posted 11-11-2013 03:44 PM ET (US)        

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I watched a portion of recent documentary film on Diana Nyad's attempt to swim from Cuba to Key West. It was not surprising to see a Boston Whaler boat in the documentary. During training swims on St, Maarten, the chase boat appeared to be a Boston Whaler classic OUTRAGE 22 with a modern two-stroke-power-cycle engine, perhaps an E-TEC. Boston Whaler boats just keep turning up everywhere, whenever you see boats in use.

It was also interesting to see the specialized boat used to accompany her on her open ocean swims. The boat was a very beamy catamaran with an extended low-freeboard section aft so that the various helpers on the boat could easy interact with a swimmer in the water. The big catamaran was powered by twin Honda outboard engines. To swim along side a boat for days--literally--one would have to take into account the engine exhaust fumes. I suppose it was clear that an extremely clean engine would be needed on the specialized boat to prevent exhaust fumes from interfering the marathon swim attempt.