round britain powerboat race 2008

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2008 Round Britain Race

The 2008 round britain offshore powerboat race.

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Team Birretta Raceboat N° 12: the RB08 story

At first it looked as if it was nothing for us, with some experience of offshore racing in Italy and in the Red Sea, Egypt. Soon we discovered that it was something you have to do if you love offshore racing and that we had to be there. Our boat was up to it but it needed some working on. Contact with the British teams Hot Lemon, Seahound IV and Mystic dragon helped a lot. Fabio Buzzi gave the next push and so we started to prepare. Friends with the Buro were keen to join and proposed to make a Belgian team with two boats and so we did. They were not doing it for winning but just to be there and meet the challenge. That was the spirit.

Finally the day of departure was there, June 18th, Wednesday and we started in the morning. The Burro got off at 6 o’clock to Portsmouth, we had to wait until 10 o’clock because a spare engine bought in Canada arrived at 9 o’clock and we had to check it, deciding to take it with us or not. Previously we decided to go to the race the old fashioned way, by boat from home to the start line. The sea was not good and bad weather was announced but there was no way back. The first 45 miles were ok but then the sea got worse with high waves and a bad wind, against the tide. In the channel between Calais and Dover the sea was a mess and suddenly we lost steering because a hydraulic tube broke loose, touched the engine and split open so that all the hydraulic oil was flushed out. With great difficulty we managed to enter Dover harbour steering on the engines against high waves.

Since help was not available there we had to stay overnight and wait till the day after. We slept on board in the rain and bad weather. The day after we managed to fix the problem by noon and since the weather was not improving we found a truck driver with a lorry that brought us to Portsmouth. Arriving there we were too late for everything, the drivers meeting, the reception with Princess Anne, etc. The race still had to begin for us and we already had two difficult days behind us.

Leg 2: Plymouth – Milford Haven Confusion all around, not knowing what to do, was the feeling early in the morning with bad weather, difficult sea states, large waves and so on. The organisation cancelled the leg but we had to be in Milford Haven the day after. We were lucky and solidarity between the teams was building up. Everybody helped and a real mobilisation was orchestrated by the British, great! We did not know what to do, at first transportation was promised for the BURO but then cancelled. It took us some time to make arrangements with our friends. They would wait and go by sea in the morning with the tide. We found transporters but only late in the afternoon. At last we were on the road worrying about our friends who had to face the worst going by sea. Everything went well, we arrived in Milford after midnight, got the boat in the water had a short sleep and early in the morning found our Belgian friends who just arrived with the BURO after a hell of a ride. Everybody was ready for the next leg.

Leg 5: Oban – Inverness No racing today just a relaxed ride through the channels and a fast ride through the lochs. That is something you have to do once in a lifetime. With a fast powerboat in the middle of a loch on flat water cutting through the water with mountains on both sides is something special. Then going through the locks all of this was something you must have done. It took us a whole day but it was worth it. At last in Inverness we had our lay day. It started with an evening of partying with the Scots an experience never to forget. The lay day was a day of getting the boat in shape again and preparing for the second half of the race. We started to know and appreciate the other teams and the people behind this tremendous organisation. It must have been a hell of a job to get everything together and moving this fleet around Britain. And they did it. It is thanks to them that we are the lucky guys who could experience this fabulous experience.

Leg 8: Newcastle – Lowestoft Another leg to go and we were confident. The weather forecast was not good but you get used to that. The race went well and we were going on a good pace.  We did not go for the full throttle but made a good 50 knots. After about 50 miles disaster struck, a burning smell again, other engine overheating and the same problems. Now we knew it was finished, we did not have enough spares nor enough time because we need to get out the starboard engine out to remove the port engine and that would take more than a night. So again help from the RNLI and towing into Hartlepool. For us it was finished, with pain in the heart we started everything to get the boat home and leaving the race. This was a difficult day but we are no magicians.

Thanks to everybody of the Belgian team, thanks to the organisers who made it possible and thanks to the competitors who helped us, and the ones that supported us. Thanks to all our relatives who let us race and gave up some of our limited spare time for giving us the possibility to join this event.

