A snippet or two of old video

[Jon Fuller]

courtesy of Ben.

been trawling through the million hours of video that Ben has from the last 15 years of racing here in the UK.

will post many short clips, starting with this from 1996, two nobbers in an Extreme 26 at the Gosport race.

Also shows Peter 'gis a drink' Berrow in his 25 Revenger

also note the 'King' of backdrafts, Pete Little, looking good.

Gosport '96 Video

PS.you gotta dig David Graham Smiths comentary whilst filming

[Jon Fuller]

One year later, same event, same two nobbas in the Mk II Extreme race boat T-1 (yellow)

Roger Severy in hot persuit in the new P28 'Wentworth Auto' T-97

Mr Noisy goes mr quiet very early on!

We beat Roger by 6 seconds in that race, which considering how flat it was, was the writing on the wall for me that we had our work cut out, as he was much quicker than us when it really chopped up.

We'd had it pretty easy for a couple of years, in rough or flat water, so this was a bit of a wake up call. We still oversleped tho' as Roger beat us in '97 in the National standing by one point.

Gosport '97 Video

[Foolish]

Nice sound ... *** F***** from Shepperton

[Jon Fuller]

Back to 1995, a few 'T' boats, including a now famously slow one 'Absolutely Ridiculous'...see if you can spot it.

Competitors in vid include, Ben Mazur, Michael Sweeting, John Eberhart, Craig Elliott, Peter 'gis a pint' Berrow, John 'burden by name..' Burden, Barry 'Duke of York' Cass, and more

Bournemouth '95 Video

[Foolish]

at "1.06" the rescue boat was twice as quick ....

[Jon Fuller]

...Appears in 1995.

Spot the 1.3L arse spanker, Ian Cutler, climbing aboard his 17' Forgecraft 'Heavy Metal' ('Large it', on Boatmad) Navigator was 'Lorrenzo' Bellamy

Mystery boatbuilder Video

[Captain Chaos]

jon, how much better Q are your original rips?

[Ciao]

Originally posted by Jon Fuller
...Appears in 1995.

Spot the 1.3L arse spanker, Ian Cutler, climbing aboard his 17' Forgecraft 'Heavy Metal' ('Large it', on Boatmad) Navigator was 'Lorrenzo' Bellamy

Mystery boatbuilder

I am interested in the term (1.3 L arse spanker).

In 1995 we won two heats of the World Championship (breaking down in the Heat 1) with Mr Cutler a long way behind us in |Heat 2 and 3.

In the UKOBA series we won at Newhavon, Hull, Bournemouth and were D/Q' d first place at Falmouth due to me taking Wilson the wrong side of a mark.

Ian won the UKOBA series by a point from us ...

Hardly "arse spanking".

Oh and went to Windermere and set outright speed and endurance records.

[Jon Fuller]

tetchy, tetchy!

If I remember right, the following year, it was set out differently, with seporate national records (speed & enduro) for Monos & Cats, a little fairer given that it's an 'Offshore' class, setting records on a lake and no one ever disputed that the cats are quicker on flat water.

I believe Ian set endurance & speed records that following year for his 'monohull' discipline, albeit slower than the cat speeds in 'Large It'.

[Ciao]

Originally posted by Jon Fuller
albeit slower than the cat speeds in 'Large It'.

nearly 20mph slower.

[Jon Fuller]

20mph! wow, So how comes he beat you in the championship?

[Jon Fuller]

in 96 the cat record stood at 68.98mph, and the mono stood at 58.28mph, i make that a little closer to 10mph

[Ciao]

Far better navigator, better prep (I even leant him an engine), and we didn’t do all the races coz Wilson couldn’t always get over to England.

[Ciao]

Originally posted by Jon Fuller
in 96 the cat record stood at 68.98mph, and the mono stood at 58.28mph, i make that a little closer to 10mph

I stand corrected...still quite a bit though isn't it.

The way the records stand now is even more dramatic, 83 mph for the cat, 60 mph for the mono.

[Jon Fuller]

It certainly is!

who holds the cat record now? (i only have PB104, Magnus Osterholm, 83.16mph)

[Ciao]

MAGNUS OSTERHOLM 83.16 mph. 1998! We ran an 83 one way in 2001 but couldn't get the speed the on the return run.

Probably should have used more of Geoff Purves "jungle juice" LOL!

The 83 mph up run was done by running the motor so high that for 3/4 of the way we were not picking up any water....you dont get many chances before BANG!

[Jon Fuller]

Russian Roulette

[Ciao]

Indeed, and its bloody noisy with the overheat buzzer screaming !! It is a real shame that the RYA in their wisdom decided to cancel the class.

[kiwiracer]

in the poole95 race, what was the story with the boat going so slow
poor propellor selection?

[Jon Fuller]

Originally posted by kiwiracer
in the poole95 race, what was the story with the boat going so slow
poor propellor selection?

The boat was named 'Absolutely Fabulous', and was basically the result of some optomistic thinking about the performance of such a large (35') boat, with such small powerplants, it had a pair of Volvo 'E' drives from the 70's, they were like a minature version of a Speedmaster, coupled to two old aluminium blocked 3.5 litre Rover V-8 car engines (Buick). With the best will in the world, they were 155hp each, and whilst it was quite light, I don't think it did over about 35mph. competitive boats in that class were running over twice that speed.

It did get a mechanical face lift, in the form of a single Mercruiser 425hp big block on a TRS drive, in place of the Rovers, but still didn't really go any quicker.

In that race (poole95), I very nearly ran into the back of 'Absolutely Ridiculous' approaching a turn at 70 odd mph,when I missjudged just how slow they were going, I thought they'd be out of the way by the time I got to the turn!

Ben showed me some great footage of the boat being 'revved up' in the pits, and a little interview with the owner, but I can't seem to find it in the collection of videos he left me with.

If I find it, i'll post it, very entertaining!