Round Britain 2008

[verytricky]

Originally Posted by Jon Fuller

Maybe their understanding of the challenge, and preparation is better.

I reckon 90% of failures in racing are down to instalation and rigging, and understanding what they're doing, or rather not. Not problems with the kit itself.

You've only got to take a wee tour of some of the rigging on race boats that people aparently think is going to go the distance.
The words "A clue" and , "Not a f*cking" spring to mind, but not necessarily in that order.

Except in your case of course........

[Jon Fuller]

Originally Posted by verytricky

Except in your case of course........

Edzackery

[Mike Lloyd]

Just had this in from the Gee Team, makes for fascinating and enjoyable reading for anyone interested in endurance racing. Full story with pics on the RB08 Club page.

Round Britain Offshore Powerboat Race June 2008.

Diary entry of thoughts during race preparation of Gee ‘185’ and daily experiences during each leg 21st – 30th June 2008.

18th March – 20th June –Race preparation - Chris Clayton

Pre race preparation - Tuesday 18th March was a special day as it was the last time Gee was running with her Ford Sabre 300hp engines for her final voyage from Premier Gosport Marina to Swanwich Marina in the Hamble in preparation for her new Cummins QSB 480hp engines and Raymarine navigation equipment.

It was a wonderful crossing as the sun shone through broken cloud over a very quite Solent. We were one of the few boats out and it felt rather surreal as we anticipated what was ahead in the coming months to prepare Gee for the Round Britain. She was sounding and looking her best as we arrived down the Solent for her lift out.

Cummins engineers from the on site office came down to the pontoon to see Gee for the first time. A beautiful sight and real excitement started to set in, knowing that Gee was going to be re-united with her original engine manufacturers from 1967.

She was lifted later that afternoon onto the hard and given a tented covering.

The first 6 weeks saw nothing more that the boat being stripped of all its interior, engines, stern gear, electrics, etc, etc. I was starting to worry what was happening to Gee, dismantling a perfect boat, that had been refurbished 18 months earlier and was now looking rather sad, an empty shell with a whole load of parts all over the floor. The Beaulieu boat jumble came to mind!

Over the next month, not a single thing had been left alone. At last we were suddenly starting to put equipment back on the boat. The hull structure had been completely checked, engine beds, tanks and V drive brackets all upgraded and we were awaiting new P brackets, shafts and props.

Only 2 weeks to go before the race, a dedicated team of more than 10 were beavering away, shipwrights, painters, the Cummins engineering team, general engineers and electricians all working round each other and fabricators coming and going. The pressure was really mounting and I was not feeling at all comfortable that we were going to be ready.

Cummins’ work programme for the fitting of their engines was now delayed by 2 weeks due to the extensive work that Gee was receiving. Cummins were certainly under pressure when we finally managed to get our new V-drive gears from Italy so they could be fitted to suit the new engine gear box package

Finally, one week before the race, we were able to get our new engines craned in, (what a relief!) but so much more had to be plumbed in.

Gee was launched Wednesday 18th June after many postponements having booked and cancelled the crane 4 times before.

That evening after all hands had completed working on her, we took her out for her maiden voyage on Southampton water where we opened her right up. Our starboard trim tab was not working properly and we returned back to Swanwich marina having taken engine data.

The next morning we had finishing work to do to the engines, electrics, sorting out trim tab problems and fitting all remaining parts to get through scruitineering.
It was approximately 2.30pm before we were ready for another run. Once out on the water we realised that our top speed was well short of expectations, time was running on and we brought her back to the Hamble prior to the crane lift closing so we could get her lifted out and have her props removed.

It was approximately 3.45pm when I phoned Premier Swanwich for a lift out, but the crane operator had gone home. We motored down the Hamble approaching every boat yard with crane-out facilities until we found the excellent Hamble Yacht services coming to our rescue. They had closed, but were able to call back their crane staff. What a relief but panic set in as we were due at the drivers briefing in Portsmouth in ½ hour.

Our project manager, in his support rib was racing his way to Swanwich Marina to find the crane banksman when I telephoned him to race back to Hamble Yacht Services to collect us. He dropped us by rib to Swanwich Marina where we jumped into our car to get to the race briefing. John Guille stayed behind with Gee to get her lifted.

We were in trouble as everyone in the race crew had to sign in and only 3 made it by the skin of their teeth. Our competitors asked how ‘Gee’ was. I just told them I am not sure we are going to be ready?

At 4 a.m. the next morning, Richard Hosking, our Navigator drove to Clements engineering in Bedford, to get the props re-pitched. He arrived at 6 a.m as the factory opened and 3 hours later was back on the road to Hamble Yacht Services arriving back just after midday.

We were holding a pre-race reception at Tiger Tiger, Gunwharf Quays, and had told guests that Gee would be arriving at 12 midday. Gee eventually arrived to
great applause from the balcony at 2.30pm, just in time for the last scrutineering slot of the day that had been given to us. My brother Paul described his feeling of her arrival into Gunwharf Quays as like seeing the Royal Yacht!

The scrutineers went to work and after half an hour produced a long list of items requiring attention. John, Nathan and Kevin completed everything to the scrutineer’s satisfaction, whilst my brothers and I attended to photo shoots with our sponsors and journalists, before us all having to rush off to a 4 p.m. race meeting. It was a complete whirlwind.

21st June – Portsmouth to Plymouth - Chris Clayton
Gee finishes in 1st place

The race morning involved arranging friends and our land support team and photographer, to witness the race start aboard a friend’s boat. We left Gunwharf Quays at 8.15pm and headed out to the muster area. The anticipation of the race start was very exhilarating, however I was still exhausted from the frantic build up 2 months prior to the race. It was like competing in several marathons end to end, but that the most important one was just to begin. We suddenly felt a thud from the bottom of the hull whilst mustering. We moved away slowly and went to calm water. We accelerated to check any vibration and luckily did not feel anything untoward. We joined the race competitors and waited for the start boat to flag.

The start was incredibly exciting, with helicopters overhead, almost landing on our radar arch, our support boat cheering us on and other friends boats that appeared along the Solent as we headed up to the Needles.

All the historic entries set off at 25 knots for a fly pass down the Solent for the first 9 minutes to get a fantastic photo-shoot. Thereafter we full throttled out towards the Needles where our trim tabs failed. In the distance we saw Buro behind us taking the offshore route, most boats had headed in shore. It was brewing a force 5/6. From pure exhilaration at the start, we were soon all alone in the high seas. There was heavy weather and a few times we were out of the water with a few slams. We were working with our new navigation system to get the very best line to give us the edge over our opponents. Three hours later in the mist we sighted another boat cutting across Lyme bay, approximately ½ mile ahead. We had been travelling at approximately 30 knots and extended our speed to 37 knots to close in. To our joy it was our competitor Blue Marlin.
We had an exhilarating tussle, catching them and racing side by side. After we’d overtaken them ‘Blue Marlin’ pulled back and we noticed them circling in the distance. However, when we arrived in Plymouth we learnt that their boat had tragically sunk but thankfully the crew had been picked up by another competitor from their life raft.