Thomas Vandamme

Pictures by courtesy of Chris Davies www.powerboatpix.com

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Fiat Powertrain Technologies is taking part in the dramatic 2008 Round Britain Powerboat Race supporting, with engines and parts two of the FB Design Racing Boats taking part, including the recently restored Cesa 1882 now with the name of Red FPT. Red FPT was built in 1985 by FB Design and was originally powered by four Iveco engines of 5.8 litres and 520 bhp. It was then powered with four Seatek units with 650 hp and was World Champion in 1988 with Fabio Buzzi with the name of Cesa 1882 and World Champion in 1989 with Stefano Casiraghi with the name of Gancia dei Gancia. Currently re-powered with four Fiat Powertrain Technologies engines of 6.7 litres, rated at 600 bhp.

On a turbulent first day of racing yesterday Red FPT hit problems, however a second Fiat Powertrain supportd boat, Blue FPT, this one equipped with three turbodiesel N60 – 480 engines of 480 horsepower, is also taking part in the Round Britain Powerboat Race 2008. Blue FPT in contrast leads its class at the end of the first leg.

More than 50 entrants represents by itself an important success for this event; 24 years since the last competition of Round Britain, 10 years since the big final endurance race, the Venice – Montecarlo, Round Britain 2008 is ready to write an important chapter in the history of powerboat race and Fiat Powertrain Technologies is ready to be part of history.

The Fiat Powertrain Technologies will also award with a special Trophy and prize the crew that will be able to increase his performance more than the other competitors during  the race. The spirit is to award not only the overall winner, but the boat that will have the most relevant improvement day by day, miles after miles. The prize is a Fiat 500 Round Britain 2008 Special Edition .

To be eligible for the trophy and the prize the boat must be classified as a finisher for every leg of the race. The winner will be chosen between the seven winners of the seven classes of the Round Britain Race. The race will be divided in two legs: the first from Portsmouth to Oban and the second from Inverness to Portsmouth. The average speed in the first part of the race will be compared to the average speed in the second half. The boat with the largest percentage improvement will be the winner of the Fiat Powertrain Technologies Trophy and prize. With this rule, every boat of each Class has the same chance to win the Trophy and the prize, out of the category, the dimensions and the speed of the boat. Midsummer day turned into midsummer madness for some of the 47 starters on Day One of the 2008 Round Britain Powerboat Race yesterday, as near gale force winds swept in from the west and the fleet fought their way to Plymouth.

Y esterday the first leg got the race underway and the first boat home overall and in Class RB2, in a sparkling time of 2 hours 34 minutes to average 50.34 knots (57.93mph), was the 42ft. Buzzi design of Drew Langdon, Miles Jennings and Jan Falkowski, which made best use of its speed to beat the approaching weather front. Langdon was ecstatic: “We found some really good patches of water but then we would get hit by some equally unfriendly lumps so it was very much a case of picking our way through. Everything ran really well today.” John Christensen, CMD’s resident engineer with the Silverline team and riding in the boat today commented: “The engines ran without missing a beat and gave us the confidence to push on but it was pretty taxing at times.”

The three CMD powered runners in Historic Class had mixed fortunes. Mike Barlow in Ocean Pirate struck an underwater obstruction at the start and having been lifted out in Port Solent, drove his damaged prop to St. Neots, Huntingdonshire for repairs and was planning to leave Portsmouth again later on Saturday night to rejoin the fleet for Leg Two from Plymouth to Milford Haven.

The 40 year old Gee with its crew of John Guille, Mark Clayton, Chris Clayton, Richard Hoskins, Nathan Ward and sponsor, Fiona Pankhurst from Raymarine, made good running to win the Historic Class. In a time of 4 hours 17 minutes and an average speed of 30.25 knots (34.81mph). Owner, Chris Clayton, looked a little windswept but was happy with his boat’s performance: “It was very rough in places and the boat took a couple of really big bangs so we will lift her out and check her running surfaces and sterngear before Sunday’s leg. It was actually more fun than I thought it would be!”

Team 747 had a different take on proceedings, as Jonathan Napier explained: “Our navigator, Mark Jealous, slipped awkwardly and injured his ribs on the run out past the Needles and he was in some pain so eventually, we had to be put him ashore in Weymouth for medical attention, so his race is over. We didn’t have a totally trouble-free day but the engines ran well and it was just circumstances and the that conspired against us”

Even with this setback, Team 747 was making good progress until water in the fuel system slowed them further but they finished second in class astern of Gee and are ready for another day’s racing and some closer combat in a class which has now been reduced to four boats.

