And now my thanks ...

Despite our Mercury problems and the resulting Lifeboat tow in the Irish Sea, we did have a great race.

A recalculation of the results based on our completed legs pace showed that without the problem and the two missed legs, for which we received a maximum time penalty, our race time would have been 27 hours 9 minutes.

This would have put us 2nd in RB4, and 15th overall. (Of course, this is a hypothesis and anyone can eliminate their problems in this way!)

Still it left us feeling that despite not having the speed of the 380hp Goldfish and some of the twin-engined race boats in our class, we weren't that far away given the mix of weather...

We didn't have a support crew or sponsors, so a few thanks are due to people and companies who helped:

Scorpion. A great boat and very capable in the seas. I didn't open the tool box all the way round and Ben and Jamie were quick to help us with a power socket and a few loose screws in Scotland.

A credit to the company that nothing broke nor needed attention. We'd also like like to thank Joy for looking after all our needs so well and Graham for his wise advice and commitment to high standards.

E P Barrus. We didn't buy our motor from E P Barrus but Mike Williams and Mark provided us with full support and advice. It was Mike who told us to look for the alternator/water pump belt when we broke down in the Irish Sea.

They didn't have an answer for the frothing oil, but they think there may be a special oil product which doesn't froth...

Henri Lloyd. We paid for our clothes/bags but felt they were very good. The Shadow Smocks with rubber necks, cuffs and waist, combined with the salopettes, worked very well in all the conditions we faced.

As we were carrying most of our clothes on board we particularly liked the waterproof bags.

Ullman Seats. Roger and I finished the race in good shape. I'm not sure that would have been the case without suspension seating. While I wouldn't describe our Ullman seats as comfortable, the combination of shock absorbing seats and toe straps worked well. I would use them again.

The Race Organisers. I am still not sure how Mike Lloyd's organisation works, but it is obviously an enormous project to pull off. We had particular help from John Moore, the Scrutineers, and the race office team under Annie Beakhurst.

And last but not least, our webmaster, Paul Rodgers, who competed against me in in the 1978 Round Britain Sailing Race. Paul managed to keep the information flowing - even after my Blackberry stopped working.

- Gavin, July 1st

Three Mercury problems

Many people want to know more about the problems with our new Mercury Optimax 300XS.

The most serious issue for me is that the three problem areas are known to the manufacturers. Fixes are already in place, I am told. Then why aren't the fixes in place on the engines they sell?

The three main problem areas are:

1. Frothing oil. Looks like Cappuccino but feeds progressively into the reserve tank on the engine until the alarm sounds. Hard core racers disconnect the alarm.
But we want to protect the engine. After circa 3 hours of running you have to remove the engine cowling and bleed the oil.
We didn't manage one long leg on the race without having to stop to do this.
2. Alternator Belt. Ours came off in the Irish Sea. We were towed into Fishguard.
I understand this is a known problem with a fix. And the answer involves a tensioner pulley with a lip rather than the smooth one supplied.
3. Gear box. It runs quite hot which might be why it is hard on its seals.
The main seal failed during running in. A replacement gearbox was provided. The replacement also leaked oil and filled with water. We caught it in time and fitted a replacement selector shaft seal assembly.

It is a good engine. I like it. But how very disappointing that Mercury haven't dealt with these known problems in the production unit.

- Gavin race +1

Lowestoft to Portsmouth

On each leg of the race you learn something. On the way to Edinburgh, we stood too far out to sea resulting in a painful (in every respect) run into the Firth of Forth, allowing some others to get in ahead by running along the beach.

From then on, we benefited from using the lee of the land, despite adding quite a lot to our overall mileage.

Ahead of each leg, Roger would plot the closest routes possible round the bays and we would make the call under way about whether we would straight-line the bays or go in.

With the prospect of a run into the wind up the English Channel, we put some weight into the bow in order to keep it level while pushing hard upwind. Its downside is that we took circa three knots off the speed coming down the East Coast. However, once round the corner, it started to pay and we were able to reel in the boats ahead.

