Skimming the Surface : * The Pond Rats navigate their miniature power boats on--and above--the water at Camarillo Regional Park.

With a friend quickly closing on him, Jay Duhon of Camarillo squeezed the throttle of his sleek powerboat and surged ahead--spewing out a tail of water and leaving his challenger in his wake.

But while Duhon clearly outpaced his friend on this practice run, neither he nor his opponent ever risked getting wet. Duhon, a 35-year-old Hughes Aircraft communications technician, was on the bank of a pond in Camarillo Regional Park along with the 40 other members of a group called the Camarillo Pond Rats. They were indulging in radio-controlled power boating--a high-tech hobby that has become one of the great passions of their lives, they say.

“You should see us during club races--it gets really interesting then,” said Duhon during a recent practice session. “We’ll turn a corner and all you can see are rooster tails of water. You just have to pray your boat got around the buoy.”

The Pond Rats, a chapter of the 1,500-member North American Model Boaters Assn., race miniature versions of high-speed offshore boats.

The nitro-methane gas-fueled models typically can achieve speeds of 35 to 50 m.p.h., depending on their make, class and size of engine, said Kathy Scott, the group’s secretary-treasurer and a race team member. Some highly modified boats have been clocked at speeds close to 100 m.p.h., she said.

The group races on a nine-acre, 17-million-gallon pond owned by the Camrosa Water District, which leases the site to the club for $500 a year. While children are welcome to participate in rookie and kids classes, the cost of making and operating the radio-controlled boats can be prohibitive.

Don McEntyre, owner of Blue Max Hobbies in Oxnard, says enthusiasts pay about $500 for an entry-level boat, while customized, higher-powered versions can run as high as $3,000 each. The boats’ racing fuel can cost $30 a gallon, he said.

“This is definitely one of those parent-child kind of hobbies,” said McEntyre, himself a member of the Pond Rats. “You don’t see a lot of kids involved on their own because of the expense.”

And like their ocean-going brethren, members race boats of different designs--deep V-style, twin-hulled hydros and tunnel-hulls--the latter designed to ride on a small cushion of air just above the water’s surface.

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The boats, which range between three and five feet in length, are powered by tiny single-piston engines that can turn the vessel’s propellers tens of thousands of revolutions per minute. For safety’s sake, the boats’ propellers are shrouded in wood or metal containers after the engines are started until just before launch.

Once in the water, the boat is navigated from shore by hand-held radios that activate tiny on-board circuits that control the rudders and engine speed. Collisions are studiously avoided, but a small rowboat stands ready nearby to help the racers collect their expensive crafts if mishaps occur.

With monthly club and Southern California district races, members of the Pond Rats say they have a strong competitive edge and want to see each other do well for the honor of the 10-year-old organization, Scott said. She added that the club has been tapped to host the organization’s national competition at the pond next July, where about 800 boats are expected to compete.

“There are few things this exciting,” Scott said. “I’ve been competing for two years and I’ve had nothing but a great time.”

Most of the club members own at least three boats and spend countless hours in their home workshops perfecting their crafts. Come race day, however, all the time spent is worth it, they said.

“For me, it’s a real tension-releaser,” said John Willemsen, 33, of Thousand Oaks. “Once you’re out here, you can forget all your troubles for a while.”