Day Two, today, of the 2008 Round Britain Powerboat Race was an surreal experience for most of the 400 people directly involved, writes John Walker. As one observer noted, Parry Thomas used to create world land speed records on the Pendine Sands, just east of Milford Haven but for today’s powerboat racers, there would be no record set, on the race day that never was. It was scheduled to be the day that the 45 boats still in contention raced 180 nautical miles from Plymouth in Devon to Pembroke Dock in Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, passing the big milestone of Lands End and crossing the Bristol Channel but it didn’t happen.

Waking up to a meteorological prediction of  south westerly winds of Force 5-7 with occasional touches of 8, all delivered by TV forecasters jolly as ravens, Safety Officer, Richard Salaman, was pondering the nonsense of launching his fleet into the western approaches but it was a no-brainer and after considering a delay to take advantage of any reduction in wind speed as the day progressed, the Race Committee accepted the inevitable and cancelled the day’s racing.

The alternatives were then twofold. One, to slip the schedule by one day, with all the administrative logistical horrors to organisers and teams or two, lose the second leg and re-start on the scheduled day from Milford Haven, leaving the competitors to make their own way to South Wales on land or sea. After the battering of the first day, most teams happily opted for the second alternative but those who lacked road trailers looked glum; after all, cruising 180 miles in a Force 7 would be little different to racing those same miles so the prospect was not entrancing.

As those teams without trailers began to pull in favours, upsetting the Sunday morning lie-in of more than a few hauliers and chums with their plaintive requests, the wise virgins of the fleet and their support crews began to load up, shape up and ship out for the run up the M5 and M4, beginning to arrive in the Pembroke Docks in mid-afternoon. Sitting on that dockside, listening to the French F1 Grand Prix in a vehicle buffeted  by what was still a substantial wind, the unreality of the situation was underlined by history.

There may have been none of today’s race boats in the Haven but just after lunch, a boat appeared over the horizon with race numbers and on closer inspection, it turned out to be one of the two Miss Bovril Triana 25s that competed in the 1969 race, one of which was owned by South Wales businessman, David Bassett. Could it have been him at the wheel, looking to re-live the glory of days gone by? We shall never know, as having seen 100% of nothing going on, it sped away west, into the teeth of the gale.

© 2008 Interfuture Media/Italiaspeed

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Third Time Round: The Unique Story & Diaries Of The 2008 Round Britain Powerboat Race Paperback – October 26, 2023

Purchase options and add-ons.

T he Round Britain Powerboat Race 2008 was a unique and wonderful experience. For a power boater, it is the ultimate race. It is long, it is in the open sea, it is challenging and you have to go for it. Endurance racing is the ultimate test for the boat and the crew. Everything has to be good, the preparation of the boat, the navigation, and the people involved, and then you need a little luck. If I could do it again I would, for the experience, for the people you meet, and for the challenge. Thomas Vandamme. Team Birretta - Race Boat No: 12.

• Reading age 12 - 18 years
• Print length 226 pages
• Language English
• Dimensions 6 x 0.54 x 9 inches
• Publication date October 26, 2023
• ISBN-13 979-8865445869
• See all details

Product details

• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0CLVR9W9C
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Independently published (October 26, 2023)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 226 pages
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 979-8865445869
• Reading age ‏ : ‎ 12 - 18 years
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.2 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.54 x 9 inches
• #917 in Extreme Sports (Books)

About the author

Mike Lloyd was born in the depths of the Surrey countryside in England just after the start of WW2. He now lives in Cornwall close to the sea. Mike is a retired businessman and during retirement, his hobbies have included Golf, a spell racing powerboats (10 yrs) working with the Coastguard and reading. He also enjoys lunches with his wife and special friends and avoiding vexatious people! At a late age, he completed two books, one a 500-page fictional adventure novel (Dead Reckoning) and another a non-fiction account of his efforts to organise and run a famous international powerboat race - Third Time Round. Mike is now trying to find the energy to complete the follow-up version of Dead Reckoning.

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Round Britain Powerboat Race book

MBY writer Derek Wynans tells all

MBY contributor Derek Wynans has written a book about the 2008 Round Britain Offshore Powerboat Race.

Derek, from Oban, joined a series of boats in the gruelling contest, which was only the third time the race had been held since its inaugural run in 1969.

He was one of the amateurs lining up against hardened professional powerboat racers driving massively powerful craft.

Among other boats, Derek was on board the revamped Ocean Pirate, the classic Fairey Miss Daisy and eventual second-place Norwegian entry from Goldfish.

