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Endurance Race - Day 1
This race report will
take a different format from the usual ones. Basically it was
one hell of a bad weekend and we didn’t finish one race! So I
thought maybe a few days in the life of a raceboat team in angst
would be a better format..here goes!
It all started on the way to the race. First
the taxi turned up late, the driver having overslept…well it was
4am in the morning. So the journey to the airport was rather
stressful and the atmosphere in the car was uneasy, basically I
wanted to rip the driver out of the seat and shove my foot down
and get us there, but one has to behaveL
We then got to the airport with our nice new props just over
from the States. Obviously we had to pay excess baggage and
after telling the airline that they were fragile we took them to
‘Gate X’ where they would be treated as fragile goods for the
journey.
We had to fly via Rome to Brindisi. Got to
Rome and there was a powercut. No air con, no security, a
nightmare. However, I did find a great Italian shoe shop with a
sale on….thank goodness for small mercies! The flight was
delayed, now there’s a surprise.
We then got Brindisi and guess what, no
props! Apparently they had not got on the plane in London, why
was this? The pilot managed to so why not the props, is it
really so difficult? So that was the start. The props ended up
on the next flight, but after all that, Alitalia had managed to
damage them (what part of FRAGILE didn’t they understand?)
rendering them useless and therefore the whole saga was for
nothing.
So we traipsed on, finally found our hire car
(the hire car man was having a nap and couldn’t get us the car
for a while, a nice hard boot in a well known area should have
done the trick. We got to the pits, checked the boat was OK, had
a couple of meetings to ‘discuss’ the new potential rules for
next year and went out for the evening.
The next day was for testing only. We think
we had bad luck. We were doing some interviews and getting ready
to fuel when we suddenly heard a commotion and heard that the
Evolution boat Thuraya had caught fire whilst testing. The poor
crew had jumped ship to then stay in the water and watch the
boat burn. Now that was truly awful. I felt so sorry for the
crew. After 20 years of racing a boat it becomes your friend
(well it does if it works that is) and part of you. The team
were distraught but vowed to put it back together if only to put
Thuraya in a museum somewhere, but they are hopeful to drive it
again, I hope so. I truly hope they do as this was a very sad
moment in powerboat history.
Our bad luck whilst not as severe, was still
ongoing, in fact it felt never ending really. We had to go to
fuel which was in another marine further around the coast. The
pump must have been the slowest in history and with Kerakoll
fuelling ahead of us we had to wait an age before we could fuel.
It was hot and we were just waiting with the engine running when
I smelt the smell of coolant…umm getting a bit worried. Then
slowly steam started to come out of the vents in the boat. One
of the engines was badly overheating and coolant was leaking
everywhere. We quickly turned the engine off which then made it
great fun to manoeuvre the boat into the small mooring space for
fuelling. Then when we got there, guess what….they only took
cash! Thank goodness the faithful pink handbag as always was on
the boat and Mark who had come to help us also had enough with
his, so we pooled all our cash to buy the fuel then limped back
on one engine.
Poor Steve our mechanic then had to hastily
try to fix the problem. There would be no testing for us that
day.
The next day we were up early and rushing to
test. The testing slot was running very late and we were
wondering if we would run out of time. The weather was getting
hotter and hotter with the canopies reaching over 50 degrees it
was literally like an oven.
So we rushed out testing, did half a lap and
one of the engines started to shut itself down. Blasted thing,
it was really annoying, we’d spent 3 weeks just dying to get out
in the boat again and it did this!
So we rushed back to Steve again who did some
more work and then off we went again. We had a few minutes of
test time left but so there was the usual last minute panic,
particularly as Mike and I had just put our shorts on. We have
never put helmets and race suits on so quickly, we were quicker
than a costume change at a Kyle concert!
This time the boat was OK. Great….we thought.
By now it was so incredibly hot. Mike was
really suffering in the heat and practically passing out, and
kept having to down energy drinks and water. I have never drunk
so much water in my life. The guys on the team were also
suffering in the heat, at least we could rest in the shade but
they were still working on the boat with no respite.
