Microlink PC unleash Fury to win 2012 Cowes Torquay Cowes Powerboat Race
Forty strong fleet take to the water for the British Powerboat Festival...
Once again the Solent was a bustling hive of activity over the Bank Holiday weekend (24/26 August) as a forty strong fleet of powerboat racing competitors made their way to Cowes for the British Powerboat Festival to compete in the historic Cowes Torquay Cowes Powerboat Race and the smaller but just as gruelling Cowes Poole Cowes Race.
As well as 40 racers taking part in their respective classes at the festival, 21 AquaX Jet Skiers also took to the water to face the extreme elements in their continuing championship campaign off of the Isle of Wight’s Egypt Point.
Cowes Torquay Cowes
The Cowes Torquay Cowes Powerboat Race is not for the faint hearted and despite conditions being improved from the 2011 event the 160NM race still claimed several casualties throughout the duration of the race.
Eighteen boats lined up for the impressive start in the Western Solent behind the RedJet Ferry start boat. But as the Green Flag dropped to start the race A47 Silverline and A88 OSG Magnum Marine both suffered technical difficulties that saw them limp back up the Solent to Cowes Yacht Haven.
The Battle was on as the remaining 16 boats headed to the halfway point at Teignmouth. For the first part of the race there was little separating the boats as Microlink PC’s Fury, Cinzano, Pippa, Apache Warhorse and Going Lean all went head to head in battle.
As the boats headed to Lyme Bay the fleet began to split up and as Microlink PC’s “Fury” and Cinzano headed to more sheltered waters near to the coastline Going Lean opted to head straight across the bay taking a more direct route to the turning point.
Half way
Microlink PC “Fury” was the first boat to make the turn at the half way mark to head back to their home waters of the Solent but the 2011 race winners Cinzano continued to put on the pressure!
Going Lean were forced to retire to Exmouth with a Fuel Pump failure while 'Team E-Lites' driven by John Cooke, Graham Lawton and Jeremy Gibson lost a blade off one of their props, which embedded itself into the boats hull forcing to slow down.
Vee Ganjavian and Gareth Williams in Microlink PC’s 'Fury' held on to their lead in a very impressive drive, winning the race in two hours and forty two seconds at an average speed of 68mph.
'Cinzano' driven by Markus Hendricks, Simon Wood-Power and Eric Smillie were not far behind finishing in second place four minutes and five seconds behind the winners, with third place honours going to 'Smokin' Aces' driven by Chris and Nick Dodge in three hours four minutes and twenty five seconds.
Elated
On his team’s win an elated Vee Ganjavian had this to say: “We’re both really happy with that performance. Gareth and I had an amazing day, in a fantastic boat with and superb team behind us.
“But it wasn’t all plain sailing; our navigation systems went down on the first leg so when we reached Lyme Bay we headed inshore to find familiar way points as we were navigating the old fashioned way. But we got some better conditions so managed to keep up our speed and secure the win.”
Cowes Poole Cowes
For the Cowes Poole Cowes race the entries were split into two groups. The fleet of P1 SuperStock 150s and 250 boats would complete one lap of the 34.24NM race , while the British Club Championship fleet would complete the course twice covering 59.48NM in total.
P1 SuperStock 250 Team Pertemps were the first boat back to take the chequered flag completing the race in 38 minutes and 52 seconds with an average speed of 60.83mph and securing a first win of the season for John Wilson and Navigator Nigel Hindmarsh.
Meanwhile Rose Lores and John Donnelly in Team 73 took an impressive win in the P1 SuperStock 150 Class finishing the race in 51 minutes and 1 second averaging 46.34mph.
British Club Championship
First overall in the British Club Championship fleet was Carbon Neutral’s John Caulcutt, Stephen Hemsley and Jo Donohoo in the unlimited class, while Adam Younger and Mark Brownhall completed the race in 3rd overall and 1st in Class one, leaving Class two honours to brothers' Neil and Jason Jackson in NWJ Services who finished 5th overall in the race.
