Round Ireland Race

[peterunwin]

Hi All,
Have just spoken to Markus who has recalled today's events. First leg started off pretty well with a fairly gentle swell which enabled them to run at just over 80 knots with a full fuel load which is pretty encouraging, however as they turned the southern tip of Ireland the sea turned pretty nasty and they spent the next two hours battling against some large atlantic waves with very uneven spacings which sometimes reduced their speed to 12 knots or less and they had the occasional green one land in their laps however once they turned towards their destination they were gradually able to increase their speed and arrived safely.

All The Best to The Whole Crew For Tommorrow

Peter & Carolyn

[Goinglean]

enabled them to run at just over 80 knots with a full fuel load

A credit to the team who put Cinzano back togther in 6 weeks

[Mrs Smillie]

Originally Posted by Goinglean

A credit to the team who put Cinzano back togther in 6 weeks

And the wife who did not see her hubby very much at all, but I am so proud of him and everone else involved in making this work all their hardwork, sweat and sleepless nights and Eric giving up a holiday has paid off, just hope his ankle is ok as he is at hospital now

[Mrs Smillie]

Originally Posted by peterunwin

Hi All,
Have just spoken to Markus who has recalled today's events. First leg started off pretty well with a fairly gentle swell which enabled them to run at just over 80 knots with a full fuel load which is pretty encouraging, however as they turned the southern tip of Ireland the sea turned pretty nasty and they spent the next two hours battling against some large atlantic waves with very uneven spacings which sometimes reduced their speed to 12 knots or less and they had the occasional green one land in their laps however once they turned towards their destination they were gradually able to increase their speed and arrived safely.

All The Best to The Whole Crew For Tommorrow

Peter & Carolyn

Hi Pete and Carolyn

I think you may have left message on Erics phone he got it wet on first leg so i have had to replace phone and sim and have just picked up messages. If you want to talk to him contact Max

[timtap]

Cinzano Has certainly opened the taps for the final run in to Galway at over 80 knots !

Cracking Performance !!

[Mrs Smillie]

Originally Posted by timtap

Cinzano Has certainly opened the taps for the final run in to Galway at over 80 knots !

Cracking Performance !!

Just spoken to Eric and he said they were doing 94mph and there was more to come

[FLYING FISH]

94 mph and more to come!!!!!

Referring to my book of useless information,attached is a cutting from 1974.

Avenger 007 (1970) had 2 supercharged mercruisers chucking out 600hp each.The boat was 33ft long (5ft shorter and aprox 300kg lighter than Cinzano).Based on this info Cinzano may well reach the 110 mph mark,when at it`s peak.

[Mike Lloyd]

Wasn't there a discussion on here before about the 39ft CUV having a maximum design speed?

I know Alex Foster has always said that it was around the mid 90's and he should know as he was ejected out of one which was overpowered on the CTC race back in the late 1980's. Didn't it hook? Who knows the answer to that one - FF?

I metioned this to Marcus once before but by the expression on his face I don't think he believed me/the story! Time will tell.
ML.
.

[TheMutzNuts]

Originally Posted by Goinglean

A credit to the team who put Cinzano back togther in 6 weeks

Absolutely!!

What an brilliant Team!

And an absolutely amazing achievement!

And great bunch of guys and all characters too.

My Hats off to you all.

Steve Mac

[TheMutzNuts]

Firstly ......

I’d just like to say a massive thank you from myself and Natalie, (my daughter) to every one of the Cinzano Team..... Eric, the Nut on tall stories, Tim, the Gent on trallers, Marcus the Cap-pit-tan, Mike the spanners on Spongebob rides Cinzano , Steve no salt on polish and last but not least, Max on GPS….Hmmm or was it the Dance Floor? :o), for the overwhelming Hospitality we received throughout the final stages.
From the moment we arrived, it was ‘jump in guys! (and gals) we’re off across a beach or a sand dune to watch out for Cinzano coming in, or calls saying where you’d all be partying in the evenings’.
Brilliant! Thanks AGAIN! Natalie and I both had an absolute Ball and was TRULLY made to feel like a part of the Team…. wicked!

Oh!…Max….We have video evidence of our drunken dancing in the club after the Galway Presentations. Micheal Flackeley eat your heart out! We definately showed those Irish how to Irish dance. :o)

......

Also.....

Thanks to Justin for the invite to the Final Awards/Presentations on the Saturday evening. It really did put the icing on the top of a great weekend.
You really know how to throw a great party and great event.

Hats off to you too.

........


