Endurance Race - Day 1

As it was our first race for 18 months and we still had important testing to do, so we decided to get to Malta early. We were up bright and early Thursday morning to see the boats arrive with a police escort off the ship. It was great to see the boat and lorry arrive after the long and arduous journey through France and Italy.

‘Grandpa’ Guy did a great job of getting everything there in one piece and then proved to be an invaluable asset to the team for the whole of the four days.

We knew that racing P1 would be a very different ‘beast’ to the national series but I had no idea how much. Thursday morning we spent with the boat and then we were whisked off to a press conference, then a radio interview and quiz with Bay Radio (absolutely great fun!) and then spent the rest of the evening with Bild am Sonntag, a large paper in Germany which goes out to 11 million readers on a Sunday. They were running an article about me so loads of photos were taken (I didn’t manage to break the lenses!) and we were then interviewed. That was day one.

Malta is known in May for its windy weather conditions and it did not disappoint. We wanted to get out on Thursday but with a Force 6-7 and enormous waves we thought crashing the boat early on would not be too bright. We also ran out of time so that was one day lost.

Friday dawned and the weather conditions were the same. For us it was a nightmare as we really needed to test some untried props which were vital. We ventured out first thing to take the photographer and journalist from Bild. It was incredibly rough and in the end it was decided to come straight in. The sea was very large and it just wasn’t worth taking any chances. It was so rough that they would not let any boats out of the harbour that day and testing was cancelled.

This put a lot of pressure on us as we had still not had a chance to try the props. Questions in our mind were; Would we manage to get the boat on the plane with the extra weight? What revs would we be pulling? How would the boat handle? etc. All these questions needed answering before we could race tomorrow. Saturday dawned a little better. The wind had dropped to a 5 and although the sea was still very lumpy they were happy to let us go out and test and fuel up.

With great trepidation we headed out not knowing how the boat would run in these conditions. Unlike our other boat where we had spent months testing and getting used to the boat before our first race. Due to delivery delays we had had so little time in the boat I had no idea how she would handle.

Within minutes however I had a huge grin on my face. We set out on the test course, the sea was rough so the only way to deal with that was grin and bear it and well frankly, just floor it! The boat responded beautifully, the bow came up, boat levelled out and we were on the plane as easily as if I was in a little sports boat…we were off!

We hit a number of large waves and found lots of holes but she took them in her stride. She just simply flew and kept amazingly level. However, one thing surprised me. We thought a larger boat would be a smoother ride and the airborne moments less with a less jarring landing…..were we wrong! The extra weight seemed to give us bigger jumps (hence the grin factor!) and the landings were horrendously hard. We were also wearing harnesses for the first time which rammed us into our seats. I swear we were a few inches shorter when we got out of the boat but wow were we happy! So we were set up for the first race.

The key now was in between press, radio and TV interviews to focus on the race ahead. I was so incredibly nervous, would the boat be easy to handle with others around? What would the start be like? What were the other teams like? Did they play dirty or not?, could I handle such a big boat? etc, all these questions were buzzing around my head and just before we got into the boat it was almost unbearable. However, I remembered that I just needed to finish, we had had so little chance to practice that this was all we could expect and nothing more.

We lined up on the start, I chose the outside of the start line giving us as much room as possible, and slowly my heart rate dropped and we were settled. This was now business, no time for nerves.

The start was bit muddled, there were 19 big boats and we couldn’t even see the start boat. Suddenly everyone shot off…I said to Mike ‘Do you think we’ve started?’ We hadn’t got a clue but decided they had. I floored it, she came up and off we went. We were flying past loads of the boats, not just the Supersport teams but some of the Evolution boats as well……this was incredible!

In amongst all the action was also the helicopter filming the action. The sound of the helicopter can make it sound like there’s a serious problem with the engine if you don’t know it’s up there but once you get used to this it’s great knowing there’s a helicopter up their filming….any mistakes will now be caught on camera!

We came up behind Drew Langdon in Buzzi Bullet and there was a tiny gap between him and a right hand buoy. It was now or never before the gap closed, so foot down we went and sped past Drew. We kept on going with the challenge of keeping the boat running consistently level in rough conditions with the washes from the other boats adding to the mix. We came to our first tight corner ever. I drove into the turn, balanced the boat and then put my foot down and she responded amazingly well, pulling out of the turn like a car.