Everything is relative, of course. While it feels that a head sea churned up by a F4-F5 breeze slows us considerably, the ability to race upwind at 36 to 40 knots in these conditions says a great deal for the design of modern ribs.

As usual, air bubbles filled the Optimax oil tank, triggering the alarm. We had to stop to bleed the system off Beachy Head. It allowed a boat we had worked hard to pass zoom by.

The run to the finish was uneventful, really. But there is a certain significance to me of leaving Portsmouth and turning West and then coming back nine days later from the East. I remember well feeling the same in Plymouth when we sailed round Britain. Not, though, in anything like nine days.

- Gavin race finish +1

Longest leg so far

Due to likely problems of getting through the last of the locks, competitors were required to be on our boats this morning at 6am. It was a thoughtlessly early time for people about to race.

Once we could get into the lock, we moored alongside Garmin. The crew were eating sponsored porridge and taking pictures. Fine for them, but we didn't start the race until 10am. For us, we had a long time to wait and that was frustrating.

Eventually the race started. We decided to begin at the back of the fleet so we could get a better idea about the way the slower boats performed. But we were impatient to get going properly, yet once we did, the motion on Black Gold became really awkward.

Usually against the wind but downhill, the ride on Black Gold is quite good. Yet this morning, she is lurching about. It's worrying when right at the start things go badly. You wonder what's about to happen - on top of the very discomforting motion throwing you about.

However, once round the corner, the sea became much calmer and our jolting passage eased. The sea adopted a large swell and then, as we approached Edinburgh, a more traditional chop.

We saw a few boats struggling in that moody sea. Swipewipes, so effective in the Irish Sea, and Team Jersey, were travelling mysteriously very slowly. And from RB3 class, John Caulcutt in Carbon Neutral, was having our Optimax problems.

There must be a fundamental design error which causes the oil level to go down in the engine-mounted reserve oil tank. So like Carbon Neutral, we stopped and removed the housing and bled it through ourselves.

Considering that Mark from E P Barrus had kindly checked it only yesterday, this can't be right.

Bothered by the quirkiness, perhaps, we made a slight navigation error just before the finish which left us fighting both wind and sea to get into the Firth. Boats which ran along the shore enjoyed calm water and less upwind work.

Five hours racing a small and light Rib can be very hard work. It's hard to imagine how challenging it is if you haven't experienced it. Even drinking from a water bottle is almost impossible.

So Roger and I arrived in Edinburgh a little worn ... but after an hour with the Sports Physio we returned to good shape, ready for our run down to Newcastle tomorrow.

The results put us 3rd in our class today. Nothing like that sort of news for toning up enthusiasm for the next leg.

- Gavin

Mercury problems

Many people have been asking what's happening with our engine following problems on both legs of the race that we've run so far. I thought that I'd first describe why I made the engine choice and then explain the problems so far...

Why another Optimax? Our 225hp was faultless
It's built strong for racing. It has a fast Speed Master underwater unit with 1.62 drive.
It's lightweight. Because it is two-stroke, it has less moving parts so less parts liable to fail. And it is proven in the US on Bass boats.

What's happened so far?
1. Prop shaft seal on gearbox fails - meaning gearbox damage in month.
2. Replacement gearbox with damaged selector seal due to dealer modification which fails in month ...
3. there's seawater in the gearbox again.
4. Low oil alarm in Lyme Bay due to air in oil reserve tank it has been running for only an hour and a half.
5.Alternator belt comes off in middle of Irish sea. This is due to poor design. (I am told that you can get a tensioner pulley with a groove which stops this happening. (So this problem was known about.)

So instead of buying the best, I have ended up with the worst. Worst in terms of fitness for purpose.

And every time each of these issues happens, Mercury say this is a known fault with some kind of a fix!

I still like the engine, the concept. But it has so many faults. It has ruined our race chances despite enormous attention by expert engineers at Dave Crawford Marine and E P Barrus.