Just one more!...for now ...:o)

As Mrs Smilie rightly said;

'And the wife who did not see her hubby very much at all'.

I Absolutely agree!

We really shouldn’t forget the wives that contribute to making these things happen.

I don’t know all the wives or partners of the Cinzano Team, but I do know Mike Nickolson’s wife Sarah.
Prior to the rush on Cinzano, Mike and I had working weekends and evenings on my Phantom 25…..when I light heartedly thanked her for letting me borrow her husband for several weekends’, her response was something along lines of …..’That’s No problem Steve, if Micheal’s Happy, then I’m Happy’…… Ain’t that an Amazing wife!

Fortunately some of us are very lucky to have found wives such as these.

So a BIG THANKS to all you wives out there too.

[FLYING FISH]

The San Benedetto ref Mike,was in post 40 in the Hunton/Ilmor thread.This thread sparked off the lightweight hull with big power debate. Actually,although Avenger 007 could do mid nineties,it won a light Miami - Nassau at an average of 74mph,which is what ciggy 36`s could average 2 yrs later with 1200hp.It`s almost like the Gas Turbine U.S. cats having all that power,yet never daring to use it in a race.
As I mentioned in that post 40,I can`t think of a 38ft mono with 1700hp (aka Cinzano),even San Bendetto had 2 x 820hp isotta`s,so 2 ilmor`s should be even quicker.
Jim Brooker made some comments re folletts,but that was for a 41ft boat.
I take it they opened the taps in the final stages,just to see what it could do,but one thing to come out of this,is that the ilmor`s can be reliable,but were they really caned continuously,like when you have a 40ft Fountain up your arse,but a satisfying achievement to be that reliable considering no pre testing.

[macrib]

Hi guys, Justin Here.

Well, we are now back in Cork having had what I can only say was one of the best experiences ever.

The Around Ireland Offshore Powerboat Race 2010 may have had only 6 entries but boy were we blessed with some huge characters.

There are many stories to tell about the week and our travels around Ireland. Those about the 6 great crews and their individual tenacity and will power to keep going. Those about the officials who helped us out and the superb professionalism that these guys showed right throughout the week. It is rather humbling to see just how much was achieved by so few. The crews, the officials, the ISA, the RYA, the event stopovers, and of course the people.

Everybody pulled together to make this a great memorable event and one which will be remembered as being the first of many. It was a real pleasure to meet all the people involved this week and I can safely say we have all made some great new life long friends.


Cinzano:
What can you say.
Markus really has pulled a world class team of experts together.
Congratulations for getting this magnificent boat back together and actually managing to get to Galway in time for the start.

What a truely great bunch of characters who enjoyed every minute, who took part in everything, and who managed throughout all of this to get Cinzano in the water and running sweetly.
Even an force 7-8 and 25 foot seas off the Mizen did not stop them.
Congratulations guys and well done on being the inaugural winners and Around Ireland Offshore Champions 2010.

Kilcullen Galway Flyer
Faced with a major stuffing in Donegal Bay on day one and a lot of damage to the boat systems this Team could have been out of the race in Killybegs. Not so!
Surrounded by just about everybody in the marine business in Killybegs they knuckled down and managed to completely rebuild the boat and pass scrutineering by 07.00 the following morning.

The Team kept going gettinig into Galway on Saturday. It was a huge display of tenacity and determination and I am sure that once time is given to reflect on the event they will be back for more.
Enda and Tom along with the support of Alan Power of Power Marine are a force to be reckoned with for the future.

Dreamer
Phillip Fitzgibbon and Mick Shanahan finally got to join us in Bangor with Phillip's new boat, a 10m Excalibur "Dreamer". To say this boat was hot out of the mould is probably an understatement.

The 10 days prior to the race saw a boat go from mould to finished product with many 48 hour days included.
Phillip with the exceptional help from the guys at Excalibur manage to build new tank, build a new console plug, a new console mould, and a new console, stick on the tubes, add the engines and wire the electrics in a time that will remain part of boat building folklore.

They competed in the final 3 legs showing that the new boat is fast, stable and very good in rough weather. That along with Shans ability to hit his head of door jams sums up these guys. A very big congratulations.

Blue Steel Zoolander
It was a great pleasure to see these guys get around Ireland. Driving their Zodiac RIB they encountered various issues along the way which had the potential to cause them to throw in the towel.

Not a hope. These Ryan Brothers John and Oisin accompanied by Gareth Tolan shrugged everything off and kept right on going, even after a very big night out in Waterford on the way around.

