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The Grand Prix of Naples

26th-27th May 2007

Grand Prix of Naples – Race 1

Italy has never been the best place for us to race in. Last year we managed a sum total of zero points from four races having one disqualification and two breakdowns in the four races we took part in. So we had a lot to improve going to Naples. Naples is a very interesting city, incredibly busy on the roads, but a bustling city with a fun atmosphere. The Bay of Naples has two stunning backdrops, Naples itself with her beautiful buildings and castles and then in the distance, Vesuvius the volcano (This mountain has erupted more than 50 times since the eruption in 79 A.D.). The harbour itself was incredibly busy with cruise ships, ferries, and cargo ships entering in and out all of the time.

The atmosphere in the pits was buzzing, a lot of new boats had turned up which included two Fountains, a Skater, and another Donzi. An amazing turnout of well known boats and crew had you feeling that you were really taking part in a Formula One Grand Prix. I was expecting Murray Walker to appear any moment!

Friday was test day, all the boats were launched and we went out in small groups to test on a short course. After the usual additional Italian hour waiting for the test course to open, we had our chance to shake out the cobwebs from last month and really focus on the job in hand. Off we went out to sea ready for a bit of a whiz….well so we thought.

Within about half a mile I knew something was wrong, the engines refused to rev over 4000, (they are normally well over 5000) and we were stuck like that doing 72 mph. The guardian mode had come on to tell us something was wrong. One of the batteries appeared to be down on volts so we headed back to the pits. Steve Causley of Race and Marine and our technical manager, did a quick change over and out we went again. She was a bit better this time but not 100%, but we’d ran out of test time so we had to grin and bear it and test again in the morning. Next morning we tested again and once again had issues but Steve did a bit of tweaking and we were running OK.

The racing started early on both days at 12.30pm. So at 12.15 we were let out of the harbour and did a brief boat parade then went to muster (which nearly turned into a full blown race when some of the teams got a little over enthusiastic!!).

The start procedure was to be slightly different to normal to give all 20 boats time to get themselves organised…big mistake! The ‘plan’ was to take the start boat through the lap gate drive up behind the field and draw up alongside and start the race. The first mistake was that the start boat put the yellow flag up before going through the lap gate. This has the same effect on a powerboat team as slapping a horse on the hindquarters, everyone was off, but some were incorrectly following the start boat and some were trying to go where they were told to. The net result being 20 adrenalin filled powerboat teams all trying to find the start and many pointing the wrong way. What a nightmare! 

So alas, many teams got a terrible start which included us. Roscioli Hotels were about 15 seconds ahead of us and Drew Langdon who faired better was second with us manically in catch up mode in third. My heart was racing at this point as we seemed a long way down the field, surrounded by some of the evolution boats and it wasn’t going to be easy, but there was no time to waste.

We headed around the first two bends with Drew Langdon in Buzzi Bullet 2 in our sights and several Evolution boats on our side. We caught Buzzi Bullet 2 coming into the turn at the lap gate, we took a relatively tight turn to the left with Drew hugging the inside, unfortunately Drew’s turn was not so tight and both boats were inches from colliding on a sharp bend at 75mph. However, the risk was worth it and we’d now got past Drew but there was no time to relax. Roscioli Hotels was ahead and not giving away a second.

We now had one large turn to the right, then a sort of chicane to the left taking us past the castle and then we had CIF and the other Evolution boats ahead. CIF was about 50 metres ahead of us pouring out more smoke than a bonfire on Guy Fawkes night, so much so that we could not see a thing. Once we’d pulled out around him we were off past him and after Roscioli Hotels. Its really off-putting when you cannot see where you are going because of smoke, I did wonder if the volcano had taken a turn for the worse!

We headed up to the F marker, where the sea was fast but a beam (sideways) chop meant that you had to make sure you were focussed, beam sea with wash from other boats can catch a driver out very quickly and lose you precious speed. We came up to the F marker, turned fast and were now headed towards G and Vesuvius. Another fast turn and we headed back towards the harbour. Along this stretch we were headed into a bit of a swell, nothing too big but enough to get a few airborne moments (my favourite!).