A spokesman for the publishers says: “Funny, gritty, and always painfully honest, Chasing The Horizon is one man’s true account of the hardships and horrors faced as he took part in one of the toughest offshore endurance races ever held.

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“Covering the race for one of the UK’s biggest boating magazines, Derek Wynans thought he had it made.

“The plan was simple – join one of the top-rated teams as they thundered round Britain at speeds of 90mph.

“But with just hours to go, the plan sank without a trace, leaving him no option but to beg total strangers for a lift.

“So began one of the toughest challenges the author ever had to face, from being abused by parrots to being propositioned by a Polish pimp.

“For Derek Wynans the easy part was racing across the tumultuous sea for six hours at a stretch.

“Finding a bed for the night and a ride for the next day, that was the real challenge.”

Derek has interviewed all the 47 teams that took part and attempts to tell their stories as they roared around the coast.   The book boasts black and white images by award-winning photographer Chris Davies, also a regular contributor to MBY.   Mike Lloyd, who organised the 2008 Round Britain, says: “Chasing The Horizon is a vivid personal account of the 2008 Round Britain Powerboat Race and brought back all the memories of those 10 crazy days.

“It’s hilariously funny in places and very poignant in others.

“I congratulate and thank Derek for writing this record of one of the greatest powerboat races in the world.”   Chasing The Horizon ISBN Number: 978-0-9563938-0-7

www.chasingthehorizon.co.uk

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2008 Round Britain Offshore Powerboat Race

The Event It is our firm intention that on Saturday 21st June 2008 we shall hold the greatest Offshore Powerboat Race in The World round the shores of the U. K. The 2008 Round Britain Offshore Powerboat Race.

The Race This will be an Historic Race and only the third time in the History of Offshore Powerboat Racing in this country that the race will have been held. The event will start and finish off Cowes, Isle of Wight and will probably follow the same format as the 1969 and 1984 events which will include ten legs over twelve days including two lay days via the Caledonian Canal. This is a 1600 nautical mile race and will undoubtedly be the longest and toughest race to take place for many years. The race is equivalent to taking part in the Cowes-Torquay-Cowes powerboat race every day for ten days and is not, therefore, for the faint-hearted. We believe that it will be the Greatest Offshore Powerboat Race to be held in the world for many years.

The Beaverbrook Trophy We are delighted to announce that the famous and prestigious Beaverbrook Trophy – see above, - has been offered by The Beaverbrook Foundation to be presented to the overall Winner of the Race.

The Team Tim Powell, our Event Chairman, not only took part in the first Round Britain Offshore Powerboat Race in 1969, but he also organised the second race in 1984. Tim brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the proposed 2008 race, as does Steve Curtis MBE. The rest of the Team are well known active personalities from the British Offshore Powerboating scene. They are already bringing their experience and enthusiasm to the Event and working hard towards making this a successful race.

So far Interest in the 2008 Round Britain Powerboat Race has been quite phenomenal even though it has not been formally announced. Many potential competitors, some from the 1984 event, have already registered their interest in taking part and as in 1969 and 1984 we expect that over fifty powerboats will cross the start line on their first leg to Falmouth some 175 miles away. This will be a huge spectacle. The race is, of course, subject to raising the appropriate sponsorship.

There will be meaningful prize money for the first TEN boats home plus prize money and superb Trophies for 1st 2nd and 3rd in each class.

This race will be a huge endurance test for man and machinery .The reason behind our attempt to run this event is that there is now a feeling and a genuine desire among many competitors to race long distances again in what used to be called a “proper” offshore race. It will, in many ways, be good for the sport that we all love, bringing back the challenge and meaning behind the term Offshore Powerboat Racing. This will be the adventure of a lifetime for those taking part. Most of the competitors from 1969 and 1984 will confirm that to be true.

2008 Round Britain Powerboat Race

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Welcome to Blastoff Racing

Oxfordshire based Dorian Griffith was almost born into Powerboat Racing when at the tender age of 8 years old his parents, Richard and Sue Griffith bought a Royal Cruiser IV and decided to enter the 1969 Round Britain Powerboat Race, from then on Dorian had Powerboat Racing in his blood.

Richard and Sue in Viva Tridante – Photo: powerboatarchive2.co.uk

Blastoff Racing was formed initially to compete in the 2008 Round Britain Powerboat Race.

Blastoff Racing during the 2008 Round Britain Powerboat Race – Photo: Chris Davies

After a tough few years of developing the boat, success was to follow.