Team Pulsar's Wolf and Seawolf
It has been a great week for Team Pulsar with class wins and a 2nd and 3rd overall.
I can only say that we have a great crew who get the job done.

The crew of Wolf, Derek "Stan" Stanley and Paul Lewis kept it together onboard Wolf despite Stans raging nicotine issues (it is nigh on impossible to keep a ciggie lighting at 45 knots) got around Ireland in one piece.

Myself and my able co skipper Andrew Varley managed to get around perfectly in Seawolf and apart from a comms issue where I had some difficulty hearing Andrew on the helmets we had a blast.

Thanks to all involved in the race, expecially our wives.
Thanks to all the officials, the ISA, The RYA, the towns of Galway, Killybegs, Bangor, Waterford and Fenit and of course Ireland for such a great historic event.

We have over 5000 photos on the website below for everybody to see.
These will all be uploaded by the weekend and you can get a feel for the entire event. http://www.onlinepictureproof.com/vividsync/albums

Heres to the next one in 2014. Sign up now.

Regards,

Justin Mc Inerney.

[Mrs Smillie]

Originally Posted by TheMutzNuts

Firstly ......

I’d just like to say a massive thank you from myself and Natalie, (my daughter) to every one of the Cinzano Team..... Eric, the Nut on tall stories, Tim, the Gent on trallers, Marcus the Cap-pit-tan, Mike the spanners on Spongebob rides Cinzano , Steve no salt on polish and last but not least, Max on GPS….Hmmm or was it the Dance Floor? :o), for the overwhelming Hospitality we received throughout the final stages.
From the moment we arrived, it was ‘jump in guys! (and gals) we’re off across a beach or a sand dune to watch out for Cinzano coming in, or calls saying where you’d all be partying in the evenings’.
Brilliant! Thanks AGAIN! Natalie and I both had an absolute Ball and was TRULLY made to feel like a part of the Team…. wicked!

Oh!…Max….We have video evidence of our drunken dancing in the club after the Galway Presentations. Micheal Flackeley eat your heart out! We definately showed those Irish how to Irish dance. :o)

......

Also.....

Thanks to Justin for the invite to the Final Awards/Presentations on the Saturday evening. It really did put the icing on the top of a great weekend.
You really know how to throw a great party and great event.

Hats off to you too.

........


Just one more!...for now ...:o)

As Mrs Smilie rightly said;

'And the wife who did not see her hubby very much at all'.

I Absolutely agree!

We really shouldn’t forget the wives that contribute to making these things happen.

I don’t know all the wives or partners of the Cinzano Team, but I do know Mike Nickolson’s wife Sarah.
Prior to the rush on Cinzano, Mike and I had working weekends and evenings on my Phantom 25…..when I light heartedly thanked her for letting me borrow her husband for several weekends’, her response was something along lines of …..’That’s No problem Steve, if Micheal’s Happy, then I’m Happy’…… Ain’t that an Amazing wife!

Fortunately some of us are very lucky to have found wives such as these.

So a BIG THANKS to all you wives out there too.

Hi This is Claire Smiilie (Erics long suffering wife!) I would just like to say how very very proud I am of my hubby for all the hard work he (and many others) put in to get Cinzano together. I know that he was worried after RB08 so this has shown that it can be done. I spoke with Eric and Max everyday and so wanted to be their with them but we were away on a holiday that had already been arranged and that Eric had given up to get Cinzano ready. I have heard some amazing stories and i sooooooooooooo want to get together with all involed to hear some more and I especially want to see the video of my son and co dancing! Many thanks for your comments re wives and I must say that I am always happy as long as Eric is happy and love to watch him race, so hopefully I will see many of the Round Ireland crew when we go to Cowes in August or maybe before.

Thanks

Claire

[Markus Hendricks]

Hello to all,

finally a few words of Cinzano's view, after return of the Boat and crew to England and me to Germany.


I was long since asked by Justin whether we' d join the race

Well, I had no clear answer then, as it was decided last autumn to restore Cinzano after its success of 2009.

The reason why we didn't finish that job early enough is alike all boat projects in the various details.
One of might be the 'winter', others the late determination of spec to the new engine order at Ilmores.
Another the wrong exhaust pipes delivered, or in general the fact that the 725s are apart from the 2008's 625/640s as much as an Mercery V8 might have been.

The Team (Already consistent of Eric and Max Smilie plus Tim Grimshaw)
load up with

Mike Nicholson and
Steve Colley

plus all Help from the
Unwin's (although she might have distracted the rest from work minimally)

has made the Start possible.

