"I hope race organizers encourage the building of more of these essentially one-design offshore boats," he said.

Nine classes of offshore boats, from 18-50 feet, are competing on a four-sided 18.2-mile course set within 100 yards of the beach.

In the middle of it, stark and stagelit by the lights from the offshore boats, lay a man.

In fashioning the seats, Goetz drew on his experience building safety pods, or seating shells, for one of Copeland's smaller offshore boats.

The station operated two offshore boats from 1923.

Ramsgate lifeboat station Provides an inshore boat and an offshore boat.

Nowadays there are large diesel-driven offshore boats and small fast inshore boats.

Overall prizes are awarded to the top finishers in each section, with one offshore boat winning the perpetual Verve Cup Trophy.

For more than a decade, the international offshore boats were the driving force for grand prix racing on the southern circuit.

The A.P.B.A. has registered about 350 offshore boats and 1,000 members.