I write this in Inverness with half the race still to do. I sincerely hope that we aren't challenged again before the finish.

- Gavin 26th June

Double blow when engine dies

Gavin and Roger and Black Gold are spending the night at Fishguard after engine problems put them out of today's race.

They were unable to find the cause of the engine failure, and motored towards Wales with the emergency outboard. After they reported into Race HQ, the Fishguard lifeboat came out to them, and towed them in.

The failure of the brand new engine was a double blow to Gavin as Black Gold was lying fourth in the fleet.

Gavin and Roger are staying at the Hope and Anchor Inn, Fishguard, for the night. The engine was repaired tonight and they will cruise to Scotland tomorrow to catch up with the race at Oban.

Latest details are on Gavin's rib racers website, www.rib-racers.com
- paul

A new challenge

A look at the shipping forecast last night showed that the race would be cancelled today. The usual maximum for a powerboat race is Force 6. The forecasters were predicting Force 7 gusts.

I expected Thursday to become a race day rather than a lay day and that the race legs would be moved back one day. But the organisers didn't want to change the schedule. So at the 9.30 delayed briefing, we were asked to deliver our boats by road.

Getting the right transport within hours on Sunday morning to deliver the whole fleet to Milford Haven was a considerable challenge. We struck lucky and the second name in the yellow pages produced a flat-bed articulated truck.

Too big, of course, but it was transport and we had found it for the boat. So within a short while, Black Gold was loaded and Roger and I were on our way in the truck cab.

At Milford Haven, high winds stopped the crane from working so we couldn't launch Black Gold. The driver had a night in the car park to look forward to, and the crew went off to the mayor's reception - a rather sparse do as most of the teams were still on the road.

Then came needed luxury. Roger and I had our first physio session, part of an effort to recover from yesterday's hard work.

Despite our Ullman suspension seats and body belts and back support, we still take a terrible pounding. So we have physio in each stop.

One of the longest legs is set for tomorrow - up to Bangor in Northern Ireland. First we have to get Black Gold off the lorry and into the water, and boat and crew up to the start line.

News from Bangor tomorrow.

- Gavin June 22nd

Fleet decimated on Day One

I can no longer claim never to have done a powerboat race. I have now and I write this in reasonable shape in the relative luxury of our Plymouth Hotel.

Boats may still be coming in. The race web site says only 32 finished. Two to my knowledge hit the barrier off Portsmouth - Blue Marlin, a fabulous new Swordsman 36, sank.

Some of the very top race boats are out, including Wett Punkt, and No Worries. The saddest story of all was Ocean Pirate which did the race in 1984 and had attracted a lot of support. She hit the barrier off Portsmouth.

How did our race go? We just about understood powerboat start instructions with muster areas and yellow and green flags. I tucked in behind a fellow Scorpion owner and RYA Powerboating head who I know knows the rules very well.

Soon we were off down the Solent, past familiar buoys. The so-called gates at the marks weren't always very clear. We used a bit of sailing nouse and ran up the mainland shore to keep out of the opposing Spring flood tide. At Hurst, we dived through spectator boats and avoided the main channel.

We were the only ones in sight. It gave us calmer water and a chance to catch up a bit on some of the boats ahead.

Clear of the Needles, the sea became lumpy - mainly due to the big tide, and big winds earlier in the week.

On board Black Gold, it didn't feel too impressive. I think we were doing okay in our class as we rounded Anvil Point with some racy-looking boats nearby.

The exclusion zone at Start Point put our rhumb line course well outside Portland Bill and its famous tide race. After Portland, a lumpier-than-expected Lyme Bay brought a problem. The engine alarms sounded, announcing a shortage of oil in our engine reservoir.

For a two-stroke engine, this is very serious. First we tried willing the problem away, then driving a bit slower. But we had to stop - the engine cowling had to come off despite the size of the sea.

I'm no engineer, but I could see the problem immediately. The small transparent tank was half empty.

I opened the bleed value. Roger restarted the engine. Slowly the reservoir filled. There were lot of bubbles in it. Cowling back on and with new confidence, we started the long challenge of crossing Lyme Bay.