The deck paint wasn't finished (only temporary white top coat).
The dash was the old Levorsi one.

Loads of ideas of luxurious amenities like a minimal flip down bottom rest were all sacrificed for getting to Ireland.

Stop! Saying that, I got the Teak deck plywood floor to stand on instead of the industry Rubber one, being not suitable for the green water filling our cockpit regularly in Ireland (well, at least once each Leg).

The other new unit was a stronger bilge pump in the cockpit inevitably needed on the 4th day!

So now to the Event.

We turned up in our mobile work shed which was supposed to have at least one of the guys permanently on work even while on the ferry on Saturday the 5th.

As you will see on the Pictures everybody worked till Sunday evening.
By then we were moored in the Galway harbor entrance, awaiting the locks to open at 10ish (p.m.) for allowing the race boats to be waiting outside for an early start on Monday.

Unfortunately we were accused of having prevented the Galway Festivals rock Concert Band playing on the opposite pier side not giving them a chance of having an additional few songs, because the E-Guitars and Drums were not heard any more, after we fired up the Ilmores.
The harbor basin was unfortunately reflecting our sensible engine rumble like a trumpet of Jericho...

But thats a part of Powerboating isn't it???

First Day Race

gave all sorts of experiences.
We had winds from behind as from upfront.
Short steep waves to stuff in as much as long atlantic swells.
The Bays are deeper, the Foreheads more and shareper edged and the water coming up to it has a long deep travel time only to be funnily reflected in some occasions. So little Waves on Top off higher Sea's and that crosswise were no fun to trim to.

Only on in the Bay shortly before the finish line we allowed our engines to exceed the 4.500 revs count first.

We went over the line with 75knots and still counting, so it was a good day.

Compared to CTC 2009 it was ten knots slower average!

Yes if needed we might have had a little more speed here and there,
but it was definitely not as nice and convenient on the Atlantic as it was in Cowes last year.
Even the Deacons (Hot Lemon) would have admitted that, if they had joined.


Day two
started with less Body Pain as expected, but still as during the Hole week any minute was planned out and busy for all of us.

Another day in the Atlantic Paradise but nice stay with the Fleet for a while and then follow up to the former Langdon's Buzzi Rib heading fast out of the Bay.

Later we lost each other out of sight and it was all sorts of Seas again, but that we now took as Normal.
Only being slightly disappointed that all these exclusion zones make racing on days of poor visibility very in attractive from the Tourism factor of getting to foreign grounds.

We saw a lot of black shadows behind the grey mist/clouds that pretended to be the Green Country, equivalent of New Zealand in Europe.
Well not that day.

It was therefore a very warm welcome to see some fearless and frozen (-less) Boaters awaiting us at the finish line no matter where we came and how wet it was.
But worst of was probably Bangor for those brave people.
Thanks for that!!

Here we took Cinzano out, only to see that the new 10.000pds props from Hering had started kissing each other and looked very unattractive for further speed records.

So we 'sent' them to M. Nicholson prop makers of himself and a few hours later they were on in slightly smaller dimension and the spacer bar giving some Vee direction to the drives, preventing that damage to happen again for the rest of the round trip.

May I say that in all venues the engine bay was a crusty salt place with up to several mill of salt on the exhaust tops, all to be WD40ed and cleaned every evening and had the engine bay not been up to it, all sorts of faults were hindering progress.


This race proofed the need for seaworthy engineering in even a boat that was probably designed with speed in mind instead of pushing through breaking sea crests. We sometimes felt like the scene in 'Das Boot' where two patrolling U-Boats meet in the middle of nowhere jumping the seas.
(sorry for the reference)

Where am I, ah yes


Waterford the first long leg down the small stretch of sea between the two Island being North of the European Continent.
Another goodie for those who pretend that only rough racing is good to them because everything else could be left to the boys.
See a lot of those here on Boatmad!

We might have opted for a calm day as you find them in the middle of the atlantic crossing the equator, if some body had asked us.
As you can imagine nobody did, so it was good to have a lay day in Waterford.

It turned out that Justin had arranged to have the Major feeding us in his nice office and after loads of Glory and Politics it turned out that we took him up the river next day for a spin on 'his' river.
After I persuaded the Harbormaster that we would cause less wash at 75 knots then 25kn with what we were guided up the river by the local rescue people being cautious as it is their fate.

We got the Major silent for at least a minute!
You know what shows a happy inshore powerboater? Its all the dead flies between the teeth.


Day Four

it was supposed to be as nice as day three,
Oh wonder, everybody started well behaved and for a while we stayed nicely together for just the fun of it.