Gee having come in first in class at Plymouth, won the Nokia Communicator Prize and certainly surprised us and our sponsors considering it was our first proper sea trial.
Fiona Pankhurst from Raymarine who had just completed the leg with us met John Walker as she was walking up the gang plank. John asked ‘I thought you were racing today with Gee’. I have been she said. (I suspect John thought she may looked far too relaxed and well groomed! The Gee effect had obviously cushioned the blow?)

We met with Marcus and his crew of Blue Marlin in the bar that evening and he explained the shock of losing his boat. We were all a bit shaken as we appreciated the preparation that had gone into entering this race and felt for them.






22nd June - Plymouth to Milford Haven – Cancelled
- Chris Clayton & John Guille

The event organizers called a drivers' meeting at 7.30am to say they would reconvene 2 hours later, to see whether the weather would calm down to allow a race start. We spent breakfast speculating that the race start would be cancelled and frantically phoned ahead to firms early that Sunday morning to arrange transport by road.

We were with a journalist from the daily telegraph and his photographer, who were due to join us on that leg and over breakfast described Gee’s Journey so far.

At 9.30 a.m, we were informed that the race would be cancelled due to extremely heavy weather and 9m high waves off the Bristol channel. Many of the teams were phoning round for trailers. We had no replies from any companies until about 10.00 a.m. when we managed to secure a lorry to our relief.

On lifting her we saw the damage to our starboard prop which John straightened to nearly perfect. It lasted us all round Britain!

We sourced some new trim rams from a local chandlery to fit them the following morning. We were ringing all around the country trying to find these rams, and eventually found them 500 yards from the boat!

We travelled in the support vehicles to Milford Haven, debating all day whether the Milford Haven to Bagnor leg would happen, having heard of further bad weather. We questioned taking the boat by road to Oban, but our Navigator Richard was getting up to date forecasts from his office and the weather was likely to die by midnight.





23rd June - Milford Haven to Bangor NI - John Guille
Gee finishes joint first
"We kicked off around 11am - they told us yesterday the race briefing would be delayed until 8.45a.m. and the start to 10.45a.m. There was still quite a swell heading towards us as we headed out, but it got a lot better as we turned up the Irish Sea. We soon came across Andy Macateer's RIB - a big Buzzi Tecno 40 - so we stopped to see if they were ok. They had fuel problems, but they got going again. Then about 70 miles from the finish whilst making good progress at 37 knots we had a call on the radio from Mystic Dragon, a Scorpion RIB carrying the RYA's powerboat racing manager, John Puddifoot. They had a problem. Macateer got to him first, and then we came upon them after the radio call and said we'd take him in tow.
He had one engine down, so we chugged along at 25 knots with him behind us. The conditions were just getting better and better all the way up the Irish Sea - nice sunshine, just relaxing. A couple of the guys were having a snooze. We were aware that the tow would not effect our time. They would make an average of our speed before the tow, and work out what our pro rata finishing time would have been, and then add that to the total event time. So we won't lose out. Was just nice to be able to help someone as they'll be there to help you if you need it. Definitely earned ourselves a few drinks in the bar tonight. Weather is looking good for tomorrow, and we'll very soon be in the shelter of the Scottish islands.
Position: Bangor, Northern Ireland
Leg: 201nm
Average speed: 35 knots before tow, 25 after.
Weather: Force 2s and 3s, further south residual waves from yesterday.

24th June - Bangor NI to Oban Scotland - Mark Clayton
Gee finishes in 2nd place
I'm absolutely knackered. What a race, it was literally nail-biting all the way from the start. We mustered outside Bangor and the start boat let us all go at the same time. Off everyone went - 35 boats, I think. We went out to sea and 747 went inland to protect themselves from the chop. It was a moderate sea with 2-metre waves so we were going quite nicely. They were right on one side, but we lost sight of them for the first hour, but as we came closer to the islands, and were heading towards the Mull of Kintyre, we saw them a few hundred metres off us.
They then crossed to the other side to get into calmer water and we were neck and neck for the next two hours. We basically straight lined it to get an advantage. But unfortunately for Gee, it was too flat, like a millpond, and against 747 we're much better in a heavy sea. So we were neck and neck from there up into the islands. We were constantly looking to gain more speed, trimming up on our navigation and trying to find a finer line.
At one point there were two islands and they [Team 747] went one way and we went the other and we came out other side and still neck and neck. They were only 50 yards in front of us coming into Oban. It was a really good battle. We won the first leg, and came joint first in the third because they've decided that since we gave the tow that we'd get equal first. And that means we're still about an hour and a half ahead of the nearest team in our class.
Tomorrow we're going through the Caledonian Canal, starting at 7.30am in the morning. Through the lochs we can go flat out, and hopefully we'll arrive at Inverness at about 5.30pm. If possible, we're going to try and do some waterskiing behind Gee! Tomorrow's leg is just transportation, and not part of the race. And then Thursday is a lay day, so no racing. Everyone will be fixing their boats and doing final preparations for the difficult run down the North Sea
Position: Oban, Scotland
Leg: 113nm
Average speed: 37.86 knots
Weather: Force 4 at the start, dying to Force 2 in the islands, and very flat towards the end




