OPC was the PR company owned by John and Hilary Chitty, based in Sutton, Surrey. One of their primary employees was Diana Willows, who lives in Betchworth and still keeps in touch with Hilary. In the 70's OPC was the Marketing company for both Yamaha and Fletcher and ran the works racing teams for both, as well as organising the first 24 hour powerboat marathon on Theale lake, then the first Round Britain event completed by five Fletcher/Yamaha boats, the largest of which was 14 feet long.
I remember the elation on receiving news of my first 'works' drive at the boat show of 1979. I was to be given a new Yamaha 55, which I elected to put on a Picton 136, instead of accepting a foc works Fletcher 129.
I was trounced into second place by Paddy Reilly in one of the other 'works' rigs, but subsequently married his daughter, so he never beat me again. In those days we had the works Yamaha mechanics: Mark Abbot Cole, Mark Coleman and Bill Brown at most events. Fantastic! If you flipped, which was frequent, by the time you returned from the ambulance, your boat was rebuilt, re-electriced and ready to race again. All one had to do was keep MAC in vast quantities of food. As BlueFin says, OPC also ran the London Monte Carlo and the annual BP Brighton International. In those days, we used to be lined up at the start in a 13'/55hp boat surrounded by, say, Limit Up on one beam, Scanlite the other and 70 Class 1,2 and 3 boats jostling for position. When the flag dropped, it was go like hell and get past the first mark before the Class 1's overhauled, otherwise you could easily get run over or swamped. However, when John Chitty was starter, we learned that he would always confer before dropping the flag, so the minute he turned around to speak, we all floored it, leaving him no option.
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