German businessman and speedboat fanatic Roger Klüh broke the Florida-to-Cuba record on 1 August. The old record was 6 hours and 23 minutes and was set in 1958 by the American boater Forest Johnsen on the 145 kilometre 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.
But now that Barack Obama and Raul Castro are endeavouring to restore relations, the stage has been set for Roger Klüh to take advantage of advances in speedboat technology and finally set a new record.
The Apache Star first competed in a speedboat world championship in 1992 and immediately won the world championship title. In 1993, the Apache Star, then still under the name "Apache Heritage", won the world championship title again. Unprecedented for a V-hull boat, especially as speedboat catamarans dominate the top. And this is where the passion for the boat begins, because Roger Klüh was there live at the time. Klüh in an interview: "It was love at first sight"
After that, however, the boat went quiet, as if it had disappeared from the face of the earth. The owner at the time no longer had the time or priority to use the boat, but didn't want to part with it either. And so the boat lay dormant until Roger Klüh rediscovered it in a shipyard in early 2012 and purchased it immediately.
Extensive restoration work costing around two million dollars and around 7000 hours of labour followed. The fuselage was completely gutted and now has a free-floating titanium floor, which was attached to the fuselage with a suspension bearing and absorbs the extremely hard impacts.
The effort was definitely worth it!
Basic data on the boat:
Shipyard: Apache Powerboats
Year built: 1993 / Complete refit from February 2012 - February 2014
Length: 15 metres
Width: 2.44 metres
2 Mercury Racer with a total of 2,700 hp
Fuel tank: 1200 litres
Water tank: 300 litres
Cruising speed: 90 knots
Authorised passengers: 4
Colour of the boat: ApacheStar Orange (unique and developed and produced in Europe)
Other data:
Racing bucket seats Recaro exclusively in leather - silver
Titanium fuel tanks integrated in the fuselage
Air conditioning in the cockpit
State-of-the-art safety standards, Security Safety System
Racing cockpit windscreen from US fighter jet in green colour made to measure incl. heat and breakage; tests approx. 6 months, same material on engines / turbines tested for 2000 degrees 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 the home port Miami
The logo on the boat was painted by a Native American artist from New York and took around 800 hours to complete
The logo and name (ApacheStar) were developed and patented by me
Only materials from aircraft construction were used for the boat's technology
The hull has been completely refurbished and reinforced, making it virtually indestructible for the next 100 years
The hull also has a free-floating titanium floor, which is attached to the hull with a suspension bearing and absorbs the extremely hard impacts
Apache-Star is the highest quality V-hull powerboat in the USA
