Saturday dawned beautiful as predicted and the sea was flat. We had some new props to test so we went for a quick whiz on the ocean and had a bit of fun to warm us up for the next day’s events.
Sunday once again dawned clear and beautiful and absolutely calm, the first time this year!!!! Unfortunately, it was absolutely baking hot and even by 8.30am it was showing 75 F! Nearly lunchtime when I moved the car, the car park was registering 99F!!! It was going to be a hot one no good when you’re wearing race suits and a helmet.
Looking through the list there were a number of boats entered, only 18 in total but they varied from a little 16 foot Levi, to Phantoms, catamarans, several 2 litre batboats and Max Walker’s 4 litre batboat….oh and a couple of RIBS.
As this was a not a National race the classes were split as follows:
2 litre, 4 litre, Sportsboat 1 (250hp +) and Sportsboat 2 (up to 250hp)
We were in Sportsboat 1 and unusually had the least amount of horsepower. Just before the start the fleet had the opportunity to show off in front of the crowds and drove in a convoy up the River Arun, past thousands of people and then sped off to the start line, it reminded me of the Grand National!
Everything was extremely well run and we all entered the muster area and got ready to start as the sweltering sun cooked us.
After a few minutes the start boat was underway, the yellow flag up getting us all in line and then…we were off!!!!!!!!!!
We had stonking start off at 80mph and level with Cliff Smith and Tub Humping, Max Walker and his batboat, and Martin Purnell and his Mark Pascoe RIB, Electrifying. It was great looking across at all these boats all running parallel together, a great buzz.
We approached the first turn buoy in front of all the crowds and were lying in a good second place with the rest behind it felt fantastic! We turned the buoy and off we went. We had 7 laps to go. The race was running very smoothly and we were enjoying being able to thrash the boat in flat water for the first time this year!
Unfortunately, I did get a bit overexcited at one turn and nearly managed to hook the boat (180 degree spin) but just managed to stop it in time (phew!).
However, the race was not without incident. We were running with some different props for the first time and what a difference! The props were vicious to say the least, very jerky and quick to react to the sea conditions and anything I did! Needless to say I found that a boat could have brakes, depending on the angle of the trim on the engine!!!! Unfortunately this then meant that for most of the race I was constantly fighting with the boat, which certainly gave me something to concentrate on in what would normally have been an easy race. So much so that I didn’t see the biggest incident of the day….Tub Humping driven by Cliff Smith had ‘overcooked’ it and lifted his engine too high and when hitting 86mph he managed to barrel roll the whole lot ending up upside down in front of the crowds. This was one of the nastiest incidents in racing for a long time. Fortunately he was running with a canopied boat and well protected and in typical Cliff fashion, the only thing he could say was wow I was doing 86mph!!!! That’s Cliff!
The race continued and after lapping the whole fleet, Max and I finished first and second respectively and first in each of our classes. I learnt a lot about driving with 4 blade props and Mike had had a great race and thoroughly enjoyed himself. The teamwork had been good as we were measuring the speeds, engine revs etc as we had gone round, so it had all been a useful exercise and we’d unexpectedly won at the same time!
So Poole is the next race, hopefully see you there!