Neither the saga of one extraordinary sport nor merely a record of exceptionally brave and sometimes reckless racers, this book serves as a tribute to the engineering ingenuity and innovative logic behind a century of incredible racing machines. English motorsport historian Kevin Desmond takes readers aboard a succession of fabulous, outboard-powered race boats, conveying the senses associated with the speed of these colorful hulls pushed by the chest-pounding roar of stern-mounted engines. From Lake Pewaukee in 1911 to the River Seine in 1936 to Abu Dhabi in 1999, the book is remarkably illustrated with rare and mostly never-before-published images from the personal archives former racers and others associated with the sport around the world.