Finally we got to the muster area, for 15
minutes we circled waiting for the start. We’d worked the course
out and I knew exactly where I wanted to be on the start line.
The smoke flare was let off, the flags were off and we were
underway! Off we shot with a great start and the boat flying and
right on track for a great turn, and then …you guessed it….the
engine died again. We could not believe it (Victor Meldrew!)
we’d gone from being a front runner to mid field.
Now what were we to do? The only thing to do
was to run the boat and keep resetting the rogue engine. You do
this by literally turning the engine off then on again whilst
running. The momentum from the other engine keeps you going but
you have to do it really quickly. Now that’s easier said than
done. For several reasons;
There are two switches per engine, one turns
on the power/pumps etc and the other is the ignition. This means
you have to turn one off, and then flick the power back on and
then ignition. When you’re driving a boat at high speed in a
race that’s not fun!
The other problem was that one minute we’d be
flying along at high speed both engines on full revs, then you
lose one and the boat just has one big wobbly moment. So not
only are you trying to reset the rogue engine but you’re
fighting the boat as well….nice!
At one point Chaudron went past and as the
wash hit us the engine fainted again, BIG wobble on at that
moment and even the cabin door flew open in fear!
So this went on for 7 laps and about 45
minutes, on off, on off, on off … my co-ordination has improved
immensely!
We did see the funny side though. The Belgium
ForOne team in their green rib went past us (which I know its
sounds big headed but it is unusual
J
). As they went past all four of us waved and cheered. It looked
like we were out on a jaunt to the pub…I wish! That was funny
though.
Then about half a mile from the 70% mark
(where we would at least have earned a handful of points for
finishing last) there was that dreaded smell, a cross between
coolant and burning. Thuraya went through my mind.
We stopped and Mike opened the hatch and once
again we had coolant everywhere. The engine was seriously
overheating and we were basically stuffed. Just to add to the
fun, whilst Mike was looking at the engines, the helicopter
hovered so close to the boat that it threw sea water all over
the engines ... thanks! In we limped, the first ever retirement
in that boat, the second in our career racing together. Very
sad.
We then had to be towed in as the master
engine had overheated and we had no steering….how embarrassing!
Poor Steve was now resigned to spending
several hours in the afternoon heat in the engine bay. The poor
guy looked like he had spent the afternoon in a sauna!
The only thing to do was to drown our sorrows
in the bar with the ForOne Belgium team who had once again run
out of fuel in the race. They saw the funny side and we consoled
each other over a few Martinis!
Ok, so now you think it cannot get worse…..
We refuelled the boat Sunday morning, with
Steve having spent many hours on the boat. He wanted to make
sure everything worked so we decided to attach a computer to
each engine and go out testing with him to make sure we had
cured the problem. So off we went testing again, two very
healthy laps with the boat running well and no errors on the
engines……we were back!
But nope…..once again, we mustered, once
again we managed a great start….once again within 5 minutes the
engine fainted….but not the fixed one…..the other one! I ask
you! This time it was a different problem and so bad that the
boat was hardly going forward. Even doing the on off thing with
the ignition did not reset them this time, once again the
blasted thing had let us down.
I cannot tell you how gutted we were, it was
probably one of the most desperate moments of my life. You feel
so out of control of the situation when these things happen, its
just agony.
We limped home, chucked the boat on the lorry
and that was that. Steve now has his work cut out trying to
figure out what is wrong. Please anyone reading this report send
many positive thought waves our way!!
But that was not all…..oh no, our weekend was
not over.
We have a new member of team, William, who is
an engineer and passionate about powerboat racing. William had
done a lot of running about in the heat and early evening when
we started to go out for a meal, he was feeling dizzy, next
thing he was on the floor out cold. Poor William had got
heatstroke and passed out! We finally sorted him out, fed and
watered him and we was feeling much better the next day I am
pleased to report!
You think it’s over…..nope. The final, final
straw was getting to Heathrow airport. Alitalia not content on
losing and then damaging some very expensive propellers, had
proceeded to lose our luggage! Well isn’t that just great!
Please no one ever ask me about this weekend,
I have now officially blanked it from memory!
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