Blastoff established a Marathon Class C record at 83.49 mph on Lake Coniston in late 2015 and then achieved a second place overall in the 2016 Cowes Torquay Cowes.

Blastoff taking the runners up spot in the 2016 Cowes Torquay Cowes race – Photo: Chris Davies

After successfully campaigning the Fountain hull with diesel power, it’s all change for 2021.

Blastoff Racing’s Cougar R12 Viper RIB – Photo: Malc Attrill

Blastoff Racing will be racing an Ilmor powered Cougar R12 Viper RIB at speeds over 100 mph!

Gee 185 – Offshore Powerboat Racing since 1967

• 50 years on

From The Southern – Article: John Walker

In the sailing world, it is not unusual to find yachts built more than half a century ago that are still quartering the world’s oceans to go racing. Our Mediterranean reciprocal, Yacht Club de Monaco’s Tuiga from 1909, and perhaps most notably our Honorary Member, Johnny Caulcutt’s Mariquita, which went down the ways in 1911, are fine examples, though in no way unique.

Delivered by Wilf Souter in summer 1967, Gee ran her sea trials in the Solent in an altogether more gentlemanly age. Photo: Beken.

In the world of powerboats, however, it is much rarer to find examples of anything approaching similar vintage, think Turbinia, now all scrapped or consigned to museums or private collections – and virtually unknown to find younger if still venerable examples racing today.

One factor that unifies both fraternities of sail and power is that to keep a vintage vessel of any persuasion in commission requires regular and increasingly eye-watering dollops of money and as importantly, the love of their owners.

Boating was ever a people thing and this story revolves around those people who originally designed, built, raced, cruised and finally raced again in one of the best known offshore powerboats of our time; the classic Gee.

Modern offshore powerboat racing came into being in the mid-1950s, a pastime of the rich and famous, using boats that were often notoriously unfit for purpose.

When Max Aitken and his Daily Express newspaper brought offshore to the UK in 1961, using the tag line ‘racing improves the breed’, it immediately attracted an eclectic coterie of competitors drawn from industry, motor racing and the ranks of the independently wealthy gentlemen sportsmen.

One man who happily fitted all three of those categories was the Hon. Edward Gilbert Greenall, 3rd Baron Daresbury, born November 1928 into the ‘beerage’ and family brewery that became Greenall Whitley, educated at Eton and a man as close to the style of H.C.McNeile’s fictional character Bulldog Drummond as one could find in a month of looking.

As with many young men of independent means and a sense of adventure, at the age of 22 Eddie Greenall took up motor racing and from 1950 piloted a succession of Astons, Bugattis, Coopers, Lolas and, finally, a Lotus Elise.

Enjoying varying degrees of success but setting a trend for his future afloat, he was always amongst the class leaders, before brewery business interests forced his retirement from the track at the end of the 1961 season.

By the mid-1960s, many of his motor racing peers had discovered offshore powerboat racing including Royal Southern Members Tommy Sopwith and Tim Powell, and together with Keith Schellenberg and Bill Shand-Kidd, their obvious enjoyment of the emerging sport may have encouraged the still restless Eddie to go afloat.

Eddie Greenall in typical pose with pipe and wife, Molly, alongside, on board Gee at scrutineering in Cowes for the first Cowes-Torquay outing in 1968. Photo: Beken.

Thus, by the time of the 1966 Cowes-Torquay race, he had acquired a Donzi 28’ with twin Chrysler petrol motors from the doyen of American designers, Jim Wynne, which he christened Gee and to which the RYA allocated the number 185.

Both name and number would accompany him throughout his powerboat racing career.

Of the 18 finishers from 40 starters, Eddie brought the Donzi home 15th, covering the 172nm in 8hrs 18mins to average 23.5mph in a race won by Wynne in Ghost Rider, a boat built in Cowes by W.A. Souter & Son.

Gee race number 185 at the Portsmouth start of the 1969 BP & Daily Telegraph Round Britain Race. Photo: Beken

In no way dispirited by his finishing position and modest average speed, he immediately sold the Donzi and placed an order with Wynne and Souter for a bigger boat, but why Wynne and why Souter?

Eddie was an observant man and had, throughout his competitive career, bought and raced machines that had design provenance and winning potential and it was no different now that he was a wet bob.

The unlikely association between the American designer and Cowes boatbuilder had begun several years before, when the Arctic Road yard had built some Wynne-designed circuit boats to race in the Paris 6-Hour marathon.

