Not wanting to be left out here is our story from the weekend and the lead up to the races....
As usual we left our preparations far too late which is probably no suprise to those who know us at Drivers! Me and Andy put in a lot of hours working though the night on the weekends at Drivers to get from a bare hull with no seats, electrics, drives, geraboxes or engines three weeks before the race to an (almost) fully functional raceboat. There were several moments during those days leading up to the race where we came a brick wall when trying to install our new water cooled seateks. One example of this was when it became apparent that the new engines had a 12 pin plug and the boat loom had a 10 pin plug. Somehow with the help of all the regulars at drivers and some new faces as well (most notably the friendly yanks who turned up at drivers who helped us wrestle the new engines in along with Gareth and Gordon Compton in the pissing rain one Sunday night) we managed to get over almost all of these problems or find compromises for those that we could not.
So the day before the Cowes 100 we still had not finished the boat but had to head over to Cowes anyway to sign on and do the briefing as we were told if we could not make it we could not race. So off we went for our first of many Fastjet journeys of the weekend. Having done the briefing and signed on we returned to Drivers to finish the boat. Finally at midnight that night we set off for Cowes soaking wet with the rain still lashing down. We carefully picked our way across Southampton Water and finally arrived in Cowes just after 1am only to find out we could not get in touch with the landlord of the accomodation we had booked, unsuprisingly they had gone to bed and we were now left wandering the streets of Cowes looking for someone who could help us. Eventually we found a pub open late and they directed us to the front door of the landlord. We eventually found the door and had braced ourselves for an angry reception but instead were met by the landlord of the Duke of York Barry an ex powerboat racer himself who welcomed us with open arms, gave us some food and drink and most importantly the keys to our rooms so we could get a few hours sleep! Thanks Barry
We managed to get hold of the scrutineers in the morning and get our boat passed and although we missed the convoy down to North Head we still made it in time to muster before the start. So the Cowes 100 was to be our first test of the boat since we rebuilt it. Once the race started we managed to get some clear water after making the first turn at Needles Fairway and let the faster boats get away as we found our feet having not been out in the boat for two years. Once we settled into a comfortable pace given the rough water we had well and truly lost the lead pack and had Bohinc in his new rib just behind us. We started to edge up the speed a bit but found it very bumpy indeed. The first part of the course running down to Portland was really very tough going even in our boat which deals with most seas very comfortably. The boat didnt feel its usual self and we were struggling to make good speed. What we realised was that the new engines were not pulling as well as the old ones and due to their extra weight had completely changed the handling of the boat. It was very lethargic in the rough and not flying as well as before and in the flat was a good 10mph down on top speed. Not a good result considering all the time, money and effort that had gone into the new setup. We had badly underestimated the effect of having so much more weight and also having it higher up and to one side of the engines.
However things did go in our favour with some of the leaders running into problems and we then managed to pass Hot Lemon after they had a great run inshore to meet us at Portland but they were just not quick enough for us to stay behind for long. The next boat we passed was Cinzano who were clearly not running at full speed either. We could see a boat up ahead of us with turned out to be Keracoll who had also stopped and we were then onto the tail of Ocean Dragon who try as we might we could not catch. Very frustrating for us as with the old engines we would have caught them quite quickly. In the end we came third which all things considered was much better than we were expecting and a good pat on the back for all the hard work we put in. Once we pulled into Cowes though we checked over the boat only to find quite a few more problems to fix before Sundays race so it was all hands on deck to start the next phase of work. The boat was run straight back to drivers to get craned out for repairs. We then had some more Redjet runs to make as our accomodation was in Cowes. We spent all of Saturday working on the boat and repeated the whole late process for signing on and briefing once again to just scrape into Sundays race in time.
So for the CTC we made a reasonable start but once again we did not have the pace to stay with the leading pack. We settled into a slower pace with Hot Lemon and the Grey Rib (not sure of the name of the boat) and Cinzano. The four boats made our way together across the Portland race which was horrific, we sustained some injuries going across this but carried on into Lyme Bay which was a horrible sea coming from the side making the boat feel very unstable. Eventually we found a better angle and settled into a comfortable setup with the occasional big hole giving a bad landing but nothing too bad. Unfortunately then disaster struck and we lost one of our rubber drives to the gearbox which effectively meant we were down to one engine meaning a max speed of 6 knots. We waved goodbye to Cinzano and the others and raised the orange flag absolutely gutted to be out of the race. We crawled back to Bridport and then had to call in a mobile crane and HGV to get us back to Drivers. A sad end to a great event but I am sure we will be back to fight another day. What made this event great for us was all the support we recieved at Drivers and the general comradery that always goes with the powerboat racing scene. Massive respect to Vee and Gareth you guys really deserved a good result and you must have pushed really hard to get through that huge sea in your boat.
