Cowes-Torquay-Cowes. Half Way. (Pic Heavy!)

[sprocker]

A superb day to see the powerboats arrive in Torquay, here's a few pics for those that didn't get to see it.

1st to take the chequered flag. 1hr 11 minutes from Cowes to Torquay, approx 94 miles. Thats just crazy !!!


2nd


3rd








Then the parade before the return race back to Cowes.

[Ianfs]

Fantastic pictures Sprocker, absolutely brilliant, thanks for posting.

1st to take the chequered flag. 1hr 11 minutes from Cowes to Torquay, approx 94 miles. Thats just crazy !!!

Agreed, I know you said approx., but lets say it was 94mls, that's an average 79.4 mph!!! Nuts!!!

I bet Ed let them win though!!

[sprocker]

It gets worse Ian......I just checked the (provisonal) results for today.......

Peter Dredge in the Vector Martini boat ( I was drooling over it at the turnaround!) who won both legs.

Cowes-Torquay 96.5Nm average 95.67 mph.

Torquay-Cowes 97.4Nm average 93.47 mph.

I can't even begin to imagine those speeds after pottering about Lyme Bay at 28 knots flat out! (Note 'Flat Out' as opposed to 'WOT').

[annageek]

Cowes-Torquay 96.5Nm average 95.67 mph.

Torquay-Cowes 97.4Nm average 93.47 mph.

Truly insane!

We were there to watch them return to Cowes this (beautiful) afternoon, and you really get a feeling of the speed. We were holding station just off West Cowes, and the fact that you can just make out the white blur of the rooster tales as they just about come into view (Hurst Point-ish, I expect) and only moments later it's tearing past making a wicked noise!

Does anybody know why the route they took came close in to Bournemouth? Is it just part of the race planning so that people on land can spectate?

I also love the fact that on the race tracking website http://yb.tl/ctc2015-1# both Flyin' Falcon and HTS Perkins appear to have raced along the A31 and got the car ferry over to Cowes

[shibbs]

Great pictures! Looks like they had a clear run the whole way with great conditions down your way too, hope you had a good day out!

[sprocker]

Superb day thanks Stu, apart from burning my head in the sun!! SWMBO is not amused.

The Italian boat in your poics didn't make it to Torquay though, not sure what happened to him?

[shibbs]

The Italian boat in your poics didn't make it to Torquay though, not sure what happened to him?

No I too noticed that and wondered. I tried a search on Google to see if I could find results or boats that didn't make it but couldn't find anything. It's a shame as it doesn't seem to be covered very well at all.
That's potentially a really long way back at 5 or 6 knots with a damaged engine! Shame.

[_Ed_]

I heard rumours of blown up engine/ turbos etc. I cant remember exact details but one of those doing rather well was over revving the engine so I heard. Lots of these boats are setup for the rough, where truly flat out speeds are unusual (Im guessing, I think lots of these boats were just (including us) WOT. It was very much he who has the most power wins.
FYI the Vector boat has a pair of Mercury racing 1100hp engines: http://www.mercuryracing.com/sterndrive ... es/1100-2/ very very nice they are too.

[sprocker]

Thankyou for that info Ed, as you say they are very very nice engines indeed.

The way the racing marks are laid out in Torbay you get to see the boats crossing the whole bay way out in the distance, then they disappear around the headland for the final mark turning into the finish straight.

You can hear that lovely deep V8 growl well before the boat comes into view, and they cross the finish line flat out approx 80 yards right in front of us.

All of the drivers also seem to be friendly and don't mind mixing with the spectators and talking about their boats and racing.

What other world class sport can you see that close for free!

[_Ed_]

Yeah its pretty cool. The Cowes/Pool event I don't think had that much PR sadly there were many missed opportunists for people to see that from Bournemouth pier for example.