The thunder of V8 powered hydroplanes returns to Tauranga on January 23-24 as these super fast boats contest the Masport Cup.
The Masport Cup is an open event held over two days. Saturday will weed out the fields to find the fastest 8-10 boats for the cup competition which will be decided on the Sunday.

Hydroplanes are coming back to Tauranga.

New Zealand Grand Prix Drivers Club president and current cup holder David Alexander is looking forward to returning to a bigger and better event at Tauranga.
“We are going to have an air show running as well, and we are hoping to have it all happening quicker – we will try and beef it up a bit,” says David.
Secretary Denise Maughan says additions this year will be waterfront grandstand seating, and a larger pit area. Entry to the grandstand and pits will be $10.
There will be three cranes operating from the pit area to speed the launching of the bigger craft.
“Warwick Lupton’s got a brand new boat that he’s hoping to launch there,” says Denise. “It’s a pretty radical thing, a new design that hasn’t been tested before. It should be quite exciting.”
The air display will be on Sunday as publicity for the February air show, says Denise.
Racing will be from 11am to 3pm both days, with Saturday practice and Sunday the feature racing.
Other New Zealand Power Boat Association classes racing include Grand National class boats, similar to the GP boats, V8 powered but restricted to 4.2 litres, with turbos, superchargers, alloy blocks and heads permitted.
Other V8 boats are the flatties, basically a board with a big engine strapped to it. The Pro Com class is ‘limited’ to 7.7 litre injected V8 engines. They race around at 195km/h. The Pro Stock flatties are restricted to six litre V8 motors, and the Series 3000 class are restricted to three litre engines.
Modified hydroplanes have three litre engines, open cockpits, and a racing speed of 195km/h. They can also compete in GN and GP hydroplane races.
Formula one, two and three boats are tunnel hulls with outboard motors. Then there are the ski boats, Formula V and Mod VP, open deck mono hulls with outboard engines.