A lot of powerboat racing is about high speeds. As a novice, I was surprised to see big race boats down to 30 knots or less in these seas.

The next challenge was seasickness. I was sick a few times. We didn't lose a lot of time but I realise you need to be careful to keep strong and you must keep up your fluid level. Tomorrow I will be using my Scopderm patches!

We are lying 4th on Day One in our class - RB4.

The winner is out of sight but the the rest aren't, so we look forward to one of the longest legs of the race tomorrow - round Lands End and up to Milford Haven. The forecast is for strong winds and big seas.

Roger has doubled his lifetime power-boating experience. He'll soon be looking for big money offers to do the throttles ...

- Gavin, June 21st

Link:
News of the race shipwrecks

Scrutineering Day 1

After all the weeks of preparation, it was almost an anti-climax to be in good shape for the first day of scrutineering.

And in the words of a scrutineer, Black Gold is a well-found boat which we took as a compliment.

The scrutineers were strict, though, and picked us up on three minor things which we have now addressed. What struck us was how long this close scrutineering process might take for the whole fleet - many of which are arriving late and looking a bit unprepared!

A job for this Friday was to have one final check of our gear oil, as recommended by Dave Crawford.

So scrutineering done, Roger and I set off for Lymington to see whether we could get the boat looked at today, Thursday. The Solent was in a pretty choppy state and we were both pleased that the race wasn't starting then. The Plymouth leg would have been very very tough for us in the F6 gusting F7.

Jobs done including having the radar reflector fitted by Graham Jelley in person to our big rear number foils (which addressed one of the points raised in the scrutineering).

Our run down the Solent was interesting with the wind against tide. We dipped the nose in once - educational and very wet. As a sailor, I am impressed at how these Scorpion hulls cope with big seas. When yachts nearby are reefed down, scarcely managing 4 knots, and their occupants heavy with waterproofs, we are in tee-shirts and denims feeling a little disappointed to be going so slowly at 35 knots!

As an endurance race, the fleet is very mixed. Some amazing big racing ribs have arrived from Scandinavia. They look very well prepared.

On the other hand, some local entrants still seem to having engineering work underway, even at this late stage. In many cases this is due to teething problems with brand new engine installations.

But it's a bit worrying when we all have so far to go.

Next update should be after we get to Plymouth. The new tracker screen on our site shows you real time how we are doing - and there are all the weather pages there, too, so you can see what the conditions are like for each leg.

- Gavin June 19th

Settling the Portland Bill

Portland Bill is a spectator point on the race and also hosts one of the most violent tidal races in the British Isles.

It has a relatively smooth inshore passage except but it's usually packed with semi-submerged lobster pots. And semi-submerged because the extreme peninsula accelerates hugely the tidal flow on both flood and ebb.

The speed of the water often drags the pots low in the water.

Yesterday (Saturday) after collecting Black Gold from Lymington, I just reached the Hamble in time for Jo Robinson to swing the compass.


I have been cynical about the need for compass swinging - but Jo found we were out 12° to the East. With the compass corrected, we knew we now possessed one accurate instrument that doesn't need power, and is to be relied on.

Roger and I ran over to Cowes to deliver five sails to his sail designer, Ken Black. Then, after lunch in the Anchor (famous for their Anchor burger), it was down to Portsmouth to have a run at the race start.

We know the area well, but there is nothing like plugging in all the waypoints and having a run down the course, taking note of the skyline on each leg.

As sail-racers, we tend to worry a lot about what the tides are doing and how much we need to account for this in our courses. Out past Hurst castle, we turned briefly to the right in order to run down the other side of the Shingles bank.

Less tide and today less sea, so more speed.

Despite a calm night, there is a bit of a chop. You wouldn't describe the ride as comfortable. Next headland was St Albans when there are overfalls but close in a surprisingly quiet passage. Portland Bill from a distance resembles a slice of cheese. The low bit is the Bill itself.

