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Ramsgate is one of those events where you
are always made to feel very welcome. The harbour officials are
lovely, the craning marshals friendly and efficient and in general
it’s a popular event with competitors and spectators alike. The
only bit about Ramsgate that is not so welcoming is the sea water
which is nearly always as rough as hell and this weekend saw no
exception to that!
The event was held over the weekend with the
V24 canopy boats and children’s classes running over the two days
with the offshore class on Sunday.
Rough sea on the Saturday had caused carnage
for the V24 class and the majority of the fleet suffered damage to
their boats with dashboards coming off, split fuel tanks and split
hulls… not a good omen for the rest of the season.
Sunday dawned and the weather was cloudy and
threatening rain and hail. The wind seemed to have dropped
slightly, but we were running at high spring tide by the harbour
entrance which meant it would be rough whatever the weather.
The mood in the pits was quite cheery but a lot
of us were apprehensive about the conditions as the clouds
darkened and the wind really picked up. It started to remind me
of racing in Scotland!
At 2.15pm we all headed out to the race start. The sea was a mess, steep waves which you couldn’t read. The wind
was howling and it was generally a foul day. Usually one or two
boats will go off for a whiz to warm up before the start but this
time we were all sitting there with the nerves building looking at
the white horses we were due to race in….it’s days like this I’d
rather be shopping!
Chris Strickland handled the start
fantastically and flew the green flag as quickly as possible to
ensure we could get our boats going and it was time to fly.
Normally we’d all have the throttle hard to the
floor but the sea conditions were dreadful and just surviving this
section of the race was enough. There was no point in turning the
boat over in the charge to the first turn buoy!
We then got clear of the harbour area and the
sea settled slightly into a nice swelly head on sea which was
actually OK and easy to read.
As usual we were up with Max Walker in his F1
RIB R69, with Martin Lai in F1 RIB R8 bringing up the rear. We
turned the fourth marker and headed south towards Broadstairs. The
conditions were pretty rough at this stage and it was pouring down
with rain and hail so much that you could not see more than a
hundred metres ahead at one stage.
We were still fighting off Max but just drawing
ahead as we reached the red marker. I asked Mike where Max was,
knowing that he’d be hovering around somewhere trying to take me,
but Mike couldn’t see him.
We carried on and headed back towards the coast
line in some very rough conditions. I am never sure how big the
waves are but they were very steep and breaking on top. My first
reaction was that of fear, these were big! The only way to pass
through this comfortably was to really get on top of the waves. By
doing this you’re not falling into the troughs between the waves
(which is a bit like being in a car and being dropped from a
great height), so with gritted teeth I just kept my foot down hard
to keep the boat going.
I have to admit I was very surprised at how
comfortable it was, as the waves were fairly close together it
really wasn’t too bad and we just popped across the top. The boat
staying mostly level.
We came up to Mark 8 (one of the orange laid
marks), an inflatable pillar and I got a bit over ambitious on the
turn not knowing where Max or Martin was. I dared myself to get
in close and the tube literally slid against it. It felt a little
like go-karting!
We came up to the harbour wall once again. The
sea was rough here and the turn was very tight, we bounced around
the two buoys near the harbour, through the chicane and out to sea
again.
My confidence was building I couldn’t see
anyone around me but the boat was flying along, this was great! I
was pretty relaxed for a rough race!
We turned the next buoy and once again headed
out to sea in a beam sea (which I usually hate). I was feeling
pretty confident at this stage and started to relax…big
mistake…..
The boat hit a very big wave which completely
caught me off guard and tossed the boat high into the air. As it
landed it veered violently first to the right (which unseated us)
and then hooked out completely to the left. Suddenly I was flying
out of my seat in what felt like slow motion and my body totally
left the seat. I was flying backwards over the side! I panicked
thinking I was about to hit the water which was inches from me but
fortunately despite letting go of the steering wheel (which I have
NEVER done before!) my left leg had caught in the console and got
stuck. I was able to use this to pull myself up and back onto the
deck jumping back into my seat (I am now pleased that I suffer the
gym now as it took all my strength to pull myself in with one
leg!). My next thought was rather more panicked…where was Mike!
Mike was worse off, I knew he’d not come out
completely as the kill switch had not stopped the engines.
However, he’d managed to come clean out of his seat and was lying
on his back on the deck, goodness knows how he stayed in!
Unfortunately, I hadn’t realised quite how out of his seat he was
and jumping into my seat and flooring it didn’t help him climb
back in and had him heading to the back of the boat and nearly out
over the engines! I heard a desperate plea to wait a second
whilst he climbed back in (woops!). Just as well he’s fearless!
I knew what I had done wrong and a moment’s
lapse of concentration had nearly caused the boat to go over.
However, we were back on the pace again just in case the others
caught up with us. I had a renewed focus primarily based on not
doing that again!
We had now lost Max and Martin and there were
no other boats up with us which was a bit disappointing as we were
effectively racing on our own. We were using the back markers in
the other classes as something to chase.
We did lap Martin Lai in his F1 RIB, and as we
turned into the leg he was on and caught up with him he obviously
wanted a battle. We both pushed on together. Rounding a turn
completely side by side at about 70mph in rough sea was pretty
exciting, I then put my foot down a little harder, trimmed out and
off we went leaving poor Martin behind and with an eventual broken
gear box (not my fault, honest!).
We were now over halfway into the race and the
sea conditions had improved and I was really driving for fun at
this stage. What Mike hadn’t told me was that we had somehow
managed to ‘spring a leak’ and whilst we had been racing in the
rough stuff he had had pools of water sloshing around his feet!
Fortunately he put on the manual bilge (the automatic one had
broken due to being flooded!) and stopped the water pick up to the
bow tank which solved the problem whilst the race was on, but
thank goodness he didn’t let me know until afterwards (I wondered
why he was so keen to get craned out and not watch others
finish!).
There were no real casualties in the race thank
goodness other than Max’s team. Unfortunately, Max had done
something similar to me and hit a big one out on the furthest
leg. This had chucked his Co-Driver ‘Rigger’ clean out of the
boat. Rigger had climbed back in and off they went all be it a
little more cautiously. Then low and behold on the next lap they
did exactly the same and apparently Rigger was jettisoned quite
spectacularly out of the boat again! Poor Rigger was by now cold
battered and bruised and it was time to retire and try for another
day.
Overall it was a good race for us. We won our
class and the overall race lapping all the other boats and even
some boats twice! Despite the rough conditions we had reached
78mph on some legs which was astonishing because the boat was
running so smoothly it never felt like it!
It was a great confidence giver…..So I think I
may start liking rough sea now!
Onto Exmouth this weekend coming and one of the
first big endurance races of the season….
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