All the Best
Nick
As usual we left our preparations far too late which is probably no suprise to those who know us at Drivers! Me and Andy put in a lot of hours working though the night on the weekends at Drivers to get from a bare hull with no seats, electrics, drives, geraboxes or engines three weeks before the race to an (almost) fully functional raceboat. There were several moments during those days leading up to the race where we came a brick wall when trying to install our new water cooled seateks. One example of this was when it became apparent that the new engines had a 12 pin plug and the boat loom had a 10 pin plug. Somehow with the help of all the regulars at drivers and some new faces as well (most notably the friendly yanks who turned up at drivers who helped us wrestle the new engines in along with Gareth and Gordon Compton in the pissing rain one Sunday night) we managed to get over almost all of these problems or find compromises for those that we could not.
So the day before the Cowes 100 we still had not finished the boat but had to head over to Cowes anyway to sign on and do the briefing as we were told if we could not make it we could not race. So off we went for our first of many Fastjet journeys of the weekend. Having done the briefing and signed on we returned to Drivers to finish the boat. Finally at midnight that night we set off for Cowes soaking wet with the rain still lashing down. We carefully picked our way across Southampton Water and finally arrived in Cowes just after 1am only to find out we could not get in touch with the landlord of the accomodation we had booked, unsuprisingly they had gone to bed and we were now left wandering the streets of Cowes looking for someone who could help us. Eventually we found a pub open late and they directed us to the front door of the landlord. We eventually found the door and had braced ourselves for an angry reception but instead were met by the landlord of the Duke of York Barry an ex powerboat racer himself who welcomed us with open arms, gave us some food and drink and most importantly the keys to our rooms so we could get a few hours sleep! Thanks Barry
We managed to get hold of the scrutineers in the morning and get our boat passed and although we missed the convoy down to North Head we still made it in time to muster before the start. So the Cowes 100 was to be our first test of the boat since we rebuilt it. Once the race started we managed to get some clear water after making the first turn at Needles Fairway and let the faster boats get away as we found our feet having not been out in the boat for two years. Once we settled into a comfortable pace given the rough water we had well and truly lost the lead pack and had Bohinc in his new rib just behind us. We started to edge up the speed a bit but found it very bumpy indeed. The first part of the course running down to Portland was really very tough going even in our boat which deals with most seas very comfortably. The boat didnt feel its usual self and we were struggling to make good speed. What we realised was that the new engines were not pulling as well as the old ones and due to their extra weight had completely changed the handling of the boat. It was very lethargic in the rough and not flying as well as before and in the flat was a good 10mph down on top speed. Not a good result considering all the time, money and effort that had gone into the new setup. We had badly underestimated the effect of having so much more weight and also having it higher up and to one side of the engines.
However things did go in our favour with some of the leaders running into problems and we then managed to pass Hot Lemon after they had a great run inshore to meet us at Portland but they were just not quick enough for us to stay behind for long. The next boat we passed was Cinzano who were clearly not running at full speed either. We could see a boat up ahead of us with turned out to be Keracoll who had also stopped and we were then onto the tail of Ocean Dragon who try as we might we could not catch. Very frustrating for us as with the old engines we would have caught them quite quickly. In the end we came third which all things considered was much better than we were expecting and a good pat on the back for all the hard work we put in. Once we pulled into Cowes though we checked over the boat only to find quite a few more problems to fix before Sundays race so it was all hands on deck to start the next phase of work. The boat was run straight back to drivers to get craned out for repairs. We then had some more Redjet runs to make as our accomodation was in Cowes. We spent all of Saturday working on the boat and repeated the whole late process for signing on and briefing once again to just scrape into Sundays race in time.
So for the CTC we made a reasonable start but once again we did not have the pace to stay with the leading pack. We settled into a slower pace with Hot Lemon and the Grey Rib (not sure of the name of the boat) and Cinzano. The four boats made our way together across the Portland race which was horrific, we sustained some injuries going across this but carried on into Lyme Bay which was a horrible sea coming from the side making the boat feel very unstable. Eventually we found a better angle and settled into a comfortable setup with the occasional big hole giving a bad landing but nothing too bad. Unfortunately then disaster struck and we lost one of our rubber drives to the gearbox which effectively meant we were down to one engine meaning a max speed of 6 knots. We waved goodbye to Cinzano and the others and raised the orange flag absolutely gutted to be out of the race. We crawled back to Bridport and then had to call in a mobile crane and HGV to get us back to Drivers. A sad end to a great event but I am sure we will be back to fight another day. What made this event great for us was all the support we recieved at Drivers and the general comradery that always goes with the powerboat racing scene. Massive respect to Vee and Gareth you guys really deserved a good result and you must have pushed really hard to get through that huge sea in your boat.
All the Best
Nick