We were in neap tides but wanted to look at the Bill close in - where the lobster pots wait - and then to see how far out the famous race extends. We went through the race in this process but of course, we wouldn't do that in our race.

We turned and ran back to Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, for fuel. You'll remember that we had already done a return channel crossing on the last fill and were down to our last 50 litres. Fuel in Yarmouth, although not cheap at £1.29 a litre, is much less than Port Hamble at £1.40 this week.


On our way back down the Solent at 7pm, we passed Seahound going the other way. Seahound is a Scorpion cabin rib that is likely to do well in the race and is owned by Chris Strickland who helped me sort out race numbers issues.

You might have thought that getting back to the Hamble at 7pm meant the end of the boating day.

However, the day's programme was not through. We picked up my wife Nicki, middle daughter Kirsty and boyfriend Simon and headed back down the Solent to friends the Martins anchored at Newtown Creek in their Oyster 61, Galapago.

They managed to get an extra five seats for dinner in the New Inn at Shallfleet, a beautiful pub with great seafood. At high water you can take a rib up to the quay and enjoy a short walk to the pub.

Back on board at midnight, we found the control for the night screen on our large and bright GPS. We headed cautiously over to Lymington to collect my car. Roger and his young crew drove Black Gold back to the Hamble on a very black night, looking out for unlit buoys.

After loading some stuff onto our sailing boat, Black Tie, we headed home - and arrived at 3am, tired but satisfied that everything had worked.

Of course, there's still a list of outstanding items, but what's new? I know that they have to be resolved by Thursday morning ...

- Gavin Sunday March 15th

Altogether again

A new seal housing from Belgium, quick work by Dave Crawford, plus overnight pressure-testing, and it looks like our gearbox is in good shape. Looks like it.

Next job ought to be so easy. The rules say we must show our race number - '10'. But to display the number where the rules say it must go means a mega job for Scorpion. Moulds are having to be made for two panels - and these have to be bolted to the back of the boat. (We can remove them after the race.)

Looks like we might be the first boat to spend nearly a thousand pounds on putting up two race numbers!

This week Motor Boat and Yachting magazine, usually at the quality end of the publishing spectrum, puts the odds on us winning overall at 40:1. It would have been much more interesting to look at the race class by class, and then compare the odds as the race unfolds.

Writing this on Wednesday evening, just a week before scrutineering starts, it's hard to comprehend that the whole project will be over in three weeks.

This weekend, co-driver Roger will be down for our last run. We will launch Black Gold in Lymington on Saturday, swing the compass at 10.30 am in the Hamble, then do the start and part of the first leg of the course for the first time, wearing helmets, intercoms, lifejackets etc.

We will also have all the safety gear on board.

Black Gold is quite light, but we hear that some boats have been having trouble getting up on the plane with a full fuel load, plus all the other stuff we have to carry. This shouldn't be a problem at the departure in Portsmouth. But in Plymouth, with the long leg up to Milford Haven which will require much more fuel, weight could be a challenge.

The project feels like it's coming together although there are still a load of details to cover, and deliveries still to be received. There's the satellite phone card, for instance, and mini flare packs which we haven't been able to buy over the counter. And as I have been known to suffer from seasickness (though not yet in a rib), I have those pills to buy, too.

One thing we haven't sussed yet is loading routes from the PC Planner software to our Northstar GPS. Might be easy to do, but we haven't done it yet.

We have found, though, that routes are much more easily planned on paper charts. So I have been in the loft rummaging for the 1978 Round Britain Race set. They are probably hopeless for buoyage, but as Roger says, 'Most of the Scottish islands won't have moved.'

Will be back with the next update after our weekend run.

- Gavin Wednesday night 11th May

Challenging times

I said in the last post that I was keen to do the Alderney run to get some hours on the new gearbox prior to what was to be the final pre-race mechanical check by Dave Crawford who has been doing Black Gold's engineering.

Imagine how I felt when I heard they found water in the new gearbox again.