25th June - The Caledonian Canal - Mike Clarke
"We got up about 4am yesterday at Oban, feeling a total lack of sleep after all the energy expended over the race so far. One way or another three of us managed to get the ferry from Oban to the island of Kerrera where the boat was moored. When we set off between the islands and the mainland up Loch Linnhe, the dawn had an amazing aura about it. It was something I had never experienced before. There were hanging mists over the mountains and as it got lighter we saw some very brave or very stupid fishermen on the side of the loch.
As we cruised up the loch, we met up with the other boats in the Historic Class, and it was kind of good to be in among a pack of boats. But sadly we had some unfortunate news - Team 747, our main rivals in the class, hit their shafts on the way up to Fort William, and that was a kind of a downer. We spent the rest of the day speculating and awaiting news of their plans. As of now, we understand that John Guille (who was spending the day off Gee) was able to help them out back near Oban and that the shafts they damaged have been taken away and they'll move heaven and earth to get up to Inverness for the start of the next leg to Edinburgh tomorrow morning.
We could have done without the 28 locks on the Caledonian Canal, but the good bits made up for all the time spent in them - especially when we got to the lochs. Loch Lochy was the first fast run and it was exhilarating. It was just nice to play a little. David Graham-Smith, in his race photographer role, joined Gee on the loch and consequently I had a dual role as skipper and running a floating photo studio. We had to chase around and get great video of all the other boats in our pack.
After leaving Loch Lochy we went through Fort Augustus, and then into Loch Oich, which was a different ball game with a series of navigation buoys that gave us a great opportunity to slalom under the mist. The much awaited run across Loch Ness was just a complete wow. Everyone was overwhelmed to be skimming across this mass of inland water with boats passing us and crossing over us. It was rather like a waterborne version of the Red Arrows. The 20-mile crossing was over all too quickly but we had to make up time to get through to refuel.
On Gee there's some leaking from both rudder stocks. An inspection is needed of the stocks and rudders, as we heard a thump coming out of Loch Ness by the weir stream, which I suspect was a piece of waterlogged timber. The other problem we have to address is blown actuators on our trim tabs, and as I speak our engineer chief pilot are addressing this.
All members of the team are resting up today before the next challenge of Inverness to Edinburgh. Fingers crossed we're coming home."
26th June – Lay day Inverness
27th June - Inverness to Edinburgh - John Guille
Gee finishes in 1st place
"Team 747 dinged their props and shafts on Wednesday (25th) when heading towards the Caledonian Canal, but managed to get new shafts and props all in 24 hours. They came to put it all in yesterday evening (26th), but the shafts would not line up for them. So they gave me a ring and Nathan and I went down to give them a hand. Nathan found that their engine mounts were knackered, so we got them four new engine mounts from Cummins, and had to crane the engine out, swap the mounts over and put it all back in and realign the shafts. We finished up at 4.30 this morning. We were then up at about 6am.
The race finally started about 11am. Gee was going very well, although it was a little bit bumpy. Team 747 got in front, as they've got an hour and a half to catch up on us. We then came upon them dead in the water. They had a lobster pot rope around a prop. Luckily we had a diving cylinder on board and I jumped over the side. It was easy to free the prop, but I got out of the water as soon as I could as it was bloody cold! Wish I'd bought my wetsuit now. Then we decided to go in convoy with 747 but the weather got worse. They headed inshore to get some shelter, but we stayed following our original course because it's a long leg and fuel capacity was close. We got into Edinburgh at about 5.30pm. I'm feeling it a little bit, and so is Nathan. It's only a short trip to Newcastle tomorrow, which we start at around 10am."

28th June - Edinburgh to Newcastle – Mike Clarke
Gee finishes in 2nd place



Due to a little crew inside knowledge we arrived to prepare for this leg to be accommodated at one of the few local hostelries in South Queensferry, namely the Hawes Inn, which was just down the road from the marina, enjoyable, full of character, and worthy of a re-visit under lesser stress non racing!

Another dawn without midsummer sunshine, we rolled out and grabbed some bacon sarnies before the off.

At mustering, John Guille eagle-eyed as always took stock as a jockey behind the tapes and with perfect judgment placed us for a superb start. The run down the Firth of Forth with the pack will never be lost in my memories and the sight of the Forth railway bridge shrinking behind us after our passing.


Our now well-known friendly competitors were close and in sight as we turned south beyond the headland past Bass Rock. At this point the sea state kicked up rough. We started to renew our flying skills and Gee was handling it well as always.

However the boat was as always coping, but we hit a bad one and the crew ascended skywards, and I unfortunately went head rearwards, and to maintain some sort of a vertical posture I lifted my knees only to slam spine-first onto the rear seat as we hit the next one. A bang in my ears and the most excruciating pain of my life ensued. I believe that I may have screamed some loud expletive, as I seemed to have engaged the attention of others in the team despite the roar of the exhausts.

John throttled back and we took stock of the situation. Having composed myself and hoping that it was like a toothache that you took to the dentist I told John to GoGoGo.

Within a minute, Nathan, our magic engineer having seen my grimace told John to stop.
This was crunch time and all I could think about was being put ashore or ‘choppered off, would be ‘curtains’ – no full qualifying for completion of full round Britain, loss of that leg, and potential loss of first in our class. I was praying for a way out when John suggested the best place for me might be the helm seat.

We got under way and with foot pressure on the foot box, elbow on the arm rest and the grip of my glove on the dash I some how found a rhythm that took the shock out of waves and we headed on.

In this position I was better able to anticipate the waves and I was able to focus on some old coastal haunts of mine from the 60’s, Berwick on Tweed, The Farne Islands and Bamburgh Castle and despite a chine smacking 15 degree list to starboard due to a collapsed trim tab we ultimately crossed the line only 8 minutes behind our 747 friends.



28th June Edinburgh to Newcastle
Sustaining yesterday's position GEE finished 2nd again today from Edinburgh to Newcastle


29th June – Newcastle to Lowestoft – Hayden Morgan
Gee finishes in 2nd place

The trim tabs were the main focus of discussion the night before and given the previous days racing with the wind and the chine crunching lean, many quick fixes were considered, so there was Nathan in the water 20 minutes before the start trying to lock the rams using jubilee clips.

What a wonderful morning, sun shinning a light 3-4 WSW breeze with a light chop as we motored out to the mustering area. Not exactly Gee weather and we all knew that this was exactly what 747 thrives on. This being one of the longer legs at 208 nm, fuel burn was going to be the decider and the navigational tack of shortest distance to Lowestoft. This was one of the straightest runs of the race as there were only 2 main waypoints which was Newcastle to Flamborough which was some 20 miles south of Scarborough and then a proper sea leg out across the wash with the next waypoint near Cromer.

As expected 747 took the lead and disappeared from view by the time we were level with Sunderland. Before the start of the race I received a text from my friend John Moore who was working in Race Control he had flown down to Lowestoft and he advised me that the sea state around the wash was actually quite lumpy and that in the words of Neil Holmes, it would be a good day to go chasing sandcastles, in other words stay as close to the beach as possible. This gave us some optimism as we knew that 747 had similar fuel constraints and that having over one third of the race with lumpy seas we could gain some ground back.

As expected it was quite lumpy over the wash, but Gee ate it up. You have to work the throttles to keep the porpoising under control. What a difference two sheets of metal and two rams make.

Hugging the Norfolk coast and fuel consumption managed, the sticks hit the floor for the beach hugging run to Lowestoft. We discovered at the finish that we were only 8 minutes behind 747 and that they had run into trouble running across the Wash with the casualty being the loss of the starboard trim tab. It turns out that the Historic Class was going to be decided by trim tabs. Afterwards, sitting in the Royal Lowestoft Yacht Club in my racing overalls with a cold beer, reflecting on what was a great way to celebrate my 40th Birthday.








