Howard Arneson, who made a fortune with the invention of the pool sweep-----and made himself a high performance boating legend through his obsession with turbine engine powered catamarans-----turned 80 in May. But forget chronology, because if age really is a state of mind, then Arneson is pushing 16, maybe 17 tops. He still has a teenagers love of machines and lust for speed. The lust fueled the invention of his patented surface drive. The lust drove Arneson to set a new Orleans to St. Louis on the Mississippi River in a turbine powered skater 32' nearly 11 years ago. We caught up with Arneson during his 80th birthday party at his shop in San Rafael, Calif., not too far from San Pablo Bay where he routinely boils the waters in his 4,800hp turbine Skater 46. And we're delighted to report that the outstanding octogenarian showed no signs of slowing down.
                                                                           Matt Trulio

PB:  Happy Birthday.  How are you feeling these days?

HA:  I feel great.  My wife, she's still asking me what I'm going to be when I grow up.

PB:  What occupies the bulk of your time now?

HA:  I'm out on the boat as often as I can be.  I'm doing a lot of Research and development work in it.

PB:  What are you working on?

HA:  If I told you that, I'd have to kill you.<laughs>  No, I've been working on the propulsion end, on the Arneson drive, something in the prop area.  I've been working on it for 9 years.  I already have a patent that's been issued, and its very exciting, and I think it's going to be revolutionary eventually.  We're all getting dialed in.

PB:  How often are you out on the water in your Skater 46?

HA:  It depends on whether we’ve got it running and together or not, you know, but sometimes we’re out there two or three times a week.  Sometimes it takes a couple of weeks between sessions.  We get out there quite often.

PB:  When was the last time you raced?

HA:  There’s no class for my boat, but they’ve allowed me to run in exhibition classes, so I raced with the fellas.  I don’t take anything away from them so they let me run, but I’ve quit doing that.  Sometimes we’d lap the field and that was fun for me, but not for them.

PB:  Why are you so attracted to turbine powered engines?

HA:  Once you get a taste of turbine power you’re ruined for life, believe me.  It’s just so smooth.  There’s so much power available in such a small package.  It’s amazing, really, and you can run the heck out of it without worrying about rebuilds.

PB:  How fast have you gone in the water?

HA:  I’ve had this boat (motions toward the Skater 46’ in his shop) up to 180 mph.

PB:  And what’s that like?

HA:  It’s pretty spooky.  When you’re in a race, you’ve got helicopters above you, and you’ve got medical people, and you’ve got divers and everything.  I’m out there testing all alone.  If something were to happen, hell, nobody would even know it.  So it’s kind of goofy to be going those speeds out there.

PB:  What are you thinking about at those speeds?

HA:  It’s a vacuum cleaner of the mind, believe me.  You know what I think happens really?  You say “Oh, to hell with it”, and just let it go and hope that nothing happens.

PB:  Are you ever afraid?

HA:  Oh hell yeah----you’d have to be crazy if you weren’t.  The thing I fear most out there, really and truly, is sneaking up on the wake from a freighter or a ferry.  That’s happened a few times and, boy, it gets your attention in a hurry.  There’s nothing you can do.  You just have to ride it out and hope that the boat comes down right.

PB:  Can you imagine giving it up?

HA:  No, no, no.  I’ll never stop.

PB:  There have been some pretty wild claims about how much time you’ve spent in boats running more than 100mph.  So what’s the real story?

HA:  I would like to say that I’m probably getting close to 100,000 miles at more than 100mph, and I’ve got a lot of this documented, because of  my new test program and the stuff I’m doing.  I’ve run over 30,000 gallons of fuel in testing these various concepts, and everything's over a hundred mph.

PB:  What would you like to accomplish between now and your 90th birthday?

HA:  What I would like to do, and Bob Nordskog (Powerboat Magazine Founder) and I were planning this before his untimely passing, is to try to set a record that he now holds, San Francisco to Los Angeles.  I’d like to do that.