This time, the selector shaft assembly had split. Dave said he thought he could fix it as we've caught it so soon. However, when they pressure-tested it on Friday morning, it wasn't right ... and the assembly needed won't be available in the UK for three weeks.

At times like this, you think you are being set a deliberate challenge similar to one on a management course - only this is for real!

The Belgium supplier agreed to send two assemblies over by DHL. We should have these on Monday or Tuesday. But, of course, the plans that Roger and I had for a Plymouth run were out of the window for the second time. And both due to gearbox failure.

So what happened? The Belgium dealer and racer expert, Nico, thought that there was a risk of the selector seal coming out and said he'd fix it on the new gearbox. What seems to have happened is that the self-tapping screw he used split the plastic assembly causing the leak.

Hopefully, with a new assembly we will be back where we started. We will just need to check the gearbox oil again for swarf or water.

With no boat again, what about the rest of the programme?

Working with the RYA, Roger seems to have located sports physios for us in each port - something Roger considered necessary after our first trial.

Ben at Scorpion fitted the fuel cut off, the on/off labelling on the power, the satellite transponder, and the liferaft straps on the floor. He was thwarted by the race regulation for race numbers, though. It seems impossible to fit them on our extreme tapered tube rib.

Racer expert Chris Strickland suggests putting them on boards fitted either side like wings on a F1 car. We will also take some spare stick-on numbers, too.

We need mini-flares which we are meant to be carried in our pockets. But a search of Lymington and Hamble chandlers failed to find any and it seem they have been withdrawn by their makers.

The regulations also require an orange retirement flag of 60 x 40cm, but it too was not found. (Another call to the chief scrutineer required.)

Some good news came from the searching, though. We found a sea anchor of the right size, and Micro SD chart cards for our emergency Garmin GPS.

Joy at Scorpion also had a chart chip for our Northstar system. We wanted a second one so that we could plan remotely on a laptop with the PC Planner program, and then write the routes to a card for the boat's instrument.

I found a set of paper charts for most of the UK - a safety requirement - and I also found a waterproof cover for my work Blackberry!

The pressure is on. Next weekend we will retrieve Black Gold from Lymington as the compass is to be swung in the Hamble with a compass adjuster on Saturday morning.

Then follows the sea trial that we missed this weekend. On Sunday, leaving nothing to chance, I attend a one-day sea survival course.

Gavin, Sunday June 9

Some days, everything works well!

I had been talking with Phil Boarer (another Scorpion owner and Round Britain competitor) about doing a long run to put some hours on my new gearbox and also to try some of the race gear over a reasonable period of time at sea.

Phil had managed to put together a good group of like Scorpions for an Alderney run. So after getting up at 6.30am, it was down to the Hamble in the Caterham 7 to collect my salopettes and hand-held VHF off Black Tie. Fortunately, Black Tie was ashore in the yard, as planned, with a ladder alongside, and the first challenge was completed. Black Gold was launched by Hamble Point dry stack despite short notice.

Still just on schedule to meet in Yarmouth early for our Alderney sortie, I ran out of the Hamble and off down the Solent in the morning sun.

With engine up to temperature and a quick run up to 60mph, I was soon at Yarmouth for 9.15am. No wait at the fuel jetty, so a big fill of our 450 litre tank in order the check the fuel used calculator (Smartcraft) for the race. It was within 10 litres which is very accurate in this world and certainly much better than the tank gauge. We will rely on this for the race.

Phil called to say don't rush as he was running a bit late. Soon the other two Scorpions joined us: Martin and family with an 8.75 metre inboard, and Vince and family with an 8.5 metre with stepped hull and an Etec 250hp.

Phil had come from Portsmouth with Martin, but was joining me for the channel crossing.

We agreed on a 40 knot cruise which given the calm conditions was no problem. After a beautiful run across an oily, calm channel - stopping only to retrieve my hat and to look at a dolphin that didn't want to play - we arrived through the haze into Braye Harbour - in time for lunch.