This leg had us headed towards the harbour wall. This was not for the faint hearted, hurtling towards a harbour wall at 80+mph with a tight turn looming is not pleasant. Your head tells you not to be blooming stupid and slow down, the heart tells you to stop being a woos and get going; the heart won!

We’d now overtaken all of the Supersport boats and the slower Evolution boats and it was really just between us and Roscioli. We were trying like mad to catch them and the gap was very slowly closing. Their rooster was coming closer and closer and we knew where we were quicker and where they were quicker. We were putting pressure on them and they knew it. We came past the castle and flung the boat around the corner, turned and sling-shotted the next, hitting a steady 80mph through each turn. I was really feeling confident we’d catch them.

Third lap in and we came up to buoy F again, got a great turn and flew past the buoy when Mike said ‘Oh No!’ and I turned my head and there was the nose of OSG poking out of the water. A horrifying sight, I tried to keep focussed and not consider what may have happened, the only thing I was hanging onto was that they had not stopped the race so the crew must be OK.

As we came into the fourth lap, we were really catching them now, one more lap and if we could just keep this pace up then we could get level with them.

We turned out from buoy E, a fast turn, with the boat running smooth and level. Whilst we were under great pressure we worked as a team and it felt great. Then, I suddenly felt a jerk on the wheel and the boat lurched over to the left, then another… My heart froze, I looked at the revs and the starboard engine was losing revs. I just ignored it for a second, surely it wasn’t what I thought it was. We continued on and every so often the boat jerked to the left purely due to the fact that the engines were running so unevenly.

Another lap and it was getting worse, we turned around Buoy F again and the revs started dropping once again. This time to alarming levels. We knew we were in trouble. The engine management system was telling the boat something was wrong and was therefore protecting itself. There are really times when I wish it wouldn’t bother and just let us get on with the job! Slowly and surely the problem got worse and worse. We then tried to pull over and switch all the electrics to off mode to reset the system. By now Roscioli was gone and our hearts sank, it was the Italian gremlins again.

Pulling off the course was agony as first Drew Langdon in Buzzi Bullet 2 and then Chaudron passed us by.

We turned the electrics back on and set off again but within a minute we were back to square one again. Mike’s GPS had also gone down when the electrics went off so we now had one engine about to die, had to wait for the GPS to restart and I couldn’t see a thing because the bow was up so high from the lack of power from the engines. At this point there was more volcanic activity in that boat than Vesuvius in her hey day! We had both completely lost our temper with the boat. We limped on for another two laps like this, turning the engines off and on and getting slower and slower. Waving at the other teams encouragingly as they went by was the only fun we were now having!

We were now down to only 10% power in the starboard engine, 10%!! So effectively off the plane. To make matters worse the other engine was complaining at the work it was doing and started to rev all over the place. We knew that the lead boats had now finished and we had 30 minutes to reach the end otherwise we would not gain a position and therefore no points. We had 2 miles to go in 30 minutes in a boat that was doing anything between 10 mph and 20mph. It was tense!!!

We passed Martin Lai in Sun Lik who had also broken down, if not for the time limit we would have stopped for a Sun Lik Beer! We waved at each other and then carried on, still a sociable team even in the face of adversity!!!

Finally, we limped across the finish line with 15 minutes to spare. The crowds cheered and klaxons went off, and Mike who was standing at this point to see over the bow so as to direct me safely through the lap gate took a bow at the crowd and the other teams to thank them for their patience waiting for us to finish. How embarrassing!

Anyway, it was worth it as we got fifth place and the accompanying all important points. We had now scored more points in Italy this season, than we had all last season in Italy from 4 races! Now the team had their work cut out to solve the problems and make sure there was no repeat…..would they succeed?.......