P1 AquaX Cowes Grand Prix
Kawasaki Ultra 300 rider Russell Marmon (Christchurch, Dorset) conquered incredibly challenging, rough conditions off Egypt Point on Saturday, 25th August, to take a pair of superb P1 AquaX championship victories.
Substantially increasing his lead at the top of the standings with just one event remaining at Weymouth in Dorset next month, the reigning P1 AquaX Champion came into his own in the wind, rain and choppy seas to really take a firm stranglehold on the outright championship.
The closest and most entertaining lead battle of all came in the 200 Class with a titanic scrap between Yamaha riders Duncan Johnstone (Fareham) and Khris Leach (Maidstone), with Leach taking the opening race, with positions reversed in race two.
In the 250 Class, Dave Huddleston (Milton Keynes) steered his Kawasaki Ultra 250 to victory over Mat Shipley (Seaford) and repeated the result in race two to move to the top of the class standings in the most closely contested title battle in AquaX.
Results
Cowes Torquay Cowes
1 - Microlink PC Fury
2 - Cinzano
3 - Smokin' Aces
4 - Hercules Sagemann
5 - Fugitive
6 - Dry Martini
7 - My Pleasure II
8 - Team E-Lites
DNS Silverline
DNS OSG Magnum Marine Wear
RET Pippa
RET Going Lean
RET Apache / Warhorse
RET Grey Ghost RET Swipewipes.co.uk
DNF Blastoff
DQ Biretta
Cowes Poole Cowes
1 - U-343 Carbon Neutral
2 - U-59 Amarylliss Racing
3 - 1-18 Tec care 4 - U-28 B Project
5 - 2-926 NWJ Services
6 - Prestidge Plumbing
P1 250 Cowes Poole Cowes
1 - Pertemps
2 - Pickfords
3 - Peters & May with Brookspeed
4 - Edox Swiss Watches
5 - Typhoo Racing
6 - IFX Racing
7 - Oval Insurance
8 - Palu
P1 150 Cowes Poole Cowes
1 - Team 73
2 - Macdonald Mermaid
3 - Pertemps Mission Motorsport
4 - Black Magic
RET - Team Powertech
DQ - Team Purple
P1 AquaX Championship Round 4/Rally
Race 1 results
300 Class: 1 Russell Marmon (Kawasaki 300 Ultra); 2 Tim Batte (Kawasaki Ultra 300); 3 Richard Cable (Kawasaki Ultra 300); 4 Paul Rivett (Sea-Doo RXP-X 260); 5 Steve Robinson (Sea-Doo RXP-X 260); 6 Lucas Kwiatkowski (Sea-Doo RXT-X 260); 7 Robert Higgs (Sea-Doo RXT-X 255); 8 Jim Goodchild (Kawasaki Ultra 300)
250 Class: 1 Dave Huddleston (Kawasaki Ultra 250); 2 Mat Shipley (Kawasaki Ultra 250); 3 Sean Marsh (Yamaha FZS); 4 Mark Shaw (Yamaha FZR); 5 Rob Sired (Sea-Doo RXP-X 255)
200 Class: 1 Khris Leach (Yamaha Ultra 150); 2 Duncan Johnstone (Yamaha FX 160); 3 Ron Burgoyne (Yamaha GP 1300) P1 AquaX Championship Round 4/Rally
Race 2 Results
300 Class: 1 Marmon; 2 Batte; 3 Rivett; 4 Robinson; 5 Kwiatkowski; 6 Higgs; 7 Cable 250 Class: 1 Huddleston; 2 Shipley; 3 Wilson; 4 Shaw; 5 Marsh; 6 Sired
200 Class: 1 Johnstone; 2 Leach; 3 Burgoyne
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Microlink PC unleash Fury to win 2012 Cowes Torquay Cowes Powerboat race | News | News & Events | RYA