We had used 100 litres for the trip. The three Scorpions picked up a buoy and the harbour taxi had us ashore.

A beautiful lunch on the terrace in the Braye Bay Hotel (recommended) was followed by a walk into St Annes and back.

We left at 4.30pm and one hour 45 minutes later were at the entrance to the Needles Channel. I transferred Phil back onto Martin's boat to go to Portsmouth and then took Black Gold into Lymington for its final list of jobs and engine checks to be done at the builder's yard.

My only concern was that our speed seemed to reduce on the way back and the run up the Lymington river had the engine feeling less than silky smooth. We need to get this checked.

Next weekend, Roger is down with the helmets and intercoms and we plan to do another long run, but perhaps in a sea not quite so horizontal.

- Gavin Sunday June 1st

A sailing weekend

The weather this season has been very odd and hard to predict. This weekend the BBC's good days have been bad and Sunday, billed as the worst, was the best. First stop on Friday was Dave Crawford Marine to pay for the work so far and to discuss how to ensure that the unit stays reliable in the race.

I booked a pre-race engine check-in the week commencing June 2nd when the boat is back in Lymington for Scorpion to address a list of jobs driven by the race regulations - liferaft mounts, EPIRB, transponder, fuel cut off, electrical labelling etc.

Outside Dave Crawford's Lymington premises were two other boats doing the Round Britain Race - although thankfully not in our class.

The first was Chris Strickland's record breaking Scorpion cruiser which was having new stern drives fitted.

Alongside was John Caulcutt's new Revenger 32 which still had a lot of work to be done. Interestingly, he has flown in from New York two of the same engines we are using. He has a seating arrangement with three bolster seats, with electrical adjustment of the seat part.

John is one of the two competitors who did this race last time - 24 years ago - in a small Flatacraft. He did very well. This time his boat is allegedly capable of 80 mph - no doubt helped by its stepped hull. Seeing this boat with no electronics and no engines fitted - and less than a month to go - cheered me up when I compared the pages and pages of my To Do list for Black Gold.

We launched the boat after lunch and while Paul drove round to Hamble Point (he did the BP regatta this weekend), I took Black Gold round.

Even though the gearbox is still being run in, the boat beat the car in the best traditions of Top Gear. It was also a chance to try out the new Henri Lloyd salopettes that we are using for the race, and the very bulky Grabner racing life-jacket.

Both were fine, but I wanted to check that the back protection in the life-jacket didn't push me to far forward on the seat. The suspension is at the back of the seat so you need to be right back to get the benefit. On another rib in Lymington, a passenger was injured using the same seat as he lent forward to read a chart.

We had auctioned a day on our sail boat, Black Tie, in a charity event. Friday night meant a trip over to Cowes in Black Gold to collect Black Tie for a day with six friends who had paid for the pleasure of the sail - a strange concept for our three daughters to grasp ...

Needless to say, the weather turned rough. We went out in F5 and ended up finishing the day with F7. Not ideal for people who rarely go on a boat, but we did manage to fit a short rib trip in for them as well while we were in Cowes.

Browsing in the Hamble Point chandlers on Sunday morning meant that I found a radar reflector that wouldn't damage anything else, and another foghorn. The sea anchor required by the rules is a bigger challenge as not many small boats use them. We have been told of a possible source and that's a project for next weekend.

Monday (today) was planned as a rib testing day with a run to Poole and back. However a gale and driving rain meant we stayed at home.

So not a bad weekend's work and Black Gold feels like she is running well. A brief dash in the short sharp sea off Cowes in F7 left me impressed with her ability to cope with this kind of chop both upwind and down.

Gavin, Monday May 26th

Good news at last

Good news is that a new warranty Sport Master gearbox arrived from Belgium at Dave Crawford Marine on Friday. They have still to check that we have all the bits back that they took off. Once checked, we need to get Dave to put it back together with care so that we can launch next Saturday.