Wilf Souter and his brothers had refined a cold moulding building technique by fixing mahogany veneers over a mould by means of battens and staples, binding together the successive layers of wood with synthetic resin.

What Eddie received from Wilf Souter in the summer of 1967 was a 40’ long, 12’6” beam, cold-moulded cruiser with a reverse sheer transom, typical of Wynne’s designs prior to the advent of transom-mounted sterndrives.

Powered by twin Cummins Indiana 480hp turbo-charged diesels on V-drives and shafts built like a brick outhouse, she would run at better than 50mph in almost any sea state likely to be encountered around the British Isles.

Racing only once that season, winning the Needles Trophy in Poole, but missing the Cowes-Torquay, this stately vessel was to give her owner, his second wife Molly and regular navigator, Sq Ldr Victor Linthune DFC, a mostly comfortable and often class-winning ride over the following five seasons, with victories or highly placed finishes in Needles Trophy, Guards International, Torbay International, Round The Island and Cowes-Torquay races.

If there was to be one disappointment during this reign it was in the 1969 Daily Telegraph; BP Round Britain Race. Quoted 3:1 in the prerace betting and lying 4th overall when the fleet left Inverness for Dundee on the sixth leg, in big seas and fog, she was leading the charge when, uncharacteristically, Gee lost all motive power and drifting onto a lee shore off Arbroath, was forced to retire, the only competitor of 41 starters forced to use any emergency service during the entire marathon race.

By 1969, Eddie Greenall had moved to Jersey and having sold Gee after the 1971 Cowes-Torquay-Cowes race, she ceased being a race boat and while he continued racing in a much bigger boat under the same name, she metamorphosed into life as a cruiser re-named Melodrama, a guise that would last for the following 37 years.

Her next three owners were all offshore powerboat racers and all had seen Gee in her pomp.

First was John Galliford who graduated from racing the wholly inappropriate R&W Clark built Michelle S cruiser, via Open Pleasure class, a misnomer if ever there was one, and finally Tommy Sopwith’s 1970 Cowes-Torquay winner, Miss Enfield 2, with Ken Cassir.

Retaining her original Cummins motors but with a new raised coachroof to make her more comfortable below deck, Gee, now Melodrama, became their support boat, but within a year Galliford was concentrating on his growing building business and retired from racing and sold her on.

Second was Keith Dallas, who to this day is still a little hazy about how and why he acquired her after a very short acquaintance, but the boat tended to have that seductive effect on people.

He had progressed up the sport from racing an Avenger 21 in Class III to a Class II catamaran out of the emerging Cougar stable, powered by four Mercury outboards and successively branded Wiggins Teape and then Penthouse/Inver House/Rizla for his sponsors.

As a major racing representative and development driver for Mercury, when Dallas discovered that the Cummins engines he had inherited were in less than perfect condition, he approached Mercury Racing’s supremo, Gary Garbrech, for suggestions.

Soon thereafter, Melodrama had been re-engined with two 454 cu.in. V8 Mercruiser inboards on her original V-drives.

With the possible exception of the occasion when, having consigned her to a yard in Poole to replace the original cork decks with teak, they allowed her to sink on a mooring, necessitating much remedial yard work and a full engine rebuild, there followed nine relatively trouble-free years of summer season cruising en famille in the Solent, West Country and Channel Islands before he too thought it right to move her on.

Third was Roger Bowley, an engineer and car dealer from the West Wight, who had raced in various classes and boats.

Dallas was asking £12,000 which seems ridiculously cheap today, but a deal was struck that included the exchange of money and a Maserati Merak.

Thereafter, Melodrama’s new owner thought it sensible to have both Mercruisers re-built immediately, which may explain the asking price.

After using the boat around the Solent the engines began to show signs of wear and tear, and being the proud possessor of two 330hp Sabre diesels out of Derek Pobjoy’s Sundancer, he oversaw a second change of engines.

It was in 1985, whilst lying at Eastlands Boatyard on the Hamble that Melodrama caught the eye of Thames shipyard owner John Bates.

Between 1946-1975, his family business, William Bates & Son, had built what its founder had described as luxury river and seagoing cruisers under the name Star Craft, some sold to private owners, some run as a hire fleet on the river and John had taken much pleasure in finding old boats and bringing them back to as-new condition.

Who better than a man brought up with the smell of Thames mud, glue and wood shavings in his nostrils to take ownership of the wooden classic.