So for 5 laps we went on like this, after two I was really breathing hard…should have done more training, the lungs were burning, my throttle leg was shaking and my right arm was killing me with all the right turns.

Mike was enjoying himself and providing me with all the right instructions, where to turn to, which side of the buoy to go around etc. No matter how many times you do the same lap, I can still never remember the course. He also kept an eye on the average speed making sure we didn’t go over and incur penalties. After the second lap my body came out of shock and nothing really hurt anymore. We were settling into a great rhythm and just enjoying ourselves.

One of the most memorable moments was turning at the end of the course going past two yellow turn buoys on a pretty tight turn. We were only a few yards from the buoy when Mike said to keep an eye on my right as a boat was coming up on my inside. I turned to see Thuraya, one of the Evolution boats trying to squeeze past us on the inside. It was a fabulous sight seeing this large red boat alongside us. However, never pleased to be passed by anyone, I held my line, put on a little more throttle and we came out of the turn together, it was a great feeling!

At this point I never knew how we were doing, I knew we passed a fair few boats and had lapped a couple but did not want to lose my concentration not even considering our place. However, as we finished the last lap, we had to go straight on around the Island of Malta. The Evolution guys had another lap to go so turned right, Mike instructed me to go straight on saying "we are going to be on our own for a while!"….but hang on a minute…there was nothing in front of us? I said to Mike, ‘are we in the lead’ and his answer scared the hell out of me….we were in the lead in our first international race. Now most people would have been thrilled and yes I was, but now we had everything to lose, one mistake, one mechanical failure, one error from me could lose us our valuable position, this was going to be hard as we had another 44 miles to go.

As we shot between the Island of Gozo and Malta, Mike reminded me to keep an eye on the speed. This was a challenge as we could not exceed a certain speed however he could see a boat coming behind us from a distance and the instinct was to floor it!
The sea conditions were incredible around the back of the island. Just like a millpond. I swear we could have had a cup of tea! However, this is the worse time, if you lose concentration you may not see a wash that has come off a far away ship that could end your chances really quick. As headed on around the helicopter hovered in front of us and we flew beneath him as he got some great shots of the boat.

The OSG Donzi and Keracoll came past us, they were in the Evolution Class and could run at a higher speed. Sadly, Mike had to keep me under control and disappointingly we couldn’t race them. They did look amazing though against the backdrop of Malta.

We then rounded the far corner of Malta and went past the fish farms. Here the sea was different again. Large mixed waves which even in a 40 foot boat had some significant holes. I just wanted to finish so badly now, I knew we were in the lead but even with ten minutes to go all could go spectacularly wrong. I’d forgotten how stressful this racing is!

Finally, we cleared the rough stuff and were on the final leg, the helicopter was filming us and I could see the crowds, spectator boats and the chequered flag. We sped though the finish the winners of Supersports and third overall!

I have to say that we were both simply astounded to have won. After the race I had to pinch myself to make sure it wasn’t just an amazing dream! I don’t think either of us have been so overwhelmed!

What’s great about P1 is that they know how to run an event. They brought over the chequered flag so that we could proudly display it on the boat. The helicopter filmed from above and the excitement in the air was electric.

We finally made our way back to harbour to greeted by all our friends, supporters, the team and dozens of film crews, photographers and reporters. 

Once the excitement was over, the boat weighed, the medals handed out we surveyed the boat to make sure it was OK. Unfortunately there had been some damage and we had lost a chine rail (or spray rail) from the back pad on the portside (see ‘incidents page’). Now we were stuck, was it best to take the other rail off the back and run with none or just shave it down, smooth it off and leave it. Due to the lateness of the day we went for the latter. As it was Noel the boat repairer from Malta was still up until gone midnight repairing the damage. My only worry now was how was the boat going to be with only one rail on the back?

But what an incredible start to the season!

