Hannes Bohinc
Hannes Bohinc – Team Owner and Throttleman – is a successful entrepreneur who set up a motorcycle shop at the age of just 18, combining his two main passions; racing and business.
His love of the sea started in 1984 and in 1992 he discovered the thrill of offshore racing, rapidly establishing himself as an accomplished competitor by taking the Harmsworth Trophy, his class in the Venice-Montecarlo and Montecarlo-Porto Cervo-Montecarlo events, the 1994 Martini Trophy and bronze and silver medals at the Superboat World Championships in the USA.
Highly experienced and a proven winner, ‘Bison Bohinc’ – the second biggest farmer of bison in Europe – won the Venice-Montecarlo marathon and the Martini Endurance Trophy of Sport category in his first season and has been a fixture on the podium almost every year since.
He has also experienced his quota of drama during his racing career, most notably when, competing in the UIM Class 2 World Championships in Buenos Aires in 1997, his boat overturned and stuck in the mud of the river bottom, jamming the canopy hatches shut.
“I was leading coming to the last lap and then my steering failed, we rolled and it quickly developed into a terrible situation.” he recalls. “It was not deep enough to open the hatch. I was eight minutes without oxygen before the divers came and took me out. I was clinically dead.”
He is one of only six drivers to have won the Cowes-Torquay-Cowes twice and one of only ten who have won the Harmsworth Trophy more than once.
His other achievements include second place overall and winner of the 1998 Sport Category in the Venice-Montecarlo Endurance Race, winner of the 2001 UIM Endurance WC and EC in Sport Category, Naples Cup, 2003 Centenary Harmsworth Trophy and 2005 Powerboat P1 World Championship Evolution Class in Wettpunkt.com, named after his successful gambling empire.
2008’s Round Britain brought its fair share of thrills and spills to both the waves and Bohinc.
The FB Design of the Austrian was one of the firm favourites to win the esteemed race and the 42ft Wettpunkt.com, powered by twin Isotta Fraschini diesels and generating 1800hp, was considered by Fabio Buzzi himself to be one of the best boats he has ever built.
Though the title would eventually be awarded to the first ever Greek team to enter a major UK endurance event in the form of Vassilis Pateras, Panos Tsikopoulos, Lefteris Vasiliou and Dag Pike of Blue FPT, Bohinc once again enjoyed great success during a highly prestigious occasion. Five wins, including a hat-trick of consecutive victories on days 4, 6 and 7, once again proved his credentials at the top level and further cemented another of his given titles; ‘Mr. Endurance’. It was only the start of another glorious 12 months in a career already lauded as one of the best in the history of powerboat racing.
In 2009, the OSG Racing team of Bohinc, Giancarlo Cangiano and Giovanni Carpitella were crowned P1 Powerboat Evolution Class World Champions.
They finished a magnificent campaign with a grand total of 811 points, 26 ahead of their nearest rivals.
The winner of three Grand Prix events and podium finishes in eight of a possible ten races, the SNAV OSG was the Championship’s dominant boat.
Bohinc returned to Cowes in both 2009 and 2010, looking to become only the only the fourth man in history to win the prestigious Cowes Torquay Cowes race three times.
Though he was denied on both occasions, first by a ruptured fuel tank just 1.5 miles from the finish line, then by power loss in the starboard engine, the Austrian remains determined to succeed again off the English south coast.
Following such a long and successful career in one of the most dangerous sports around, Bohinc’s life philosophy remains: “In business and racing matters, it is the same… no risk, no fun!”