Back at Chertsey, John, his shipwright, Terry Dann and great chum Mike Clark, went to work on Melodrama not once but twice during his ownership, rectifying the rot around the waterline and exhausts and generally ‘minting’ the by now elderly if still sprightly lady.

Used as a family cruiser by five of her six owners as Melodrama a new forward coachroof and three changes of engines have kept Gee user-friendly over the years. Photo: Keith Dallas.

Richard Bates recalls that his father regarded all the time and money as a well-spent labour of love and having used the boat in the Solent, by 2003 it was back on the Thames, where Mike Clark gave it a regular weekly run out.

Enter property developer and now Royal Southern Member, Chris Clayton, Melodrama’s sixth owner.

It was on one of these weekly outings that he first encountered her, after a long lunch at the Thames Court pub by Shepperton Lock.

Then he met Mike Clark en route back to the yard.

Attracted by her unusual lines, Clayton and Clark got talking and after discovering her history, it became apparent that she was available to purchase.

Thoroughly seduced, Clayton went back home and rarely given the opportunity to own such a rare and special craft, returned to Bates Wharf and negotiated the sale with Richard Bates.

Up to this point in his life it is fair to say that his nautical experience had been in much smaller boats on the Solent and in the Balearics.

As he said afterwards:

Melodrama replaced a racetuned jetski and even though it was 30 knots slower, it could handle any sea at 40 knots with a full crew on board. We took her back from the Thames to the Solent, mooring her at Royal Clarence Yard in Gosport and after two seasons use, I decided to do some remedial works, which included the removal of 18 layers of paint to reveal her bare mahogany, overhaul of the Sabres and a revamped interior together with new deck fittings.

That refurbishment took 18 months and after reaching agreement with the Greenall family, Melodrama was re-hristened Gee and returned to her original livery.

Still moored in Gosport, she saw use in home waters and on cross-Channel passages, but in January 2008, Clayton noticed a headline in Motorboat & Yachting that the Round Britain Race was being re-run later that year and the germ of an idea formed.

What a 40th anniversary that would be to race Gee again after all those years in retirement, as she had done the first ever Round Britain Race in 1969.

There were a number of immediate hurdles to clear, notably who would crew the boat, what engines to use and, most important, would the old girl handle the pounding? A call to Mike Clark elicited the response that ‘there was a very fine line between madness and stupidity’, but he thought she would be up for it.

Cummins embraced the historic niceties of Gee entering her second Round Britain Race in 39 years and duly delivered the nearest current equivalent to her original 480hp Indiana engines, in the shape of their CMD QSB 5.9 litre turbodiesels. Photo: EyeSea.

A rushed visit to the London Boat Show and a conversation with Cummins sales supremo, David Johnson, secured CMD QSB 480hp engines and race support, so it was just down to a quick survey to tick the last box.

By early March the boat was ashore in Swanwick and here, ex-Fairey man and surveyor, Bill Dunlop, brought a measure of harsh reality to the owner’s infectious enthusiasm and any thoughts of removing the microwave and a few cushions to secure a quick and dirty re-fit were consigned to boxes marked ‘pie’ and ‘sky’.

Dunlop insisted that the boat be stripped back to its bare hull, all the interior that had most recently been installed should come out and only then could he conduct a proper survey.

John Bates’ shipwright, Terry Dann, did the necessary, Dunlop ticked the box and Gee could go racing again.

The official entry was lodged in the Historic Racing Class, whose nominal criteria were boats over 20 years of age and capable of 50 knots and just one problem remained; the boat was stripped bare and the start was looming two months ahead.

Almost by necessity, racing comes in two parts, a race to the start line and a race to the finish line and this was no different.

As the boat went under cover, a team including Roger Street from Cummins, ace painter Tony Preston, electronics wizard Geoff Sargent, skipper John Guille and crew Nathan Ward and Biff Allen, all applied their not inconsiderable talents to the re-fit, whilst Clayton kept the financial wheels turning.

New shafts, rudders and propellers were procured, Raymarine provided a datalink system to monitor fuel consumption and engineering data via their E120 multi-function display and ST60 navigation instruments package, the QSB 5.9 litre turbo-diesels arrived on pallets from Cummins and the whole re-fit went ahead apace with a working budget of £150,000.

Eight weeks later, on 19th June and just 48 hours before the start, Gee went back afloat.