The results for SuperSport were as follows:

Grand Prix of Naples – Race 2

The poor crew did not finish until 10:30pm that night.  At the time of doing this report we still don’t know what the problem is so all the sensors, electrics and more, were replaced. Everyone’s nerves were fraught and today was going to be very tense, another breakdown would be unacceptable. We were going to run out of time really fast so launched the boat early at 7.30am (thanks to a wonderful crane driver who got up particularly early for us!).  We went across to the fuelling berth and then got ready to test. Going out to the fuel berth she’d not felt brilliant, but it’s always difficult to tell really for such a short stretch.

During testing we did a lap just to sanity check that everything was OK, she was running OK, not brilliantly but OK.

The start procedure had been changed to something we were more familiar with. We all lined up in a long line and made our choices based on the turn buoy and boats around us as to where to be. We ended up between King of Shaves and Wettpunkt which did not turn out to be very helpful.

The flags went up and thankfully it was a quick start, the boat was at last flying and felt pretty good. I could see Roscioli slightly behind us to the left and we had a good line to the first turn buoy. Unfortunately we got ourselves in the middle of the clash of the titans between evolution boats Wettpunkt, King of Shaves and one other. 

Wettpunkt was being forced into us by the boat to their right and we had King of Shaves to our left who were not giving away anything, we were getting squashed.  Their additional horsepower and acceleration fortunately meant we weren’t landed on as they moved ahead, but Wettpunkt crossed in front of us and we got one hell of a dousing, completely blind for about 5 seconds (which seems much much longer!). Travelling blind at speeds in excess of 80mph with boats and white spray all around can be nerve wracking, you hope and pray that no one will hook out or come across as there is absolutely nothing you can do about it.

Click here to see video of us getting Wettpunkt's rooster, and a really aggressive overtaking manoeuvre by Fountain.

So we got clear of these three and got a pretty good turn. The boat was running OK, a bit down on revs but still producing good speed but she was lurching from side to side. I put this down to the washes from the other boats, but she just kept falling off the wash whereas normally you don’t really notice them that much.

We lurched on up the leg towards the famous harbour ‘don’t run into me’ wall, and just before the turn Roscioli got us. Mike and I had not seen them, a mistake on our part for not paying attention. One BIG lesson learnt. One volcanic moment in the boat once again!!  Now we agonisingly got their stern in our faces. Not happy!

We ran through the lap gate and the boat was still OK, running well in fact. We took a great turn through the lap gate and then through my now favourite chicane. However the boat was lurching along like a small ski boat in rough water. Maybe it was the water conditions, but I was carefully watching Roscioli and they were having no such problems. Every wash and wave on the ‘beamy’ leg to Buoy F seemed to lurch the boat from one side to the next, just staying upright was proving a tad difficult.  Everything was running through my mind, had one of the trim tabs slipped down or broken, had we unbalanced the boat with some weight in the wrong place?  I was wracking my brains.

A combination of hanging on for dear life and trimming enabled us to keep the speed and although she wasn’t running her best we were definitely keeping the pressure on Roscioli with only about 4-5 seconds difference between the two boats.

We then hit my favourite leg towards the volcano. The swell had got slightly bigger today and wow we took some great fliers!  I keep grinning just at the thought of them.  That feeling as you come up to a big swell. We came up to one largish one with others behind, I could back off and glance off them all or take a big one and take them all in one go. As our boat likes to fly so much (!) I went for the latter choice and floored it at the appropriate moment, up she came beautifully level, totally out of the air, props and all, off came the throttle and she flew straight and level….stunning!  Then the props hit the water, I throttled hard and she landed softly and off we went….now that is why I race boats  (BIG GRIN!).

We were now coming to the infamous wall, Roscioli just ahead. Mike and I were working as a complete team discussing tactics, do we try taking them on the inside or the outside? Or stay behind and pick another moment. We lurched inside them, the boat once again jerking at the wheel as it lumbered over the wash of Roscioli, bang, bang, as the boat lurched from side to side! We tried to take them on the inside of the next turn but they blocked us as we approached making us change tact. They were good!

