We were competing in 2 events, the 5th National Championship qualifier and the Biboa World Cup open to world class RIB’s. The leg from Cowes to Torquay doubled as the National race and the first leg of the World Cup with the remaining leg back to Cowes as the 2nd leg of the World Cup. The next day saw a race around the Isle of Wight and a lap in the Solent as the final 3rd leg of the World Cup. All in all, 260 miles of racing in 2 days.
We arrived in Cowes late Thursday to ensure that the boat was ready to be scrutineered on Friday as Saturday saw an 8am briefing and a 10am race start so no time for scrutineering then. We also had to make sure we had enough fuel and all the equipment we needed for such a long race, things like a mini tool kit for any emergency repairs, food, water and a slightly larger than usual medical kit. We also decided to purchase a handheld GPS just in case the main one broke down. Basically, we tried to cater for every emergency.
Saturday dawned bright and sunny with very little wind. The sea state was slight and it looked like being a fantastic day for racing. We made our way out to the start and looked for the Red Funnel ferry which believe it or not was to be our start boat! The race then started and all 32 boats competing in this particular race went charging down the famous Cowes start chute as fast as possible. Now Cowes is known for its starts. There are very few drivers (well sane ones) which will say that they ever enjoy a Cowes start. This is because there are cruisers, ferries, hundreds of sportsboats and loads of ‘messy’ water all along that stretch of water and its also very narrow so you do often get some hairy’ moments when you think the boat is going to go any way but the right way and you are inches from another boat which sometimes is a lot bigger than you! I have had several heart stopping moments in my time and there have been several accidents over the years but fortunately not on this occasion.
So off we went, the green flag dropped and we were on our way. Unfortunately, our engines were on a ‘go slow’. The management system which has been bugging us all season was not improved by some additional work we had done and testing last weekend on flat water had not shown that the props and engines would dislike the rough water quite so much. The messy water caused the engine’s ‘Guardian system’ to go on and put the engines into ‘default mode’ which slowed the boat to 72mph exactly, at 80% revs NOT GOOD!
This was very frustrating and what with alarm bells ringing on the engine monitor and the boat not going at full speed the whole race there and back was to be highly frustrating. The lack of power gave us no chance at the start and we got covered in spray from some of the other competitors as we went through the start which means that we were often travelling blind for a few seconds, not very nice at all!
We carried on through the Solent, past Hengistbury Head, The Needles, Poole, Weymouth and continued around the south coast (see Mike’s charts). The sea was incredible and although there were the occasional lumpy bits most of the time it was fantastic. With the wonderful conditions it was a shame that the engines were playing up so badly which marred what would have been a great day, we were travelling at 10mph down and the engines consistent alarm bells were driving us mad and a few choice words were said not to be repeated here! As it was, watching our major rivals disappear into the distance as our engines ran at 80% power was one of the most frustrating things to happen this year.
However, to lift us a bit a helicopter filming the race swooped down for some time to take photos and film us racing which was quite fun, I did resist the urge to wave however! Later on in the race a Sea King rescue helicopter followed us for a short time, I took this as rather an ominous sign, was there something he knew that we didn’t!
Navigation was fairly straight forward but there were a number of moments where we had to pass buoys and go through gates to ensure we travelled the full course which meant that Mike’s navigation had to be spot on! One of the most memorable things for me was travelling some 20 miles offshore for over 40 miles with no land in sight. This was eerie to say the least but trued offshore endurance racing and very exhilarating. We finally reached Torquay without incident where we re-fuelled ready for the next stint. We had managed to keep a steady 72mph with odd additional speed to about 79mph which gave us an average speed of 71.8mph and we had come third in the National Race so although disappointed the result was not too disastrous.
The atmosphere in Torquay was great and a lot of people had come out to watch this famous race along with the large number of spectators which had watched us at various headlands whilst en-route.
As soon as we arrived in Torquay we had one hour to refuel, top up the oil tanks, have a ‘comfort’ break and eat/drink something. Our adrenalin was pumping so food as far as I was concerned was a non option although I did manage an energy drink.
After an hour we passed through the start gate and off we went for the 2nd leg of the World Cup…………………. (see next report)