Saturday arrived and although there was a strong breeze the sun was out and it was very warm. The offshore circuit racing (OCR) boats had their first race at 12.30pm so Mike and I rushed to the sea front to view the action and we were not disappointed! As usual at Ramsgate the sea was deceiving and about half an hour into the race at least two boats had sunk! This as you can imagine, filled me with great confidence before our race the next day (not) and needless to say I refused to watch after that!! One of the Phantoms had broken in half in the rough seas, so we knew our race was going to be tough.
Sunday dawned rather dull with a bit of a breeze and rumours that the wind could vary anywhere from a force 2 to a 7! We all went to the briefing keen to see what the ‘actual’ forecast would be. Surprisingly it was very good and we were promised Force 3-4 wind (gusting to 5) which should have seen the sea state as fairly moderate. Unfortunately, no one had mentioned this to the North Sea which had other ideas!!!!
At 2pm we all set off to the muster area in preparation for the start, which had been delayed. At 2.20pm the race boat showed the yellow flag and after 40 minutes waiting in the humid air, we all jostled to get the best start run.
The start boat gathered speed and we powered towards the start line, nervously awaiting the green start flag. Finally it dropped and we were off! Fortunately I managed to weave myself in between two 2 litre batboats who were creating a bit of wash, put the throttle down hard and we were off, flying past everyone!
To cut a long story short quite amazingly we were in the lead for at least 3-4 miles….its lonely out there! I was exhilarated. What an amazingly feeling to be out there in front with so many people watching! The boat was literally flying and we were untouchable!
We then turned the first buoy on that leg (see course layout) and were heading out to sea, with the 4 litre boats and F1 RHIBs hotly in pursuit. We turned another buoy and then I remembered what Ramsgate is really like, suddenly we were in rough sea, all I could see were big waves which were breaking on top. We were in a beam sea which means that the waves hit the side of the boat giving you the feeling that at any second you could be turned over. Something every race driver hates.
Unfortunately, at this point we had to slow as we did not have the weight advantage that the 4 litre boats have and they past us. However, we had the other F1 RHIBs to beat and we were ahead of the pack. So we hammered on, the boat lurching from one side to another, up in the air, down hard and all we could see was sea, then sky! It was going to be a rough race (Did I mention I get sea sick?).
We left the other Formula One boats behind and race was on between R21 (Stuart Anthony) and ourselves. He was a stronger driver in the rough beam sea section of the course and was gradually pulling away, but when we came to the big head on sea and the occasional flat legs then we were quicker. I knew if I put enough pressure on him on those rough legs and then made up the time on the easier legs I would give him a good race. This is exactly what we did. If we pushed hard enough, he would either make a mistake, or break the boat.
Nearly the whole race we were sparring with each other and both of us had to concentrate hard. Mike would shout at me if we were off the pace even for a second and Charles, Stuarts’s Co-Driver could be seen to be hitting him on the arm when we got close, this made for very exciting racing!!!!
So for about 1 hour and a half we carried on like this, overtaking each over the whole time. There were times when the boat was thrown so high above the waves I could actually hear the wind whistling past the helmet. Stuart was having a torrid time as well and on one occasion when rounding a corner, he lost control of the boat and nearly hit us. Things were getting very exciting! Thankfully the spray from his engines covered us with sea water, cooling us down and focusing our attention on passing him again.
Then disaster struck! For Stuart, racing hard for over an hour in rough seas had proven too much for his boat and following engine trouble he limped home on one engine. However, things weren’t over yet, we still had 3 laps to go and this is a driver’s nightmare, knowing that all you have to do is finish to win, but also knowing anything could happen!!!!
I drove carefully at this stage as all we had to do was finish. One of my lasting memories though was when we came up to lap some of the 2 litre boats at buoy 1. We turned the corner on the outside with a Cat inside us and a Batboat inside the Cat! We all rounded the corner together spray everywhere, engines roaring! For anyone with a camera this would have made an awesome shot. I then put my foot down and powered smoothly past them, quite literally leaving them in our wake…what a feeling!!!!
After this we then had two huge ferries to contend with. We were on last lap and one ferry was leaving the harbor whilst the other was arriving and there was not much room between each! With my heart in mouth and almost praying that we would reach the buoy in time, we whipped around the back of the first ferry, launched skyward over its wake and turned sharply behind it to pass the buoy. Then we powered ahead to pass in front of the next ferry as it bore down on us….scary!!
Finally, as we finished the last lap I felt that was not going as smoothly as normally. As we turned at the final buoy and past the finish flag ..I felt something move…it was the entire console broken loose! We didn’t care…we passed the line in first place!
We had finally won our first race of the season and it was a very hard race. We were out there for just under two hours in very rough sea so I was delighted with the result.
So onto Exmouth our next race….we are currently jointly in the lead in the National Championships with Stuart Anthony, so the next race will be very important…..we will need to win!