As in every race this didn't last to long and the new show up of the really strong crew of Dreamer wanted to show or see their potential, too.

The Sea state went nicer and nicer the further south we came and after a while it was only the Buzzi Rib and us doing a nice cruise speed of mid to high 60ies (kn).

Finally it was time to see what speed was left and we went on to the mid 70ies later even over 80 knots.

It was still drives trimmed in, nearly neutral and with one of the trim tabs slightly down and the other in neutral. The revs were around 5.200. This left us staying put and under full control of the long swell that was the only disturbance in that part of the race.
The moderate trim was giving the controlled feeling that made it easy to go fast. As we had about 250 Gallons of fuel in the back, the nose was not being pushed down by the (this leg) deliberately left empty forward tank.

Then there came the Fastnet and the beloved Atlantic.

All over a sudden the race was over and after we managed to get the E120 running again that for some reason lost track we ended up in speeds around 20 knots and around 30 degrees to the Sea.
It was a riding of real white horses I otherwise only know from my Sailboat and it wasn't funny.

After ages we rounded the marker probably being put in the Bay of Biscay as it felt...
Only then having to go straight up with 11,5 to 12,3 knots for max speed.

We worked our way until we came closer to land that was eventually visible again and after rounding another predominant head of 'black rocks' found ourselves in company with another boat in vicinity.
I think i got lost of having fun before until Tim then started to show me how he rode the seas in his little boats by accelerating uphill and slowing down so we went up to 20kn again.

Soon we came alongside the Rib called Dreamer and it was fun to meet out there.

We found better sideways seas soon after and accelerated to above 30 sometimes even 40knots in seas that only could be described as confuse but drivable again.

By unknown reason Dreamer stayed behind.
We were told of having problems with the kill switches setting off deliberately after impacts and therefore they stayed behind.
Otherwise I do think we would have gone 'home' side by side.

We managed to limp home with the rest of fuel, not knowing how much it really was, so kept revs down to the end with indefinite readings from the gages.

They all work, they all show in the harbor but not in these conditions.
And as they were new allocated and we deliberately started on the five aft wards tanks with 300 gallons only, we did not have encountered any of the low fuel reading on the days before.
Adding up that consumption by mile is often higher at low speeds especially in these conditions.
We were happy to cross the line undisturbed by fuel drop outs.

Day five saw us having fun with the Buzzi rib at the start this time with a Robinson Helicopter hovering above well. (wonder why this is not sufficient for Cowes photoshooting as the Augustas109 quote of over 11.000pds for 2010 CTC is uncomparatively pricey, but thats another story)


So as we went along we turned out to be lonely again after an hour and slowed down a bit just to go on nice speed at the Galway bay in following sea. No more swell but a chop from fresh wind made again low revved low trimmed GPS read out of 83,something Knots over the Line.

So that was it!

Hope nobody fell asleep.

And if the occasional Grammar interference left you uncertain of what I was trying to say, ask the Irish.

I had to learn their language over the last week and maybe some interference with my German grammar might have inflicted the novel above.

There will be questions and it was a lot happening in a short time so please do not hesitate to ask.

One I can say it was worth coming.
Thanks to the Organizers and Officials
And ah yes the Teams Wife's last but not least.

Team Cinzano, Markus Hendricks

[Ben]

Great job and great story Markus. Congratulations to you and the team.

[hunton69]

Originally Posted by Mark Wildey

According to a data bouy SW of the Irish coast there is a 6ft sea with 18 knot winds.

I think this info might of been a little bit wrong.

Congratulations Marcus Eric Tim and your support crew. It was very interesting watching your progress on the trackers. All we need now is live film on the net and offshore could be back in business. (And you didn't sink this time)

[Carl]

thanks or the race report and well done

[Dozzer]

See you at Henley where we will take you in a boat which is 1920 and only does 10 knots! We can sip champagne and celebrate your win without your hat being blown off!

[cfun]

A fantastic job by all involved well done,and as usual great to read about the synopsis of the race from the team's prospective and the amazing performance coming from the CUV boat
I must admit I thought it unlikely anyone would power a CUV hull now quicker than the EX Lambo P1 41' boat that ran some years back at what one can only assume ran just shy of the 100mph mark with considerably more power, but Cinzano is on it's tail pipes with the speeds being attained from the Ilmors

[Wild Thing]

Just for the record, now that the even is over and you have all seen what the irish "can do" are there many out there that wish they had not got caught up in politics and just basically went for it.