The wet pits were about 3 miles from the dry pits which meant us hauling the boat around Southsea and Portsmouth to get to Camber Docks where we were launching from. The wet pits were shared by a rather large car ferry that once every half an hour appeared carrying trucks and cars and sent powerboats flying in all directions when the captain used the bow thrusters to dock….the joys of racing!
Fortunately this weekend was to be relaxing for us, we had already won the Championships due to our previous wins and consistent performance throughout the year, so the racing was supposed to be an enjoyment without the pressures and whether we won or lost it didn’t really matter…yeh right!
I was determined to finish the season on a high note but sadly the boat had other ideas. The sea in the Portsmouth area is typical Solent slop, lovingly called because you simply cannot read it, sometimes you think you are in a head on sea only to be forced skywards, sideways through the air by a rogue beam wave from a ships wash, so racing here was highly unpleasant.
The F1 boats were starting with the open boats and the V24’s which meant that when the flag dropped we all shot off (about 18 boats) at a similar pace. The V24’s are great to race against, when they come near you can’t hear yourself think due to their exhaust systems being high above the water line and then you have to watch them like a hawk as their visibility is limited, makes for interesting racing!
The course was relatively simple and there was only one lap to be repeated 9 times (yawn) the race was designed to be inshore so that spectators could watch which was fair enough.
So we were off, all stampeding to the first turn mark which happened to be a blooming great fort which had to be kept to port (if you kept it starboard then it was bye bye boat as you hit the submerged submarine barrier!). All of us met the fort at the same time and whilst the next buoy should have been easy to turn at, many of the drivers had different ideas and there were boats coming at all directions!
We just hammered on through and found the yellow buoy pretty soon. By now it was clear that the boat was not its usual self and was very bow down and massively down on power, this as it had turned out was due to some problems with the exhaust system on the port engine. The only way to get the boat anywhere near normal speed was to trim right out. Trouble is, in that kind of sea it’s difficult to retain control of the boat and I found myself using the trim constantly throughout the race. The fact that the boat was so reliant on this type of driving really irritated me as it made it incredibly hard work and left us following the leaders rather than being the leaders!
So much so that I managed to break the trim lever on the dashboard half way round! This only sought to exasperate the problem and meant that trimming was handled with great difficulty with two buttons on the dashboard, not ideal at all as every time I took my hand off the steering wheel to operate the buttons we would hit big wave and I would lose control of the boat.
So to cut a long story short we performed abysmally and came a slow second to Max Walker in Apricot Print. Drew Langdon in Buzzi Bullet was surprisingly having a similar bad time in his boat in which he was in third.
Suffice to say, the boat was up for sale for about an hour after the race (or the scrapheap!).
SUNDAY
The weather on Sunday was very similar but the blood was up and many of the drivers had valuable points to gain on this, the final race of the season.
Once again the flag was raised and once again we all charged to the fort. We had a good run down and whilst the removal of the offending part of the boat had eased the problem slightly the boat was just not its usual self and we started to struggle again. This was infuriating and also gave us another problem, due to the decrease in speed we were now alongside the V24 boats who because they are canopied frequently blow caution to the wind. On the approach to the fort I was aware of some of these boats around me, as I turned the tight turn to the next buoy I realised that a few of the boats were very close to the starboard side of me so I veered closer to the fort to get a better turn only to be greeted by Peter Little and Dave Arthur in their V24. I had effectively cut them off which forced them to slow. This would have been fine were it not for the large wash from our boat which launched the bow of theirs skyward and then down onto he cowling of our engines, this subsequently split the cowling. Well, who said racing was a non contact sport.
We turned around some more buoys and whilst not as slow as Friday were not performing as well as normal. Max Walker was now ahead of us, as was Stuart Anthony, however we were beginning to catch them, so again out went the trim and we raced, no holes barred to catch them.
A couple of laps into the race and it was still hard going, the sea sloppier than before and just not enjoyable. I could see Stuart a few yards in front having an equally bad time of it but we were gaining on him which gave me some motivation.
Then from nowhere a large wash appeared, I cannot remember how big it was but I remember thinking it was large but something I could drive through. Unfortunately, it was beam on so whilst heroic, the idea of driving through it was kamikaze and as we hit the wave we launched upwards and sideways, as we hit the sea the boat hooked veering widely and turning a 180 so that we were facing the opposite way. How we stayed in is beyond me, I seriously thought that we would both end up in the sea. This was perhaps one of the most frightening moments of my race career and holding on for those few seconds seemed like eternity. It was just like being on a rollercoaster but with no harness.
Sadly, this error cost us big time and whilst we managed to keep ahead of Drew Langdon, Stuart and Max were now too far ahead to catch.
This is perhaps when someone like Mike is great as a Co driver. At this point I will not deny that I had given up, as far as I was concerned the race was over and I just wanted to go home. However, Mike knows what motivates me and reminded me that whilst lying third we would soon become fourth to Drew if I didn’t sort my head out! Well that was the rocket that I needed and after that, every time I slowed Mike told me Drew was catching, although I caught Mike out when I turned my head round on a buoy and saw him a whole leg behind, when I asked Mike where Drew was he sheepishly said that he’d lost a lot of ground!
So the end result was depressing and we achieved a third place with Max Walker first, Stuart Anthony second and ourselves third.
However, ours was not the only incident. On the first day the Pro Vees all managed to miss a couple of turn buoys in the course and managed to just carry on heading out towards France with half the safety fleet behind them in pursuit! This must have looked hilarious to the onlooker, a fleet of 7 100+mph 40 foot boats with a number of small Ribs chasing after them at about 40mph!
The slower class of F2 did not disappoint either. The red mist truly hit on Sunday when Richard Strawford managed to hit a wash and barrel rolled his 24 foot RIB ‘Ribellion’ fortunately only pride was damaged, in fact I think Richard quite enjoyed it!
The final incident was with 2 F2 RIBs. Andy and Mel Wilby in their 24 foot RIB and Peter Berrows and Peter Phillipson in their revenger ‘Step Forward’. Andy was pushing very hard into a corner and managed to hook out straight into the path of Peter Berrows boat. Pete took avoiding action however not before his propeller and stern had ripped the tubes on the side of the boat and torn through the side of the hull and seat. Fortunately Andy was thrown away from this and whilst suffering bad bruising was OK. His father (co-driver) sadly wasn’t and suffered a severe dislocated shoulder and severe bruising. However, it could have been so much worse. Both crew seem to have followed a number of similar incidents this year where boats have barrel rolled, hooked or turned over and just goes to show the competitive nature of the sport.
For us, well despite our disaster in Portsmouth our fantastic performances over the year enabled us to keep our championships, which now mean we are officially British F1 Champions! This has been down to a huge team effort not just from us but Marinautic (Chris Lewis and Gareth) who have worked long and hard on the boat to keep it together for the season. This has been a winning combination!