So finally we ended up in Gibraltar after 14 hours of driving, we did take it in turns to drive, which helped but we were very tired. We got to Gib to be welcomed with….you guessed it, yet more rain! We arrived in on the morning of the first day after an over night stay somewhere in deepest darkest Spain. Don’t ask where it was, we arrived there in the dark and left in the dark so it could have been anywhere!
We finally found our way to the pits after taking a detour around Gibraltar through some very narrow roads and just missing running over various tourists who seemed to be oblivious to a large Jeep and a 30 foot boat!
After depositing the boat in the pits we had our first briefing. A lot of very wet crews turned up all looking very cold. Now bear in mind we had been travelling the best part of 48 hours. After a warm welcome by the various harbour masters and coast guards we were then given a very dubious warning. Gibraltar had been the target of Al Queda threats due to its use as an English and American navy base therefore we had to be on high alert security wise. Now this bit just got me! Part of the harbour apparently housed some of the navy boats and due to various attacks by suicide bombers driving boats into a warship (USS Cole) and more recently a French petrol tanker, we were advised to keep well away from that part of the harbour………..if we didn’t we would be shot at, no questions asked! Ahhhhh, all I could think of was having a ‘blonde’ moment in the boat and turning right instead of left, ending up in the wrong place and being shot out of the water….OK a little extreme but we were tired! Mike fortunately saw reason (and humour in the situation) but I was a tad nervous by the time we set out to race the next day and made a good mental note of the course.
Race Day fortunately dawned dry, not sunny (there wasn’t any prospect of getting that all important tan) but at least dry. Unfortunately, the wind was being unkind and was gusting to Force 6 which meant the part of the course on the other side of the rock was now out of bounds and the rough weather course was now the course to use. Again another briefing, just to reiterate about the shooting bits (I was getting paranoid) and then to let us know the usual safety details, starting process etc etc, took place. The Co-drivers all looked in despair as all their carefully prepared course notes went out of the window to be replaced with the rough weather course. Mike had spent hours preparing course notes and charts and now these weren’t too be used, which was disappointing.
The first two main markers on the course were at the far end of the course and consisted of two very large tug boats. These were supposed to be at co-ordinates previously provided to us, what they hadn’t told was that these things drift. Fortunately, the rough weather course was by line of site (every marker was visible) however, one of the tugs was invisible and seemed to merge into the rock face. Therefore, the start was hysterical for anyone watching.
The flag dropped and we all charged off the start line, the usual four boats in the lead (3 ribs including us and a 4 litre batboat). The funny thing was that none of us would take the lead and all the Co-drivers kept looking across at each other to see who would go first….the reason…no one could see the tugs!!!!! Finally, Jamie Edwards spotted it and we all shot off towards the tug in hot pursuit. Now you get that in Formula One Grand Prix racing!!
The sea conditions were actually pretty good, although some of the waves were quite large they were big rollers and very easy to read, just getting a bit lumpy with a few holes by the tugs (a couple of which we spectacularly found). Unfortunately, as normal the guardian kept switching the engines into default mode, not only that, but we were running with the 4 blade props again as these seem to work better with the engines. The net result being that I was finding the boat almost impossible to handle in the big sea and a very twisty rough weather course. These props make the boat vicious to handle and it takes a lot to keep it going on course without ripping your arms out of their sockets.
The course took us through the harbour (yes the one where a right turn would result in certain death by American Navy crew). We were to turn sharply into the harbour via one entrance, travel a short distance into the harbour, take a very tight left turn (narrowly avoiding the harbour wall and spectators) fly through the harbour and out of the other entrance, followed by an incredibly twisty course of buoys before we started the long leg again (see Mike’s course for a better look).
These turns took it out of everyone particularly anyone driving anything more than a 20 foot boat! I never thought that a boat our size with twin engines could turn like that! Due to the different laps we were also converging at the harbour entrance at the same time as boats on the smaller laps. This meant that any number of boats would go through the narrow entrance and race around the tight course together in front of the grandstands, which made it incredibly exciting racing for competitors and spectators alike and made keeping your line most interesting…once again I swear the boat breathed in as we scrapped past other competitors on turns. Once or twice I almost shut my eyes and went for it as we squeezed past a fellow competitor, refusing to give any space.
