Havana. The U.S. Coast Guard cleared the southbound transit; Club Náutico Hemingway received the boat dockside.

“The APACHE STAR is built to perform. Everything else follows from that.”— Roger Klüh, Founder · World-Record Setter · Entrepreneur

The powerboat APACHE STAR strapped onto a transport trailer — APACHE STAR on the transport trailer

2017 · Port Everglades

The Return
to Florida

17 months and 11 days after the record run, a US government–authorized freight forwarder shipped the APACHE STAR from Marina Hemingway via Mariel cargo port to Port Everglades, USA — returning the boat to her home waters in Florida, where she was built.

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Swipe →

August 1, 2015 · Key West → Havana

An International
Four-Person Crew

The APACHE STAR didn’t cross the Florida Strait alone. A four-person international crew, prepared for months, executed the record-breaking run together.

Owner & Driver

Roger Klüh

Germany

At the wheel. Founder of APACHE STAR®, World-Record Setter, Entrepreneur. Acquired the boat, conceived the attempt, and drove it across.

Chief Captain & Navigator

Damien Sauvage

France

Based in Saint-Tropez. Career yacht captain who oversaw navigation across 110 nautical miles of open ocean.

Chief Engineer & Co-Pilot

Mark McManus

United States

The man who built the boat in 1992. Apache Powerboats founder. Chief Engineer and Co-Pilot on the world-record crossing — his own creation, his own hand at the helm.

Chief Mechanic

John Pompi

United States

Founder of Marine Performance Inc. Trained from age 15 by powerboat legends Don Aronow and Mark McManus. Mechanical integrity across 110 nautical miles — nothing left to chance.

Roger Klüh received the Cuban government’s Orden al Mérito Deportivo, signed by President Raúl Castro — joining chess legend Anatoly Karpov (2004) and marathon swimmer Diana Nyad (2013) on a short list of foreign nationals to receive this distinction.

Documented Heritage

Provenance
Four Official Documents

The Florida–Cuba crossing of August 1, 2015 is not narrative. It is documented across four sovereign authorities — the Cuban government, the US Treasury, the US Department of Commerce, and the Hemingway International Yacht Club of Cuba.

Cuba · Council of State

Acuerdo 5392

Signed November 6, 2015 · Published in Gaceta Oficial, January 22, 2016

The Council of State of the Republic of Cuba awards the Orden al Mérito Deportivo to Roger Anthony Cassius Klüh, Mark McManus, John Pompi and Damien Sauvage — for the historic Florida–Cuba crossing aboard the APACHE STAR. Signed by President Raúl Castro Ruz.

Club Náutico Internacional Hemingway de Cuba — official certificate of the APACHE STAR Key West to Havana crossing on August 1, 2015, signed by Commodore José Miguel Díaz Escrich — Tap to enlarge

Cuba · Hemingway Yacht Club

Certificate of Crossing

August 1, 2015 · 10:00 AM → 11:45 AM

Issued by Club Náutico Internacional Hemingway de Cuba. Confirms 110 nautical miles from Stock Island Marina (Key West) to Havana Harbor entry buoy. Crossing time: 1:30. Average speed: 73 knots. Signed by Commodore José Miguel Díaz Escrich.

US Treasury OFAC authorization and Department of Commerce Export License D1017203 — held by Roger Klüh at the APACHE STAR world record celebration, May 2015 — Tap to enlarge

USA · Treasury & Commerce

US Government Authorization

OFAC Licensing · Export License D1017203 (May 20, 2015)

US Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control licensing + US Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security export license. The first time since 1963 that a US-built pleasure boat with an American crew was government-authorized to visit Cuba under the embargo.

Cuba · Personal Decoration

Orden al Mérito Deportivo

Awarded November 6, 2015 · Carné No. 5392 (Tomo 01, Folio 197)

Personal carné de condecorado — the official Cuban government decoration document issued in the name of Roger Anthony Cassius Klüh. Signed by the Secretary of the Council of State. Roger joined a short list of foreign nationals to carry this distinction (alongside Anatoly Karpov and Diana Nyad).

Four sovereign documents. One record. The most documented civilian powerboat crossing of the modern era.

International Recognition

A Record Acknowledged on
Three Continents

2015 · Washington

A Letter from President Obama

President Barack Obama personally acknowledged Roger Klüh’s Florida–Cuba crossing in a signed letter — a rare civilian gesture at the height of US–Cuba diplomatic thaw.

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2015/2016 · Havana

Orden al Mérito Deportivo

Cuba’s highest sports honor, awarded by the Council of State (Acuerdo 5392, signed Raúl Castro) to all four crew members: Roger Klüh, Mark McManus, John Pompi and Damien Sauvage. Published in the Gaceta Oficial, January 22, 2016.

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2015 · Hemingway Marina

Club Náutico Hemingway

The APACHE STAR was received at the historic Club Náutico Internacional Hemingway in Havana — Cuba’s most storied maritime address.

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2016 · Hollywood

Hollywood: Speed Kills

The APACHE STAR was approached for the Hollywood production “Speed Kills” — the John Travolta feature on offshore powerboat racing.

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The APACHE STAR Today

From a Powerboat
to a Brand

The APACHE STAR is more than a record-holding offshore powerboat. She is the source of a brand built on the same principles that took her across the Florida Strait: engineered performance, real heritage, and a refusal to compromise on either.

Every APACHE STAR® piece — from outerwear to leather goods — carries the DNA of that crossing. We fuse offshore-powerboat heritage with modern performance: rugged luxury that actually performs.

→ The World Record Heritage Edition
→ THE BRIDGE — the film inspired by the crossing