30th June - Lowestoft to Portsmouth – John Guille, Chris and Paul Clayton
Gee finishes in 1st place
"The start was due at 8.30am, however at 8.20am our engineer Nathan was still fixing the trim tab. At 8.22 am, we were ready to go and joined other boats going out to sea. It was a fantastic start with all boats leaving at once with a perfect blue sky. The helicopter was circling and then came directly over us to take footage. It was pretty calm so 747 pulled ahead, but we were flat out all the way - didn't want them to get too far ahead. Even though we had the overall lead, we wanted to make sure. It got a bit rougher as we got to the Thames Estuary and then round the corner at Ramsgate it really started to bump up a bit, and once past Dover it started to hit us on the nose. We had managed to fix our trim tabs by cutting up an old broom handle. We unscrewed the cylinder heads of the trim tabs, stuck a bit of wood from the broom in there to hold trim tabs down, so it was nice to get the bow down for once. It really helped the boat in the head sea.
We then managed to pull past 747 before Brighton - we just took a direct route, straight lining it across bays, while they hugged the coast. We maintained that lead all the way to the end. We finished about 20 minutes ahead of them in the end.

We were very surprised to see Markus Hendricks, whose boat ‘Blue Marlin’ had sunk on the first day, on the home straight. He had hired a 72 foot Sunseeker, decked it out with his race number and a German flag and recreated our race of the first leg, speeding with us over the last few miles, although he was really doing it in style now, complete with his wife, friends and large jugs of Pimms!

Buro which was well behind us had managed to catch us up as we had throttled back to preserve fuel, but when we saw Marcus we raced him to the Fort, videoing the footage.

As we crossed the finishing line we saw friends along side us on a rib welcoming us in and taking photos. This was also a great surprise..

It was a fantastic feeling coming into Portsmouth, having made it all the way round. Finally Gee has been round Britain 40 years on.

When we arrived at Gunwhalf Quays people were cheering from the terraces as Gee was called out over the load speaker as the Historic Class winner. We were met by friends and family and had a fantastic welcome from members of the press and public coming to congratulate us.

Mike James from COPOC gave us a bottle of champagne which we celebrated by spraying over the team before each of us having a swig.

Following photo shoots and press interviews, we joined Marcus Hendricks on his Sunseeker for a memorable reception with great company. He certainly makes an excellent host.

We then realized the time and made our way to the hotel to quickly change before getting to the trophy reception. There was a great atmosphere on arriving in the grounds of the marquee and all the teams were very friendly and it summed up the great occasion and good camaraderie that we had shared over the last 10 days. When we walked into the marquee to take our table, the TV screen was showing the footage of ‘Gee’s dry launch and team interviews. It just brought home what we had actually been through and the great support from everyone involved.
The next few hours was certainly entertaining as we were awarded several trophies, including
John and Nathan getting the outstanding sportsmanship award and the Gee team awarded the Raymarine ‘Spirit of the event’ trophy, the COPOC trophy for first historic boat in and the Round Britain trophy for overall historic class winner.

It was nice to celebrate with Cummins and Raymarine as our main Sponsors, having achieved a fantastic result. This is surely an experience the whole team will treasure for the rest of their days.






Photo by Geoff Sargent

[Mike Lloyd]

Listing according to the RYA just out.

ROUND BRITAIN – OVERALL INT’L ORDINARY CHAMPION
PIKE DAG

ROUND BRITAIN – MOTOR CRUISER CLASS 1 –INT’L ORDINARY CHAMPION
PIKE DAG

ROUND BRITAIN – CLASS 3 – INT’L ORDINARY CHAMPIONS
SOLLIE PAL
SOLLIE HENRIK
SYDENHAM JAMES
ERIKSERN BJORN

ROUND BRITAIN – CLASS 2 – INT’L - ORDINARY CHAMPIONS
DEAKIN BARRY
YOUNGS GRAEME
HAMP CARL
ROBIN READE

ROUND BRITAIN – CLASS 1 – INT’L - ORDINARY CHAMPIONS
MACATEER ANDY
WILNER NICK
SUTCLIFFE ANDY
WILDEY MARK

ROUND BRITAIN – MOTOR CRUISER CLASS 2 –INT’L ORDINARY CHAMPIONS
MCLAUGHLIN MARTIN
TODD GARY
HAWKINS ROD

ROUND BRITAIN – HISTORIC CLASS – INT’L ORDINARY CHAMPIONS
GUILLE JOHN
HOSKINS RICHARD
BINDOL DAVID
CLAYTON CHRIS
CLAYTON MARK
CLAYTON PAUL
CLARK MIKE
WARD NATHAN

Well done lads, worthy champions indeed. You have joined a very elite club.

Am finding out what happened to RB08 Class 4 results!!
ML.

[PhatFrank]

Originally Posted by OldMan

Listing according to the RYA just out.

Well done lads, worthy champions indeed. You have joined a very elite club.

Am finding out what happened to RB08 Class 4 results!!
ML.

Hi Mike,

Maybe we were disqualified for beeing too fast In that case you can give it to swipewipes instead...

Looking forward to seeing the video - we've just ordered it so I'm checking the mailbox four times a day...

Eirik & Frederik

[Mike Lloyd]

I don't think so Erik, I just think that the RYA have missed out your results, am waiting to hear from them now. Mind you, Nick and Jon would't mind

[Mike Lloyd]

Originally Posted by PhatFrank

Hi Mike,

Maybe we were disqualified for beeing too fast In that case you can give it to swipewipes instead...

Looking forward to seeing the video - we've just ordered it so I'm checking the mailbox four times a day...

Eirik & Frederik

Hererwith quote from the RYA!

"Our end of year results are for British Champions ONLY (ie those issued with British licences), the RB4 winners were a Norwegian team".

[Mike Lloyd]

Excellent write up of the Round Britain Race 08 in the latest H20 Full Throttle Mag by Chris Davies. Best so far, brought it all back all over again and some pics I hadn't seen before, well done Chris, was there some help from RB there?

[Chris Davies]

Glad you liked it Mike. Yes, there was a little bit of help from the doyen of powerboat racing journalists, but didn't Brenda tell you, I am the new Ray Bulman.

[PhatFrank]

Mike/Chris - do you have any idea if there is a digital edition available for download? We can't get H2O here in Norway and the current issue can't be ordered yet...

Eirik | Team Sealbay

[Chris Davies]

Just sent a PM to your in box.

[Mike Lloyd]

Well that was an expensive day. Went to London to collect all the race film of the RB08 from the TV production company plus a DVD of the film for TV. Broke a cam belt on the way home, £160 for a tow home plus HUGE cost for engine repairs. But it's all worth it because I have just watched what they have produced for TV. Absolutely fantastic and VERY professional. 57 minutes of pure bliss and footage I haven’t even seen before. Just goes to show what there is on those 40 hours of film. For those of you who might be interested you are going to love this film. Sorry I can’t let you have view of it before the programme comes out but I am sure you will understand. Copies will be on sale after the film has been aired, date and channel yet to be confirmed.

