Friday was the first of the heats, a short course of about 70 miles. As we left the safety of the pits it became apparent the Solent had decided to throw a heavy sea for good measure. The sea was strange, rather than the rolling waves of most coastal areas because of the location of the Solent the waves were very steep and in the first race were up to 3 metres high. Not too bad normally but because of their shape the boats were just slamming into the tops of them.
If you are doing 50 mph in a boat the water hits every square inch with 5 tonnes of force. The race went on for 30 minutes before they curtailed it on safety grounds. Each wave we hit was like smashing your face into a brick wall. After about 20 minutes my visor had smashed I had a badly cut lip and face and the boat had been waterlogged with a particularly large wave leaving poor Geoff sitting up to his waist in water!! At this point I wanted to quit which I hasten to add I have never done before. I regarded this race as frankly beyond a joke and could see the current World Champions broken (driver knocked out) and most other people struggling seriously. We bailed the boat out and started off again only for the race to be stopped…was I pleased!!! Unfortunately filling the boat with water had lost us some valuable places and we only came 7th but were pleased to finish. As it was, unknowingly I ended up with concussion and a very sore neck!
The next day was for the Offshore Circuit Racing boys and I decided to ‘Safety Crew’. The sea was fairly calm which did not explain what happened next. Before the start a boat had turned over and was dragged back in disgrace. The race then started well with all 27 boats flying along impressively. Short lived… ...one of the boats turned over and in doing so the propeller hit the driver and saw him air ambulanced off to hospital with a very serious injury and his Navigator with a broken pelvis. Then within five minutes of this another boat ‘stuffed’ into the sea and simply broke in half. Fortunately only bruising the crew but absolutely writing off the boat.
So Sunday then dawned for the race I had been looking forward to all season. This race is over 120 miles long and for those that know the area, goes from Cowes down to Bournemouth and Poole, past Studland Bay and beyond Swanage then over to complete a lap around the Isle of Wight via the Needles. Well Titanic and the Poseidon Adventure were the two films that came to mind. Again sheer carnage in fact the sea was so rough many safety boats did not venture out. We had an amazing start. Lying fourth from flying through the heavily choppy sea it was absolutely fantastic. Then disaster struck, we came up to the Needles and the sea suddenly grew to enormous proportions some 6/7 metre waves confronted us and wham up in the air we went practically turning the boat over backwards, the end result was filling the engine with seawater and no power... ...then ensued the agony of watching all 14 boats overtake us gradually and realising just how far ahead we were. After a while the engine drained and we nurtured her along for about twenty minutes stalling on many occasions. Then we were off again and facing even bigger sea. At this point I thought we would be way behind but again there was carnage people turning back, breaking down, getting lost. Again the current World Champions broke down. But we had come this far. Then disaster, the waves hitting us so hard that the compass broke! So no navigation tool, fortunately we both know this area well and carried on.
The sea became worse and worse and at one point we were powering up the side of waves as large as a house. I have never seen anything like it. The hardest thing was to concentrate for so long. Basically, if you misjudged a wave that big the force could at best turn you over and at worst break the boat and be life threatening. The race seemed to go on forever, as we went past St Catherine’s and the many other land marks. Then we lost a marker and had to double back on ourselves, again due to a broken compass. It finally took us four hours to complete the race!!!!!! Both of us cold and soaking, necks so sore due to the many ‘brick’ walls we had hit on route some incredibly painful. But we finished and out of 18 boats only six managed that. I would honestly say it was most challenging experience of my life both in mental terms and physical terms but we would not hesitate to do it again. I was pleased to be the only female driver to get around that long course! So we came 6th, and finished 8th overall, which was OK for our first European and wow, did we have some fun!
Look out for Fastrax on Sky Sports in the next few weeks for a report and we will also be posting some really great photos from the event as well.