PORT ANGELES — Vrooming, zooming sprint boat racing is on its way to a field in west Port Angeles.
One last permit is left to be submitted to allow the Dan Morrison Group to hold sprint boat competitions — which they hope to do by September.
Morrison — who with a group of investors purchased the 113-acre South Fairchild Industrial Park in August 2008 for $1.05 million from the Port of Port Angeles — said he has all the permits he needs to construct the course for the small, colorful jet boats.
One remaining permit from the city of Port Angeles would allow the group to hold events on the property.
“We’ve got everything but the unclassified-use permit, which is what gives us the ability to have the crowd there,” he said.
“But we are under the heavy-use and industrial zoning, so it shouldn’t be a big deal — paperwork, mainly.”
Once the permit is filed in a few weeks, it should take between 60 and 90 days to become official, said Nathan West, economic and community development director for the city of Port Angeles.
In sprint boat racing, small, two-person speed boats powered by water jet propulsion speed around a winding watercourse.
Navigators help the drivers negotiate a series of turns, with the high-powered, 12-foot boats usually completing a course in less than a minute.
“This is an extreme sport,” Morrison said.
“Very extreme. Our boat hit 100 mph in about three seconds.
“That is fast by any standards.”
The group plans to hold the National Finals of the United States Sprint Boat Association in Port Angeles on Sept. 17, Morrison said.
Morrison and a group of investors — including Morrison, Don Zozosky and Josh Armstrong of Port Angeles, and Scott Ackerman of Colfax — have already begun to build a sprint boat race track — a shallow watercourse.
The 4-acre sprint boat race course on land southwest of William R. Fairchild International Airport in west Port Angeles is to be 3 feet deep and 15 feet wide, filled with 500,000 to 750,000 gallons of water.
Morrison said the group hopes to receive a permit from the state Department of Ecology to take groundwater to use in the course.
“We have a surface water permit, but we don’t want to take water from Dry Creek,” he said.
He said the group could truck the water in but is hoping that Ecology will issue the permit in time for the first race.
Morrison heralds the event as an economic benefit to the community.
“In St. John [located in the rolling hills of the Palouse in Eastern Washington’s Whitman County], it is a town of about 500 people, and there were crowds of 6,000 and 8,000 people — and that is in the middle of nowhere,” Morrison said.
“TV found them out there.”
Russ Veenema, executive director of the Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce, said he has supported the sprint boats since he first heard about them.
“When I first saw the videos, I thought it would be a lot of fun,” he said.
“And we in economic development have long believed that events are a huge benefit to the local economy.”
He said that, by some estimates, each person who spends the night in town spends about $100 to $125 per day.
The sprint boat track is to be left intact year-round, Morrison said, adding that the course will be fenced.
“It is our intention to build a permanent track,” he said.
He said the boats’ motors are completely self-contained, preventing the water from becoming polluted.
“In Woodland [south Cowlitz County], there was a track that had to do extensive environmental assessment, and they discovered after they were done that the water was actually better,” he said.
“That is because we don’t add any pollutants, and the churning-up of the water increases the turbidity — which is actually a good thing.”
He said the course will likely be noisy for those who live around the track but that the races will run only from about 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
“They are loud, but we try to limit it to those times,” he said.
Morrison said the group is still considering building a course for rock crawlers — specialized four-wheel-drive vehicles — on the property, as well.
“We’re trying to put every possible use on this permit. That is why I haven’t turned it in yet — we want to make sure we got everything,” he said.
To view pictures or videos of the sprint boats, visit www.ussbaracing.com.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