[Jon Fuller]

Am I starring again in my super gimp suit? or did they see sense.

[Mike Lloyd]

Originally Posted by Jon Fuller

Am I starring again in my super gimp suit? or did they see sense.

Sorry Jon, they thought that was far too rude for Joe Public viewing

[Jon Fuller]

Originally Posted by OldMan

Sorry Jon, they thought that was far too rude for Joe Public viewing

Thank Fkk for that!

I'll be sure to get even with Iian May for including that gem in the video.

[hunton69]

Originally Posted by Jon Fuller

Am I starring again in my super gimp suit? or did they see sense.

Doubt it its not a documentary on wildlife

[hunton69]

Originally Posted by OldMan

Well that was an expensive day. Went to London to collect all the race film of the RB08 from the TV production company plus a DVD of the film for TV. Broke a cam belt on the way home, £160 for a tow home plus HUGE cost for engine repairs. .

Wasn't that a bit clumsy.

I would of thought after all the years drinking you would be a member of A.A .

Thanks for the card.

[Mike Lloyd]

Just received this amazing Round Britain story from Erik of Team 77 Sealbay. This is another fabulous and very funny story of one teams expereince during the RB. Thank you Erik for sharing this with us. You guys had all the fun!

http://www.roundbritainrace.co.uk/storiesindex.htm

Matt, if you are able to upload this story can you put it here please, very many thanks.
ML.

[Jon Fuller]

That's very good, I read it at James's office last week.

Shame the un-corrected time for us is still haunting us. I',m gonna poke Colin Stewart in the eye when I see him.

Mike, because it's a .pdf, I don't think the contents can't be cut & pasted into the forum.

[ciao!]

RACE STORY | Team Sealbay 77
Round Britain Powerboat Race 2008

PRELUDE | PREPARING FOR THE ROUND BRITAIN POWERBOAT RACE

Frederik and Eirik had decided to enter Frederik’s Goldfish 29 RIB in the 2008 Round Britain Powerboat Race in mid-summer 2007 after reading about the venue. Having some experience in endurance racing from Norway we thought this seemed like a fantastic idea, and without too much contemplating we had officially entered the race after a short correspondence with Mike Lloyd (the race organizer). Our strategy was simple – we wanted to participate in the RB4 class and the only goal we had was to try to actually complete all eight legs round Britain. Our good friend Bjørn also had generously offered to take the role as Team Manager, giving much-needed help throughout the preparation and race.

As we started looking into the rules we realized we would need some help from the guys at Goldfish in preparing for RB08. Pål Sollie (“Mr Goldfish”) quickly replied that he was not sure how he felt about two clowns racing his old prototype 29 RIB in a venue with so much publicity – after all, the boat had done 700 hrs at full throttle over three years. It transpired that he felt rather strongly about building a new 29 RIB especially for the race. To make a long story short, a new boat was ordered with a few custom touches.

At the same time we spoke to Ivar (another friend) and when he heard we had entered RB08 and were building a new boat he and his son immediately decided to join in. Pål Sollie was at this time in the middle of developing a new 36 foot RIB, which with twin 380 hp diesels was expected to hit 80 knots. It would be a serious contender for top honors in RB08, and before we knew it both Pål and Ivar had entered 36 RIBs in the RB3 class.
As time went by we got more and more enthusiastic. We were now three Norwegian entrants in RB08 – all with identical engines (one in ours, and two in each of the 36’s) and drives, and supported by the highly professional Goldfish crew.
Much time was spent preparing for the race. Safety equipment, licenses, transportation, accommodation, tools, spare parts, etc – all had to be ordered and transported to the UK. In addition 30-odd years of wear and tear had left our bodies in a somewhat sorry state, and we tried to exercise when we could. This also involved getting used to the local beer – a highly important ingredient in any successful endurance race.
The boat was nearing completion in April 2008, and the modifications were expertly built by Goldfish. In addition to standard options such as a carbon reinforced hull, race steering and teak deck (very racing…), we had opted for trim tabs, a second 12” plotter (see below), two VHF’s (mandatory), suspension seating (from the 36 RIB), lifting points, as well as brackets for an outboard engine (back up) and other bits & pieces.

Without drama, however – an empty diesel tank on one of the cars and a slightly bent trailer on another nearly made us miss the ferry, but all things worked out and we could enjoy a well-deserved beer (or two…) onboard.

At the race venue in Port Solent, Portsmouth, our boat was the first of all the race boats to pass the scrutineering (without any hickups), and we were ready to go. Guttaboyz (Ivar and son Nick in the 36 RIB – no 33) were not that fortunate – their first test run in the Solent blew a grapefruit-sized hole (left) in one of the engine blocks that day before the race. It was a production error in the brand-new engine, and after pulling the first of many all-nighters the guys from Goldfish had the boat ready the next morning. After all, it was fortunate that this problem was located before the race – it would have been disastrous if this had happened later. The setting at Port Solent was pulsating with race teams from all over Europe preparing their boats. The scrutinizers did an amazing job and got all boats ready and on towards Gunwharf Keys in central Portsmouth. As the various boats moored up the teams were walking around checking out the competition. We especially fancied the Silverline girls – hats off to Silverline for providing excellent eye-candy.
It was interesting meeting and seeing our competitors and their boats – we had seen them on the RB08 website, but seeing them in the flesh made everything more real. One thing that quickly became apparent was the fact that the three Norwegian boats were among very few boats that were brand new. In addition it seemed we were slightly more focused on navigational equipment – even the fastest and largest race boats such as Cesa, Wettpunkt and Silverline didn’t have two 12” plotters like we did. Ivar and Nick in Guttaboyzactually had three of them…

However, we knew that having a well-tested boat was not necessarily a disadvantage compared to a new boat – the seized engine in the all-new 36’ had already proven this. Motor Boat & Yachting magazine had recently published an article regarding the odds for the various race teams, and it was clear the three Norwegian teams were not among the favorites (although we were actually called “the dark horsein RB4”)... We were now as ready for the eight legs round Britain as we would ever be, and all of the sudden the months of planning and anticipating every aspect of the race seemed too short. How would the three Norwegian teams do in these conditions? How would the boats – built for Scandinavian waters – perform in the choppy and open British waters? And most important – how on earth could we get the phone numbers to the Silverline girls???
Gentlemen, start your engines…

LEG 1 | PORTSMOUTH TO PLYMOUTH
After a hectic start with numerous boats drifting over the (well-marked) submarine barrier we had a fantastic run out the Solent. Hundreds of boats were lining the route, and at times it was somewhat tricky finding the correct line. Quite a few other boats were obviously more confused than us, and although we were fairly certain we were on the right track it was reassuring to see these boats turning back to round the correct markers. The Solent was absolutely flat, and it was soon evident that our boat didn’t have quite the speed it should have. The maximum we saw was nearly 56 knots, which is a good 6 knots less than what it should have been. At the time we though it was due to the tide running in, and kept steaming on. As we approached the Needles it was apparent that the first race day would not be a smooth run to Plymouth. Within a few minutes we had actually managed to almost get ourselves thrown out of the boat at the same time – we landed a touch sideways, and after banging our helmets together we were ricocheted to each side. It was undramatic and resulted in nothing more than a big laugh at our own foolishness.