We went through the lap gate and then onto the red buoys around the castle. The plan was that they normally went wide here so we’d cut in short on their inside. I threw the boat around the corner and she skitted over the wash (what the hell was wrong with this boat!), we got the turn we wanted and caught them up to the next buoy, they were a boat length ahead and just there before us, sensibly cutting us off in our tracks, but no way was I backing off, for the first time I would have been happy to have bashed them in the stern if need be (but very safely of course!). 

We kept to their outside keeping the speed up for the sweeping turn, there was absolutely nothing in it and we were so close!  Both boats tore up the long leg to F.  Then she started lurching again, chining from side to side almost out of control. I tried not to back off but when it got to the point of no return I just had to blip the throttle to bring her back which ultimately cost us.

We were still about 4-5 seconds behind when we hit my favourite stretch to the volcano and then the wall. More fliers and grin inducing moments and we were getting painfully close again! Once again, should we stay on their outside or inside.  This time we kept them guessing staying on the outside, which was OK and did not lose us anything but prevented us from taking them. We got mightily close to that harbour wall! After the fourth lap I was keeping a close eye on that rev counter as it was about then on Saturday’s race that we had had problems, fortunately we were OK!

Both boats shot through the lap gate. As we went through we decided to try again to take a tighter turn to Roscioli’s inside to get on their outside for the next turn. That worked but crossing their wash with a boat that was a bit untidy cost us speed. This time we kept to their outside, we could see them turning their heads and watching us, they were worried, so was I, this was a short sprint race and we were running out of laps!! Only 2 more to go, we were catching them but it just was not enough, were we ever going to do it?

This is where its so important to keep your head, not get too fraught because you cannot quite catch them. If you do you make mistakes, but also you must not give in and settle for second. We still had one and a half laps to go, we could do it! 

Once again we caught them on my favourite legs. This time we had it worked out, we knew which side of them we wanted to be, but we were being a bit too clever and a lack of commitment and agreement on a single turn cost us valuable seconds. I would honestly say it was the only real error of judgement we had made together for the whole race, but we just somehow got it wrong. We could feel the gap widening and there was little other than a turbo booster, anyone could do about it.

To make matters worse as we turned buoy F we got mixed up in the wash of Wettpunkt and King of Shaves, a combination of this, trying a bit too hard and our unbalanced boat meant she was totally out of shape, which cost us dear. Sadly, although we truly had fought to the end Rosciolo had got us. They had driven brilliantly and their boat just had the edge on ours. But it had been one hell of a race.

The constant lurching and difficulty in turning to the right turned out to be caused by damage to the hull. We had obviously hit something in the water very early on which had ripped off one of the back chine rails (rails which are there to stabilise the boat). The result of that would be a boat which behaved as described above and was very unbalanced. 

Overall, whilst disappointed to have lost that battle, we were pleased with the result.  After yesterday the team had worked incredibly hard and this had paid off with a great second place. We know the boat can run better so Roscioli had better watch out!!

Click here to see video of the battle between Extremeboat and Roscioli  (may take a couple of minutes to load)

Overall we achieved third in the Grand Prix so a few glasses of champagne from Jarvis of St James had us all smilingly as the sunset. It had been a fantastic weekend of racing and proved that no matter what, racing is never a foregone conclusion! On to Germany!

The results for SuperSport were as follows:

For the Saturday endurance race, we ran the start lap covering a distance of 5.28nm followed by 11 laps of the full lap (shown below) each of which was 6.79nm for a total race length of 79.68nm.

For the Sunday sprint race, we covered the start lap followed by 7 laps of the full lap for a total race length of 52.63nm.

All the marks on the course were laid yellow pillar buoys, other than the two at marks B a C (centre top in the chart below) which were red. The Muster area (marked "M" on the charts) was right by the harbour wall.

The numbers in the black boxes show the bearing (direction) we have to race in.

The numbers in the brown circles show the direction we have to turn to at each laid mark, in terms of numbers on a clock face. So, the number 9 in the brown circle at the bottom left of the picture at Mark F means that we had to turn left to 9 o’clock.

The red arrows show the direction of the course which was anti-clockwise for each of the laps.

The chequered box (A and A1) represents the lap line in front of the yacht club in the Naples harbour.