So to cut a long story short, we didn’t have a particularly amazing race on Thursday partly due to the combination of props and rough water and partly due to me driving like an idiot on the first few laps. Mike and I had a serious ‘conversation’ come the fourth lap which meant I suddenly got my brain into gear and started to catch the leaders, we were lying a disappointing 6th overall at this stage. My driving improved, the boat started to go faster and our speeds progressively grew but although we made an impact on closing the gap between us and the other Formula One RIBS we still only managed 3rd place….OK so some you win some you lose….. Stuart also had a disappointing race and was beaten by Jamie Edwards into second place. It was just one of those races.
Surprisingly there were no incidents during the race other than the inevitable breakdowns.
After this race we summarised what had gone wrong. A combination of the wrong props and me driving the first half of the race like an idiot was the conclusion. So a change of props was needed which meant we had to do testing the next day (supposedly a rest day!). Mike also decided that I needed to be more psyched up for the next race….dangerous!
Practice day proved interesting. We were desperate to go out to try the new props we had been very kindly lent. Once again we had a briefing to ensure that everyone new about…you guessed it, security and not going to ‘that’ part of the harbour (OK so it was getting silly now!). Again the conditions were fairly rough and it was very windy, so windy that in fact during one particularly exciting ‘airborne moment’ the whole boat was picked up by the wind and sent flying sideways which was a little scary bearing in mind it weighs about 2 tonnes!
Whilst the engine’s guardian systems were still playing up, the props certainly handled better even with the few spectacular airborne moments! So we went off to refuel for tomorrow’s race.
On return from refuelling we found a couple of OCR phantom boats and a safety RIB, one of the phantoms had no crew in it. Mike suddenly shouted to me to stop as he’d realised that the crew had been ejected out of the boat. We could see one of the crew hanging over the side of the boat whilst his mate clung onto his arms. We went over to assist but by the safety crew was there and were in control so we got out of the way and got back to the pits. Unfortunately the guy hanging over the side was the driver and he had seriously broken his ribs and punctured a lung, which resulted in him being admitted to intensive care. Very sad for him on his first trip out (he was a Gibraltarian taking part in his first ever race). It just goes to show that even when practising you have to be careful.
So Saturday arrived for the second race. Once again the weather was exactly the same and we had to run the rough weather course. This was disappointing as the Sky helicopters were only allowed to film on the far side of the Rock due to…you guessed it…the US Navy ships and their guns (well the security risk it imposed). So racing the rough weather course meant no filming, which was very frustrating for the organisers.
Fortunately we all loved the rough course as it meant very exciting racing for everyone!
All day I had been psyching myself up for a good race, no idiot driving today. This resulted in me sitting in the car half an hour before the race listening to Ozzy Osbourne and ‘Bark at the Moon’, fantastic adrenaline pumping which Mike was to regret later! I was prepared to win or die (well a bit anyway)!
Once again we set off, I was on an adrenaline rush and NOTHING was going to stop me. The new props were giving me the control I needed but the only irritating factor was the usual engine default problem. In these seas though top speeds were not going to provide winners so we were still up the front with Jamie and Stuart and unusually leaving the four litre boats behind in the big sea. Once again the tug boats were missing. The one we should have been heading for was nearly a mile off course! So after heading for the second one (which would have been wrong), we suddenly spotted the correct one and all three boats in unison suddenly changed course to get to the first tug.
The rollers had got a bit bigger and wow we were flying. We were hitting speeds of 72-73mph in big rolling sea and just flying through the air over the top of them, it was so exhilarating. We kept up with the front runners most of the way, when the engines defaulted we slowed but managed to catch back up again when they loosened. Like I said nothing was going to stop me. So much so in fact that when hitting a particularly big wave we landed badly and the boat hooked out violently to 90 degrees throwing me clean out of my seat and half onto the deck. I didn’t care just swore at the damn boat and shot off again!!! Mike’s psyching up idea had certainly worked and he was bravely loving every minute!
We flew through the harbour on Stuart’s tail catching him and Jamie. Again we were merging with other boats but the turns were getting easier and easier as I learnt to manage them and we were just leaving everyone standing.