In our first (and actually only serious) navigational cock-up we started on a straight bee-line towards the end of Lyme Bay. As neither of us had been here before we had no idea that this bay was in fact as endless as the universe, and after banging against the steep waves we eventually headed nearer shore. By this time we had seen a few boats heading straight and the rest of the fleet going nearer shore, but after we changed course we didn’t see a single boat for the entire bay. In some really bad weather we had a short visit from the helicopter, and we were starting to get seriously exhausted by the time we reached the end of Lyme Bay. It later transpired that boat 99 had actually sunk in these rough conditions, but fortunately everyone onboard got in the life raft without injury.

At one point we got a little more airborne than usual, and as the boat landed and both the suspension seats compressed, Eirik crushed his hand between the seats. After a brief medical patch-up in Plymouth it was fit for fight, albeit slightly larger in size than usual.
As we approached the exclusion zones on the last leg towards Plymouth we were overtaken by Vilda (the Swedish team) that had started 30 minutes after us. The conditions had changed to less steep waves and a much more favorable (to us) side- and rear wind, and from there on we kept pace with Vilda. It was comforting to see that even though they had a much bigger, heavier and slightly faster boat they were also having a rough time, and we actually out-ran them for a little while.

By the time we crossed the finish line and headed towards the pits, we were certain that we had lost some serious time to the other boats in our class. A short phone call to our teammates in Lionhead(no 22) confirmed this, as they were starting to get worried because we had used so much time. However, as we entered the harbor we were surprised to see that the only other boat that had finished in our class was Swipewipes.co.uk, an all new twin-engined 32 ft Phantom. Although we were thrilled to be second in class, we were slightly worried that Swipewipes.co.uk had used 3 hrs 7 minutes – fourth overall (!!!!) and a massive 42 minutes ahead of us. Crikey. Eventually they were given a 30 minute penalty for cutting through the exclusion zones, but in any case it showed just how fast this boat was in the rough. Even so, we managed 15th place overall (3 hrs 49 mins at a 34 knot average), 2nd in class and had got a perfect start to RB08. Lionhead (no 22) had managed a fantastic second overall and a massive class lead – being beaten by a mere 15 minutes by a 40 foot Buzzi race boat (Silverline) in severe conditions was a triumph for the 36 ft production RIB. Guttaboyz (or “Gutter Boys” as Annie called them – great fun) were not so lucky, and after drive problems just managed to beat us by 2 minutes. In any case, the three Norwegian Goldfish boats had made quite an impression on the first day. Our boat had proven its worth and had performed flawlessly.

LEG 2 | PLYMOUTH TO MILFORD HAVEN

After an exhausting first day we were pleased to hear that the second leg from Plymouth to Milford Haven was cancelled due to severe weather forecasts. We were told later on that 11 meter waves had been measured in the Bristol Channel, and much respect must go to the race committee for taking this difficult but absolutely correct decision. Although we had really looked forward to seeing Land’s End we were relieved to get a day’s rest, and after loading up the boat on our trailer we headed by car towards Milford Haven in Wales.

LEG 3 | MILFORD HAVEN TO BANGOR, IRELAND

After spending the night in a slightly iffy hotel in Milford Haven (one of our rooms had two sets of hand imprints on the wall behind the bed – evidence of some acrobatic and rather perverted actions from earlier guests) we headed towards the second start. The weather was very nice, with sunny skies and little wind. However, significant swells from the previous day’s storm were still battering the coastline. The first 20 minutes after the start were very rough with large waves coming straight at us. We saw Team Jersey (the Mannerfelt bat boat in our class) literally take off just ahead of us and land on its’ rear end, and we later on learned that this had in fact caused a back injury and serious time loss for them.

On a more amusing note we actually outran Blue FPT (a 55 ft monster Buzzi boat) in these conditions for a little while. As we rounded the markers and headed north towards Ireland conditions significantly improved and we were startled when Blue FPT flew past us by a few meters and aimed for Bangor. For the remaining leg we were going absolutely flat out. After about 1 hr we had just been visited by the helicopter when we hit a freak wave at close to 60 knots. We took off, and after seeing that we were 3 meters above the water we braced ourselves for what would surely be a severe landing. The boat actually landed silky smooth, but the sheer load broke Eirik’s seat. Nothing to do with his weight, of course… After a short duct-tape assault it was apparent that the seat was rendered totally useless, and the remainder of the leg was spent standing up.
We chose to follow the Irish coastline towards Bangor instead of a straight line, and had a long and enjoyable run alongside the Scots in “Braveheart”. These kilt-wearing guys had a fairly odd-looking boat, but looks can be deceiving. The engines sounded fantastic (twin 500 hp Merc inboards) and even though we were neck and neck at close to 60 knots and a few hundred feet apart we almost couldn’t hear our own engine over theirs. We seemed to have a marginal speed advantage over them, and had a good laugh when they seemed to throw their heaviest crew member over board to gain speed. They later on told us that if they had to choose between throwing him overboard or the case of Scotch they were bringing along, the choice would be all too easy (and unfortunate for the kilt-wearing crew member…). However, Braveheart (ahead of us below) had a few more RPMs to spend and eventually pulled out a small lead. Braveheartwent on to take a fantastic 4th place overall in RB08 and was the best UK boat – never underestimate Scottish determination!

As we approached Bangor we were overtaken by the two other Goldfish boats Guttaboyz (no 33) and Lionhead (no 22). They had started 30 minutes after us and were keeping a fantastic pace. For the final few miles we were met by a number of RIBs coming at full speed towards us. It turned out the people in Bangor were looking forward to seeing the RB08 fleet, and the people on board the boats waved and smiled as we passed them.
We used 4 hrs 9 mins on the leg to Bangor with an average speed of more than 48 knots (not bad for crossing the Irish Sea in a 29 ft RIB), and were second in class behind Mr Mako(a faaaast Pascoe RIB with twin Merc outboards) who at 3 hrs 45 mins claimed a fantastic third overall for the day. We were still 2nd in class overall as well. Our teammates in Guttaboyz had secured a fantastic overall win at 3 hrs 25 mins, but unfortunately Team Lionhead in the other Goldfish 36 had problems a few miles before the finish line and ended at 4 hrs 11 mins, but amazingly was now leading the overall race! Another great day for the Norwegians.

