Written by JIM WALLER
Whidbey News-Times Sports Editor
You could hear them before you could see them.
Hydroplanes, with their distinctive whiny roar, rattled eardrums in Oak Harbor for the first time in nearly 40 years Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 16 and 17.
The crowds that lined Pioneer Way and Bayshore Drive could not see the boats being launched behind the slips of the Oak Harbor Marina, but they could hear the drivers fire up their engines. Then, one by one, each boat appeared around the outer float to attack the race course.
As each day’s events unfolded, the boats got bigger. And faster. And louder.
The day opened with the tiny junior boats, engines whining like underpowered motorcycles begging to be shifted into a higher gear. It ended with the ear-thumping roar of the larger boats.
In all, 42 boats raced in 10 divisions.
Forty boats at a first-time event is considered a good turnout by the American Power Boat Association, according to Michelle Curry, event organizer. The number appearing in Oak Harbor should grow in future years, according to the drivers.
