&e - Powerboat Archive

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full{ime secretariat, access to almost unlimited
water and large membership, have come to
expect more than one National Championship
round to supplement their own series. At the
other, clubs such as those at Wallasey and
Pwllheli, the Offshore Racing Drivers Association
and the Royal Southern Yacht Club feel
aggrieved if they do not get at least one.
Given the current Charnpionship make-up, the
balancing act just works, but the number of
entries for each event may suffer. On the other
hand if the number of rounds is reduced the
chances are that the non-championship races
will cease to be staged, for what club wants to
take the financial gamble of putting on an event
with less status?
UKOBA are in the strongest position: such is
their membership and following that they could
run a championship of their own which might
actually be more attractive than the National
alternative. However, this would not augur well for
continuity or good relations.
The ORC may have to find a compromise, The
big test of everyone's resolve is whether
decisions can be taken with the best overall
interests of the sport in mind.
Meanwhile, out on the water, life has also been
tough for the competitors. lf ever offshore racing
in this country needed a smooth send-off to a
season, and an easy introduction for newcomers,
1993 was that season. lnstead, it got one rough
race, one very rough race and one so rough that
jt never took place at all. The entry lists for all
three looked simrlar.
Not since the end of 1989 has British domestic
racing managed to field more than two
indigenous Class I contenders, and 1993 is no
different. The only true Class I boat rs Roger
Fletcher's 50ft (15.2m) aluminium Shead
monohull Shockwave, and the only interest
concerns whether his plans for improving its
performance will bear fruit.
The triple Sabre diesel-powered boat has
never had its potential fully exploited, due partly
to the crew's penchant for running fully ballasted
at all times and partly to its less than precise
handling in the turns.
Two rudders have now given way to a single
blade mounted in the middle, and the latest ploy
to ease the beast further over the drag hump is a
laterally-mounted hydrofoil just ahead of the step.
Opinions have polarised between those who feel
this device might lift the bow and plunge the
heavy end deeper, thus reducing speed, and
those who feel that it might lift the stern so much
that the keel towards the bow becomes the
rudder, thus making it undrivable!
Class ll is numerically stronger and sports the
only boat new to British racing, Charles Burnett's
28ft (8.5m)Skater. Previously raced in the USA,
though not very hard, the cat could run with either
two or three outboard motors. Burnett has
favoured a twin Mercury installation, which is still
capable of tickling 100mph and planing on one
engine.
Watching closely has been David Allenby,
whose 36ft (10.9m) Donohoo design, with its four
Mercurys, has hitherto been the boat to beat
-
provided he has been able to keep them all
running, which he usually hasn't.
After this year's Spithead Trophy and Southern
Speed Trophy races, the score was Allenby two,
Burnett nil. In fact, with Richard Windmill
choosing to run his old Sabre-powered GRP
monohull (the former Rejuga) in Class l, where it
is grossly outclassed, and Martin Mansbridge still
struggling to master the old Robin Hood Racing,
now with canopies, Class ll has yet to see more
than one boat f inish. lt does not exactly look like
the great development class that it might be.
Class lll, of course, is a different matter. Britain
boasts the best designers, builders, riggers and
drivers in the world in the 2-Litre and 4-Litre
divisions, and it shows
You want convention? We can give you
convention. Phantom, Marshan, Forgecraft,
Younger and Frode all have useful monohulls,
and John Miller, John Billington and Steve Hore
ran away with 2-Litre at Spithead, all driving 23ft
(7m)GRP Frodes.
You want innovation? We can give you
innovation, too. Even in the absense of Neil
Holmes' trimaran in 4-Litre, the Campbell/Midas
combination have Tony Jenvey's superlight,
superlong 27fI(8.2m) GRP composite cat, which
won its class in the Southern Speed rough, and
Miller and Robin Parrish are to take delivery of
rdentical boats which will ooen up the
competition still further
In 1 .3-Litre, the exception to the monohull rule
is Peter Wilson's 17ft (5.1m) Argocat. but the
conditions have to be right for him. So far this
year, they haven't been. In the Southern Speed,
even Geoff Bird's Phantom 16 suffered in the
conditions and may not be repairable; the
Graysons, who won at Spithead, opted out before
the start,
The Cruiser class seems to have run out of
steam again. When you talkto long-time
competitor and regular winner Alan Webb, a
picture emerges of disaffection with increasingly
stringent rules and a class hit harder than any
other by the recession.
It is this kind of testament which may convince
the ORC that their only sensible course of action
is to reduce the number of rounds in allthe
National Championships for 1994. Four races for
Classes | , | | and Cruisers and eight for Class ll I
would perhaps be appropriate. But it isn't quite
that simple.
The more British national activities are
reduced, for whatever reason, the narrower
becomes the country's powerbase
internationally. With Europeans already
questioning why Britain demands a Grand Prix
when it has no boats and no drivers on the Class I
circuit, the RYA's position is becoming parlous,
Clearly, times are changing. The face of the
sport has been transformed within the past two
years, and older values are being challenged by
the day. A possibility now being discussed
openly in some circles is that in future Classes ll
and lll might be used for Nationaland European
championships, with CIass I reserved for World
competition only.
lf that came to pass, some of the current
problems facing the ORC would be self-solving,
and would pale into insignif icance beside that of
how to keep Britain in an administrative driving
seat at international level.
It would behove the members of the ORC to
look further than the end of their noses and
devise a course of action to strengthen British
racing over the long term. lf they don't, it will not
be just the early races but the country's whole
future in the sport which is under the weather. I
MOTORBOATS MON.rHLY