‘Nothing quite like it’: Hydroplane champion captures rush of Seafair races
Aug 1, 2025, 2:59 PM | Updated: 4:07 pm
The roar of hydroplane engines returned to Lake Washington Friday as the Apollo Mechanical Cup kicked off Seafair weekend.
Champion and member of the hydroplane family, Andrew Tate, is no rookie to the races.
“Obviously, you get going pretty fast,” Tate shared on “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio. “I’ve had a lot of different experiences, but there’s nothing quite like it.”
Hydroplane champ Andrew Tate returns to roar through Seafair
Tate comes from a legendary boat racing family, as his great-grandfather, grandfather, parents, and younger brother all raced competitively.
“I was kind of bred to do this,” Tate shared. “I was born into it. I didn’t have much of a choice. But if you look throughout the Pacific Northwest, here, I’m from Detroit, so we kind of do our own thing back home, but we have these things called racer schools that are actually put on by local clubs.”
Tate made his Unlimited Hydroplane debut in 2016, piloting the U-9 Delta/Realtrac for owners Mike and Lori Jones. In a breakout performance, he claimed victory at Seafair that same year and earned the title of H1 Unlimited Rookie of the Year.
“Definitely having a good time down here at Seafair. But yeah, I’ve been driving the unlimited Hydros for on and off for 10 years now,” Tate said, barely audible as the Blue Angels whizzed overhead.
With 11 Unlimited race wins under his belt, including a coveted APBA Gold Cup victory in 2018 — an honor he shares with his father as the only father-son duo to have won the trophy — Tate remains a dominant force on the water. Tate is also a 2-time H1 Unlimited National Champion, securing titles in both 2018 and 2024.
“It was one of those things where you get in and you start the engine, and you go out there, and you have doubts in your mind. Like, is this something I can do? Am I gonna just make a total joke of myself? But coming up, doing it since I was 11, you just go back and more instincts. Your brain knows what to do, and you just go out there and kind of react,” he shared.
His excellence has earned him five inductions into the APBA Hall of Champions across four different years: 2010, 2015, 2018, and twice in 2025.
Listen to the full conversation below.
Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.