Rally Race - Day 2

The second race was on the Sunday. More press, interviews etc and the place was buzzing. We had to shoot out to refuel in the morning and took a journalist and German TV presenter with us to do more filming for a German TV station ProSieben. The poor girl was promptly ill when she got back, hope it wasn’t my driving!

The pressure was now on. I knew we could drive the boat, Mike was now used to the GPS etc so we knew what we had to do. There was no margin for error and we were keen (obviously) for a repeat performance.

When we’d gone out and fuelled in the morning for some reason the boat did not feel 100%, I could not put my finger on it but she seemed to labour a bit. However, it was too late to do anything so I put that and the lack of one spray rail to the back of my mind.

Out we went again to the start. The number of spectator boats had increased substantially and there were boats all over the place. It was great that there was such support amongst these great people.

This time we kept an eye on the start boat, the start was for some reason delayed by a few minutes and the helicopter hovered above us all waiting for some action. The atmosphere was very tense.

Then the start boat moved, the flag was dropped and we were off. I didn’t get a great start and couldn’t seem to get the boat going as well. The Maltese boat Chaudron was going well, Martin Lai and Ocean Dragon were also going well. Drew Langdon and Buzzi Bullet were just in front and then it was us with a spattering of Evolution boats.

The first thing I noticed was that without the chine rail she felt really unbalanced. Chining and jumping from one side to the other and certainly not flying as well and as straight as she had done the day before. I was fighting her every second which was exhausting and frustrating. As this was a lap race the washes from the other boats created a beam sea which made her chine even more, I was not enjoying this.

However, by now I had caught the other teams and just had Martin in front who was really flying well.

I felt I could catch him but something wasn’t right. She was going Ok and we took a good flyer, she then landed on one side then the other and so on….what a nightmare, I screamed at her to sort herself out, I was really getting mad.

Four laps had been and gone and I had just resigned myself to the difficult conditions we were in, it was good practice anyway. Then Martin had a problem and was out, running on what appeared to be one engine. We were now in the lead once again which put the pressure on even more.

We were just drawing ahead when the starboard engine started to drop revs. I just noticed it a small amount to start with but there was definitely something amiss. Another lap and the problem was getting worse, Drew was catching us and I had nothing else to give. My heart sank as I realised we were having engine problems.

However, we were still racing hard. We came up to one of the tighter turns with Kerakoll on our inside and Drew on the inside of him. I had to go wide to avoid Kerakoll and their horrendous wash but that gave me an excellent chance to turn hard in immediately behind Kerakoll and cut Drew out. But all that effort was in vain as the engine started to get worse and worse.

The engine was sick now and the revs on the other engine began to drop. What was really embarrassing was that in amongst the crowds, helicopter and everything else she was backfiring! How embarrassing and even worse, what the hell was wrong.

The revs were dropping by the second and she sounded very sick indeed. I asked Mike where 70% of the course was, he’d as always calculated this and after we completed the lap for 70% we pulled over to see what was wrong. Not to retire but to have a look as we could have finished on one engine if need be.

He lifted the engine lid and we expected all sorts but there was nothing. It appeared that it was an electrical problem. So we shut the engine down, restarted and she was off yet again and much better! It had taken us two minutes to sort the problem out, long enough to let Drew go past but not the others.

Thank goodness Mike had kept his cool (unlike me who was furious). He’d sussed out the problem, fixed it and we were on our way. The last lap was a nightmare, she wasn’t running the best, I was tired and thought we were last and I just wanted to finish the race. We went through the finish with relief!

Unbeknown to us, we had still finished second. So from being disappointed and fearing the worse, we had come second and as we had won in the previous days longer race, that gave us the Maltese Grand Prix!

I have to say that we were both stunned by this result! What was equally as stunning was the number of boats which then came into the harbour to greet all the teams. I have never seen so many boats in one place in my life! Trying to navigate our way around them was somewhat stressful, especially as they were all trying to get close to take pictures! Trying to manoeuvre a boat with people all around you when you are both incredibly worn out was a challenge but the atmosphere was brilliant!

The boat now needs some TLC and will be repaired in Malta and Anzio. But the result could not have been better with the English teams 1st and 2nd.

Looking forward to Anzio with excitement and a little trepidation!