Then the first incident occurred. Jamie, not known for careful driving…had managed to eject himself and his Co-driver out of the boat so he was out of the race and his Co-driver off to hospital with cracked ribs and a very sore face where his helmet had ripped around in the impact. It was just Stuart and us now in first and second place overall with Mick Archer in his 4 litre boat in 3rd place.
Already the race was making its mark. John Puddifoot (National leader in Formula Two) had blown an entire inboard engine and was being towed home. Then Gareth Williams managed to spectacularly ‘stuff’ his 30 foot Formula Two rib into a nice fat wave and managed to knock himself out when falling into his Co-drivers consol and then lap. So he had a trip off to hospital. Fortunately, nothing more than bad bruising. A number of other teams were having problems and suffering injuries and break downs and it was utter carnage! But we were having a ball and still Stuart and ourselves were playing ‘cat and mouse’. Once again the boat was shrinking in width on those corners!
Then…you guessed it……it just had to go wrong somewhere……we started to lose power to the starboard engine. Slowly at first, going from 6000rpm down to 1000rpm then back up to 6000rpm. I thought it was just the engines defaulting yet again but this was a bit more serious. We then suddenly lost all power to one engine, this was a disaster and we saw Stuart flying off into the distance. However, we still had to complete 70% of the course to gain points and remain second in the National Formula One series. Fortunately Mike very sensibly (I think he had a premonition!) had worked out what 70% of the course was.
So we limped along on one engine hoping that the other would kick in as I tried to restart it (like that was going to happen!). We limped through the harbour and passed the stands (very depressing) and then out to open seas again. Mike then tried to see if he could spot anything and stupidly to avoid throwing him overboard! I slowed, which took me off the plane. What I had forgotten was on one engine there is no way you can get on the plane again.
At this point I can only say that I saw bright red!!!! Mike had said something about 70% but I thought he said we had another 4 laps to go. Now bear in mind that I still had Ozzy Osbourne in my head and nothing was stopping, even rowing was an option! Mike calmly climbed out of his seat to grab the orange flag to say we had retired. At this point I was going absolutely ballistic and I think hysteria (or red mist as racing drivers like to call it) had set in and I was close to punching Mike…and the safety crew and anyone else really……oops! All Mike could see was my bright red face in the helmet screaming at him to put the flag back in its hold. Then he stopped and connected back to the comms and calmly said ‘we’ve done 70%’…well why didn’t you say………..oh the fun of racing. I can honestly say though, with the boats passing us and Stuart in the distance I’m amazed both of us didn’t burst a blood vessel! As it was a few minutes later the other engine lost power as well so even if we had got going it would’nt have been for long.
So we lost, we got points but didn’t finish in the top three obviously. This was so annoying as the boat was going so well and we were a fantastic team. Mike’s navigation was spot on and his new role of informing me of boats which were in ‘smashing into’ reach were avoided (not something we usually have to worry about). We were very very disappointed but that’s racing! Stuart had done a good job and won again giving him the Championship but at least we had got second overall.
I have to admit, when we got towed back and saw the ensuing carnage we realised that actually we had got off lightly!
The problem with the engines was annoyingly straightforward. The batteries had not taken kindly to the pounding of the big waves ( and a season’s hard racing) and had literally broken (we assume the plates inside had smashed). We spent that evening sourcing new ones for the next days ‘Invitation’ Basic Race.
Having sourced new ones, spent hours putting them into a tight corner in the boat, spilling battery acid everywhere and suffering untold stress (well I did !) we finally had the boat ready for Sunday's race. Derek Basham a fellow racing man having a year out was chatting to us, we had 20 minutes to go before being craned in for the start of the race. He suddenly spotted that the metal ‘saddle’ which physically holds the engines onto the transom of the boat, had sheared which meant that any racing would have broken it completely and meant possibly literally losing an engine. So the battery problem had been our saving grace…..I do believe in fate now. So we had the agonising task of watching the final race without taking part. It was fun though and Mike has taken some good photos of our fellow competitors which will be on the website.
Home!
So finally on the Sunday we packed everything and set off home to sunny England. The only real event was when I ran over a policeman with the boat at border control in Gibraltar…but that’s another story for the bar!