Bangor turned out to be a wonderful place, with friendly people and fantastic scenery. The guys from Goldfish were not fortunate enough to see any of this, as their entire evening and night was spent fixing their boat. They also helped out fixing our seat and checking the boat. Everything was in perfect order, and once again we were amazed by the reliability of the 29 foot Goldfish.

LEG 4 | BANGOR TO OBAN

As we left Bangor it was clear that the day’s weather would not be quite as pleasurable as the day before. After an initial easy run towards the Isle of Sky the wind increased and the conditions turned choppy. In addition we passed through numerous tidal rips, which for us Norwegians was a new experience. It was like hitting a wall of water, and it was an enjoyable and exiting learning curve. As we passed Islay and turned inland, the navigating was a lot like back in Norway. In addition the scenery was absolutely stunning.
We had a very effective run towards Oban, and after crossing the (poorly marked) finish line we were thrilled to have taken our first class win at 2 hrs 14 mins - 1 minute 8 secs before Team Jerseyand at an average speed of over 50 knots. The fact that Team Jersey had started 10 minutes late didn’t matter to us – we were now first in class overall!

In addition Team Lionheadsecured another amazing second place overall (just three minutes behind Wettpunkt.com – a purebred P1 Offshore racer
– see below), first in class and were still leading the overall race. Guttaboyz secured third place for the leg and remained in third place overall – the two Goldfish 36’s were now the bread in a Buzzi-sandwich (Blue FPT) for overall first place, and were first and second in RB3.

We immediately lifted the boats out of the water and headed by car towards Inverness. A lot of the other boats went through the Caledonian Canal, but we wanted the extra rest in Inverness and checked into a rather lovely hotel for some well earned booze & beef.

LEG 5 | INVERNESS TO EDINBURGH

After a lay-day in Inverness we were prepared for the next leg – the longest in the race at 210 nm’s. The guys from Goldfish had changed our engine mounts, as these were a well known weak spot and were beginning to show wear & tear. After a looong trip out to the muster area (through a few locks and far out to sea to avoid hitting marine life) the start went off without drama. As usual we took a slow start at the rear of the field and started picking off competitors. Once again we were surprised to see some interesting navigating from a large part of the field, with competitors setting off in the most unusual directions. A few even seemed to be heading for the Shetlands… We hugged the coastline for the entire leg, and were amazed by the scenery. We had thought that the east coast of Scotland would be the most picturesque, but were simply awestruck by the western coast. A massive amount of birds and sea mammals along the most beautiful coastline we’d seen was plainly something we will remember for a long, long time.

We stayed at full throttle for most of the day, and it had become apparent over the last legs that our engine was not performing 100%. The acceleration was severely reduced – getting on the plane took forever – and we were now struggling to better 55 knots at full speed in these ideal conditions.

As we turned south east for the final leg to Edinburgh the conditions worsened. We passed Guttaboyz with engine problems, and for the last half hour we had rough seas and received quite some beating. In addition an anonymous crew member (not Frederik) was having some problems with the natural effect of drinking too much water. Requesting a pit stop five minutes before the finish line did not please Frederik, and although the four minute stop relieved pressure and was of little consequence for our standing in class, we were in fact passed by the girls in Team Dubois… Although they were in a bigger, faster boat in the RB3 class it still was a bit annoying. The girls beat us by 2 minutes, but were later on penalized with 1 hr for crossing the finish line incorrectly. Incidentally, the finish line was in fact poorly marked and the flag boat was hard to see, but we were again amazed by the number of boats that managed to cross the finish line incorrectly. The time spent preparing the routes beforehand and our setup with twin 12” plotters was once again proving its worth, allowing accurate navigating at high speed.

We crossed the finish line in 12th place overall and first in class after 4 hours and four minutes – 42 minutes ahead of the second boat in class – the Scorpion RIB “Black Gold”. We held an average speed of nearly 52 knots (not bad with an engine that was clearly not at 100%), and were still first in class overall. Team Lionhead in the Goldfish 36 came third overall and first in class, and were also still 1st overall. Team Guttaboyzhad a disastrous day, and dropped from 3rd overall to 22nd. Damn.
Yet again the boat passed the scrutineering without any problems, and needed no attention at all before the next leg. The Goldfish crew took the boat out to check the performance, and although they agreed that it was clearly not performing as it should we expected that UK diesel was the culprit and decided to not change an apparently winning recipe.

LEG 6 | EDINBURGH TO NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE

After a pleasant night at nice hotel in Edinburgh the race was on towards Newcastle. For this leg we had elected to bring along our team manager Bjørn, and we quickly learned that the first few miles would be fairly strenuous. We had quite large head seas for the start, and after only a few minutes we managed to nose dive the boat into a rather large wave. This was something we never had experienced in the Goldfish 29 before, and although we had extra weight in the nose (the life raft) we were caught off guard and went for some underwater exploration. We were actually a bit thrilled by the experience, as nothing went wrong with the boat (except for water in the intercom, leaving it useless for the next half hour). Our team manager seemed to enjoy it as well, but as he didn’t have an intercom it took some time before we realized he had cut his finger quite badly. Our own team manager drew blood for the team – kudos to him!

Incredibly, Team Lionheadalso had similar problems and spent the better part of the leg with one engine and the entire crew on the bow. They lost their overall lead and dropped to fifth place overall.
A devastating day for the two 36’s, but we fortunately had another good day and came in third in class at 2 hrs 10 mins, ten minutes behind the faster Mr Makoand Team Jersey. We were still first in class nearly two and a half hours ahead of swipewipes.co.ukin 2nd, and a satisfying 10th place overall. We had covered the 115 nautical miles at an average of just over 53 knots
– which turned out to be our best average speed during RB08.
We spent the night in the worst hotel in the UK, but we still had a much better time than the incredible crew from Goldfish that stayed up all night to repair both 36’s in time for Leg 7.

LEG 7 | NEWCASTLE TO LOWESTOFT

Another long leg down the west coast with 205 nautical miles to cover. We had good conditions for most of the day, except for some rough side waves round the Wash. The only drama for the day was a faulty electric wire that shorted the port chart plotter as well as the intercom. Fortunately we had insisted on two separate plotters with individual power supply and GPS antennas, and the navigating was done on the driver’s side plotter and using hand signals. In the shallow areas of the Wash this was not always optimal, but we kept on going without delay.
We also had an interesting experience – we passed Silverlineas she was about to be beached near a jetty in a small village near Cromer. With apparent mechanical problems it was quite a sight – this fantastic race boat being beached like a small dingy.
We entered Lowestoft after 4 hrs 1 min, and came second in class for the leg nearly a half hour behind Mr Mako (see image below). We had an average speed of 50.8 knots against Mr Mako’s 58 knots. That is one fast boat – thank god for the reliability and quality of the Goldfish. We were now in eighth place (!!) overall after Silverlineretired.