With the pressure easing a little, Chris Clayton commented:

This last two months has been a frantic race to go racing, but now we can see the Portsmouth start line it is all beginning to seem worthwhile

Well, not quite.

Since going round Britain in June 2008, Chris Clayton and his brothers have used Gee under the Royal Southern burgee in the UK, racing her in the 50th Cowes-Torquay-Cowes in 2010, before trucking her south to the Mediterranean where, based in Port Gallice on Cap d’Antibes, they have cruised her extensively on the French and Italian coasts.

This year, visits to the Monaco Grand Prix and the Viareggio-Bastia offshore powerboat race festival where she will mix with historic Rivas and other classic race boats are on the cards, before returning to compete in the Cowes-Torquay-Cowes race, half a century after her first race outing in 1967.

Some boat. Some Birthday!

• 50th Anniversary
• 2008 Round Britain

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Round Britain Powerboat Race In A Speed Boat or RIB?

Have you got what it takes to enter this amazing race? As the start date of this amazing boat race gets closer, more and more hopeful future endurance boat race winners are entering the challenge.

From what I can see you need to take this speed boat race seriously: This summer we will see a mixture of cruisers, speedboats, powerboats and RIBs taking part in this demanding boating challenge. We will see high speed machines with both outboards and inboards taking part from all over the world.

Those taking part will need a huge amount of support: land based teams, marine engineers, spare parts, lots and lots of fuel and a stack of cash! Have you got what it takes to enter a RIB or a speed boat?

Here is an extract that I found on the Round Britain Race website that was written last year:

“THE ‘MOUNT EVEREST’ OF POWERBOAT RACING REACHES ITS PLANNING ZENITH! It is now a little more than 12 months to run to the eagerly anticipated Official Start of the ‘Round Britain Powerboat Race’ on June 21st 2008. The organiser’s plans for this huge maritime motor sports event are well advanced at RB’08 Race Control in the UK, with a series of announcements to come, starting with today’s release about the number of race entries. Event Director, Mike Lloyd confirmed that registered entries and expressions of firm interest from international competitors are now in excess of 75 race boats, activating a reserve listing for Teams internationally. “It would seem that we have struck a chord with Adventurers, not only in Europe but from racers in the United States also. This is more than simply a race. It is an adventure on a grand scale which will not be undertaken by the faint-hearted. In fact this is the ‘Mount Everest’ of powerboat racing, requiring serious planning and financial commitment just to get to the Start Line and even more to get around the 1,600 miles endurance racing course along Britain’s beautiful coastline. Powerboat racing just does not come any tougher than this – and it seems that we now also have a competition to get into the Race!”

The Race is open to monohull pleasure navigation open-top boats only and the rules have been agreed and approved with the UK Governing Body for powerboat racing, the RYA. There are six categories into which the Teams will fit according to pre-agreed strict criteria and more information can be found on this in a useful download available on the classes link.

The Round Britain Powerboat Race last took place 23 Years ago and was, very appropriately, title sponsored and funded by ‘Everest’ Double Glazing. The outright winner was the world famous Italian racer and boat builder, Fabio Buzzi, in the equally famous ‘White IVECO’, completing the course over the 10 days in just over 27 hours of the toughest sea conditions and competitive powerboat racing. Fabio has already committed to return to defend his title and has confirmed that the Buzzi factory will be represented by more than one boat. It will be interesting to see if new technology can beat the clock as well as the notorious British sea. But technology aside there will be literally hundreds of stories generated by the human endurance required to finish and the people supporting the racers from the land. The commercial and Media impact of the Round Britain Powerboat Race is being assessed by venues and business partners alike. With some 500 people expected to be following their Teams around the UK, the need to fuel and house the people is just as big a logistics challenge as looking after the race boats.

“Excellent value-driven Business Partner Packages have been developed by the event Commercial Team,” continues Mike Lloyd, “and discussions are under way for other Companies to exploit the Round Britain Race, joining Marine Track™, Host Venues and other partners already excited at the business prospects of this unique and challenging adventure that is sure to become the maritime equivalent of the Dakar Rally every year.”

It will be extremely interesting for fans and sponsors to experience the difference that instant communications, especially broadband and mobile phones will make to the way in which this adventure can be followed in real time not only in the UK but around the globe. 23 years ago the sophistication of these channels simply didn’t exist! “

Trafalgar Wharf Hamilton Road Portsmouth Hampshire, PO6 4PX United Kingdom

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