Cowes festival 1990

[cfun]

Some pics from Cowes 1990 ... 1st Pic hospitality inn, think this is the cat now in Guernsey with the new deck, and the one JF raced with the bigger engines, also their is a Phantom 28' in the background not sure if this boat is still around, Pic 2 Achili motors, believe this was petrol powered, and it appears their is a red Fletcher made to look very small behind it, pic 3 in the pits, back then they new how to transport their boats in style

 

[cfun]

In the 1st pic their are some odd looking exhausts top left, I think I know where they come from any one have any guesses, and unfortunately the red Fletcher has not come out in the resize pic 2, will try to redo

 

[cfun]

1st pic Annabella as I've pointed out before one of my all time favourite cats, 2nd pic Annabella, 3rd pic a crowd looks on, 4th pic Engine room 2x800hp Isotta Fraschini diesel engines, maybe more power extracted now though on the big Buzzi boat

 

[nitro9]

Ahh.. those were the days.. before health and safety.. when you could wander on and off the pontoons getting nice pictures like these.. probably annoying the **** out of the racers.. and risking life and limb.. but hey the picture taking and peeping in the boats was great!

Nick

 

[Jon Fuller]

...also their is a Phantom 28' in the background not sure if this boat is still around

That is Pete Armstrongs' P28 Cruiser class boat, I think it was named 'Spalding' at that time. Quite light, with a pair of 200 mercs.
It went on to be owned by Chris Dodge (current owner of 'ARPRO')
It now resides in France.

pic 3 in the pits, back then they new how to transport their boats in style

NOOXY 'Fresh & Clean' the Spelta's.

Love those Isotta's, and the way they broke from tradition, with the cross flow running the opposite way to everyone else, i.e, outer ports being intake, inner being exhaust. In that turbo configuration it looks so natural.

 

[littlenige]

Those exhausts belonged to Bill Bonners' Monocat!

 

[Pennpromo]

Those exhausts belonged to Bill Bonners' Monocat!

Yup Nige I will go with that. Now wasn't that boat a success !

 

[Pennpromo]

Love those Isotta's, and the way they broke from tradition, with the cross flow running the opposite way to everyone else, i.e, outer ports being intake, inner being exhaust. In that turbo configuration it looks so natural.

I haven't seen one of those for ages, We must have changed the engines on Babycresci about 20 times during the season. It was like a lottery going to the Issotta factory as you never knew what you would get: even if you ordered a new pair of engines they ran out of parts and just put old ones on!
Great motors though, we ran all the way across Lyme Bay in 1987 with no oil pressure and the engine just ran at full chat. When we stopped it to go in for diesel in Torquay it seized solid ...

 

[Jon Fuller]

we ran all the way across Lyme Bay in 1987 with no oil pressure and the engine just ran at full chat. When we stopped it to go in for diesel in Torquay it seized solid ...

Did that come as a surprise?

Fixed ya 'quote' btw, you oul fool.

 

[cfun]

Those exhausts belonged to Bill Bonners' Monocat!

Yup Nige I will go with that. Now wasn't that boat a success !

Well I'm shocked thought you lot had 2 hopes of guessing the exhausts ... BOB and NONE, as I reckon it must have been 22yrs since you last had seen the boat, how wrong I was

Must admit back in the day I always wished it had come out and gone like a bat out of **** ... however I don't think I ever watched it start a race ... now I gather the rear has been filled back in to a V ... who's the guy in the red shirt?

 

[cfun]

That is Pete Armstrongs' P28 Cruiser class boat, I think it was named 'Spalding' at that time. Quite light, with a pair of 200 mercs.
It went on to be owned by Chris Dodge (current owner of 'ARPRO')
It now resides in France.

NOOXY 'Fresh & Clean' the Spelta's.

Love those Isotta's, and the way they broke from tradition, with the cross flow running the opposite way to everyone else, i.e, outer ports being intake, inner being exhaust. In that turbo configuration it looks so natural.

Must admit I had never given much of a thought to how the flow across the heads ran, did it make sense power wise doing it a different way, and if so have any other manufactures ever adopted that configuration?.
A pity the Phantom is in France now ... it wouldn't happen to be the boat people have mention on here for sale a few times with all the steelwork in it to hold it together

 

[cfun]

1st pic, Cowes dry pits ... how many boatmad people were in that crowd I wonder, anyone spot themselves, 2nd pic, Achilli Motors crew looking relaxed on the way to the start line, you can almost hear the engines, 3rd pic, Chesterfield abandoned, now wouldn't I like to have taken that for a quick spin, do you think they would have noticed the loss of fuel or perhaps it had no fuel in it, and I would have had to spend me £5er filling her up

 

[Jon Fuller]

A pity the Phantom is in France now ... it wouldn't happen to be the boat people have mention on here for sale a few times with all the steelwork in it to hold it together

No, that one is the old BRUT boat (classII)
This one was NPCII

 

[cfun]

Oh and I forgot to mention, I took my caravan over for a bit of shelter, it was a bugger towing it behind the 205

 

[chris]

The phantom 28 is still in France he keeps in regular contact with me , he has used it a few times (about 5) but his enjoyment has been restoring it back to as new , but updating a few things , he did joke with me a few weeks back did i want to buy it back dont know how serious he is about that though but if someone was seriously interested i could ask .

 

[littlenige]

The guy in the red shirt raced with the planatec 40 Double Two - forget his name though......

 

[Jim Brooker]

The guy in the red shirt raced with the planatec 40 Double Two - forget his name though......

That was Tim Hill............

 

[Jim Brooker]

Those exhausts belonged to Bill Bonners' Monocat!

I don't really understand exhausts belonging to Monocat, I rigged Monocat and it had 4 exhaust pipes running through the transom. !!!!!

 

[Jim Brooker]

I haven't seen one of those for ages, We must have changed the engines on Babycresci about 20 times during the season. It was like a lottery going to the Issotta factory as you never knew what you would get: even if you ordered a new pair of engines they ran out of parts and just put old ones on!
Great motors though, we ran all the way across Lyme Bay in 1987 with no oil pressure and the engine just ran at full chat. When we stopped it to go in for diesel in Torquay it seized solid ...

I used to rebuild the 4 Issotta in Follett Cars and the boat, they were beautifully constructed engine, they did have some problems, the first year the rear piston tops would melt, we tried the get 4 new blocks with piston cooling, but no luck from the Issotta Factory, so I built my own piston cooling system with a pump, cooler and a injection rail in the sump on all the 4 engines, it stopped the piston melt down.
The cylinder heads use to crack and spay out sea water, but we couldn't buy new heads, they just didn't make enough for us.
And as we got more power towards 900 bhp we had Turbo problems we did have one of the engines test by Sabre's in the last year and it was putting out 930 bhp, I think the boat did go well over 3 years.

 

[cfun]

Many thanks for the insight ... I guess from a spectators point of view these problems were not really known, although everyone that watched the races realised their were always going to be mechanical issues for one reason or another. Back in the day I used to think, **** why would Jon Clarke choose Lambo to power the cat, when Follett are so reliable with their diesel Issotta engines claiming win after win in the UK, and the old class 2 double 2 also had many wins with the relatively reliable Sabre diesel engines. But now with hindsight I'm thinking the Lambo's were very temperamental, the Issotta's seem now to have had equal quality issues, so what was left for the racers back then, perhaps going the way of the 46' Cougar with 3x600+ sabre or go petrol Merc. Think the last race I watched Follett in was the Southampton Global series where it unfortunately had problems and retired