Guttaboyz tragically retired yet again, but Team Lionhead once again showed its’ backside to the rest of the fleet and took an amazing overall win at 3 hrs 4 mins and an average speed of 67 knots. Before the last day they were in second overall a mere 47 minutes behind Blue FPT– the overall leader. The final day would prove to be extremely nerve wrecking.
In Lowestoft we met up with Frederik’s brother Olav, who was joining us in the boat for the last leg towards Portsmouth. We were now 2 hrs 23 minutes ahead of Mr Mako, and we knew that unless we had problems during the final leg the class victory could be ours. It goes without saying that we did not get much sleep that night…

LEG 8 | LOWESTOFT TO PORTSMOUTH

After Olav had signed in for the day the three of us got in the boat and proceeded to the muster area. After realizing that our routes were not on the plotter we were relieved to hook up with Ivar in Guttaboyz and managed to copy over the routes with minutes to spare. Off we went.
The run to the Thames Estuary was uneventful, and we proceeded with our well-practiced “hug-the-coastline” strategy. We had a fairly aggressive route planned across the Thames, with water depths of a few meters at certain parts. Our electronic charts were only a few weeks old, and we had checked with other sources to make sure that our route was safe. This didn’t keep us from being nervous at times – particularly at one point when the plotter showed one meter beneath us and 0 meters ten meters to either side. I swear we pulled our shoulders in. However, all was well and we kept on going at full throttle in calm seas towards Dover.
After Dover the conditions turned fairly rough, but after seeing that we were neck and neck with Swipewipes.co.uk (below) we knew we could ease off and cruise in to victory. However, the competitive edge took over and we had to run along with them for quite a while.

We turned in closer to shore, and for the remaining run to the Solent we were never more than a few hundred meters from shore. That did not stop us from getting a fairly rough treatment, and 7 days of racing was starting to play havoc with knees, legs and our backs. As we turned in to the Solent we blasted on around the final markers and crossed the finish line. We were met by a fantastic sight of hundreds of boats meeting the competitors, amongst them a boat filled with friends and family from Norway. After a quick stop to say hello we cruised into Gunwharf Keys, and knowing we had won the RB4 Class in the Round Britain Powerboat Race 2008 was something we will remember for a very long time.
The final leg took us 4 hrs 21 mins and as such was the longest (in terms of time) for us. We came third after Team Jersey (3 hrs 47 m) and Swipewipes(4 hrs 10m). Our total time over the 1164 nautical miles for the seven legs was 24 hrs 51 mins, and we were 2 hrs 25 mins ahead of the second boat in RB4, Swipewipes.co.uk . Our accumulated average speed was 46.8 knots – not half bad considering the highest speed achieved was 57 knots. Even more satisfying was taking 9th place overall out of 45 competing boats. We were in one of the lower classes in a single (diesel) engined 29 ft RIB, and had never been around these waters before. Seahound V – a twin engined Scorpion 33” RIB in RB3 – came 10th and these guys knew the coast well.
The fact that we had driven the 29 foot Goldfish flat-out for nearly 1200 nautical miles without a single mechanical issue was simply awesome. We stopped twice during the race – one time to fix the seat and the second was a nature call – and it is an incredible testament to the sheer quality and performance level of the RIB. We nicknamed the boat the “Toyota Avensis” as we simply had to turn the key and floor the throttle. We had two class wins and never finished outside the top three in the RB4 class, and although other boats were faster none had the reliability of the Goldfish. In addition, the other competitive boats in RB4 were custom-built race boats, while our boat was a standard production RIB with minor alterations to meet the requirements of the race rules. The fact that the two monkeys onboard did their best to drive the boat to pieces had no effect whatsoever.

Our teammates in Guttaboyz had experienced a lot of mechanical problems the few previous days, and morale was low after the 7th leg. Any chance of overall victory had been eliminated, but the guys pushed on and aimed for first place on the last leg to Portsmouth. They pushed their Goldfish 36 RIB to the maximum and were neck and neck with the much heavier and equally fast Venturer – a 42” Buzzi RIB. For the last few miles the Italian RIB pulled ahead, and by the time they crossed the finish line Guttaboyz were 2nd overall and an astonishingly marginal 59 seconds behind Venturer. It later transpired that Venturer had in fact missed a marker and was penalized 1 hr leaving the first place for leg 8 to Guttaboyz. Unfortunately for Ivar and Nick in Guttaboyz this decision came after the prize giving in Portsmouth, but spraying champagne over the other competitors in Gunwharf Keys and performing like they did surely made the end of Round Britain 2008 for them.

Team Lionhead knew that if they were to win overall in RB08 they had to push extremely hard the final day, and Blue FPT would have to perform under par. With a 47 minute lead before the final leg the 55 foot Italian powerboat would be hard to beat, but Lionhead were not willing to give up without a fight. They pushed the boat to the maximum, but once again the mechanical gremlins were not on their side. Yet again a stern drive failed, and for a long and tense period the remaining crew had to hang on to the foredeck while pilot Pål kept the boat on the plane for the last miles into Portsmouth. They crossed the finish line in a fantastic second overall and first in class RB3 – a mere 14 minutes ahead of our Swedish neighbors in Vilda that took a well-deserved 3rd place overall.

Blue FPT (above) took 1st place in the Round Britain Powerboat Race 2008 with a total elapsed time of 20 hrs 36 minutes at an average speed of 56.5 knots. They did not take a single overall win for any leg of the race but performed flawlessly and equally impressive all the way around Britain, proving that consistency is the most important factor in endurance racing. Congratulations!!!!!
All in all the three Goldfish boats took 2nd, 9th and 33rd overall, 1st in RB3 and RB4, three overall leg wins (out of seven), two 2nd places and one 3rd. Even more impressive, the two 36’s took every leg win in RB3 minus leg 6. It was extremely frustrating that the two 36’s had reliability issues; if they had enjoyed a problem-free run like we had in the 29’ they would have taken 1st and 2nd overall – no doubt. But that is the issue of endurance racing, and we are extremely proud and satisfied with the results. Let’s hope that RB2012 will be a reality – we are more than ready!!!!


Special thanks to Mike Lloyd and the rest of the organisers behind RB08 for making this an experience of a lifetime, all the guys at Goldfish Boats, Preben at Birger N Haug (Nissan), Marius at Tendenzer, Cato at Belamarin and Helly Hansen