In the meantime here is the list of boat-related items still to be done:

Fit transponder to boat for web site feed - need to find a suitable location which is non trivial as we have few external surfaces and it has to be outside with power
Hire 4 man raft and 406 EPIRB which will both need to be securely mounted. The raft will go aft as that's where we want the weight
Fit second fire extinguisher
Get race numbers - (no response yet from chosen supplier) and stick to boat
Get an hour's tuition on the engine and gearbox from Dave Crawford Marine
Buy set of spanners for engine as current boat tool kit is all metric and the Mercury isn't
Buy a suitable sea anchor. An odd safety requirement but maybe it will be useful one day
Get compass deviation card and swing compass
Get second engine cut out lanyard as we both need one
Buy retirement flag, new foghorn, radar reflector, appropriate first aid kit, safety blanket and torch
Fit fuel cut out switch and mark battery isolator switch
Order ship's radio license - money for nothing as I have the user's certificate and a license for my sail boat Black Tie
Get satellite phone
Sort charts and batteries for Garmin Etrex pocket emergency GPS
Put National flag on boat as well as some sponsor's stickers. Not sure what these are for as we are not sponsored by these companies
Fix clothing, hotels and plan route for supporters

I visited Ribex in Cowes last weekend - an excellent show - and was really interested to meet some fellow competitors in our class. Greg Marsden looked very well prepared and had his new metal fuel locker on the foredeck of his Viper 7.8.

Although this won't be the fastest boat in the class, it is being driven by a very experienced and tough looking team. Greg told me he was going to take it easy to Bangor then see where they stand. (Not sure racing a rib from Portsmouth to Bangor could be described as taking it easy, but I know what he means.)

At the other end of the class spectrum is the new Artic Blue 27 being built with twin BMW/Yanmar engines giving 520 hp and a stepped hull.

This boat should easily do 60+ knots which is just under 70 mph and with Paul Lemmer at the wheel, will be an obvious candidate for running at the front of the fleet.

Out of interest I calculated the weight of their engine installation compared with ours.

For Artic Blue it's 810kg including drive legs. Black Gold is 300kg including spare engine and fuel for the spare which is in the aft locker. So loads more power but the equivalent of 6 large men standing near the back of Artic Blue in terms of weight. No wonder they were keen to explain to me the workings of the bow ballast tank...

No boating this weekend - just a big push to get some of the items off my list.

Gavin 17th May

We know what's finer than to be in Carolina

Nothing could be finer than to be in Carolina in the morning, so the song reckons, and today Gavin will know because he is arriving in Charleston for a brief visit.

Some sailing is in the offing, but mostly the dash across the Atlantic is for his work.

For most of us in Gavin's party, what would be finer than Carolina, or anything across the pond, would be for Black Gold to be perfectly tuned and ready to take on the big boys in the Round Britain Powerboat Race.

Speaking from Heathrow, Gavin confirms that Mercury, the engine manufacturers, have agreed to replace the gearbox.

Their experts believe that the seal failed on the control mechanism. That the fault is diagnosed and the repair under way is the good news from a very sad situation.

The bad news is that the engine is unlikely to be up and running by next weekend.

With just 38 days to go to the race start, the pressure is well and truly on Gavin now. Of course, his work comes first, and hence the visit to South Carolina.

In the meantime, Gavin reports that he is gradually progressing through 'a seemingly endless list of jobs.'

Gavin said, 'I visited Ribex this weekend in Cowes and met with two of the other competitors in our class.'
- From Gavin's Rib-Racing website

No boat, but preparations continue

Down to Dave Crawford marine in Lymington with Nicki on Saturday morning to pick up the errant gearbox for me to take to Belgium this weekend for exchange. Scorpion had finished their work with the aft locker floor and I also collected the bulky Austrian Grabner racing life jackets from Scorpion.

While on Black Gold, I removed the SD card chart cartridge so I could experiment at home with the PC Planner chart package and their USB multi-media reader which will allow us to plan routes remotely.

Next stop was the Rib Show at Hamble Point. I didn't want to buy anything there, but I had arranged to meet racer John Cooke (Cookee) there. John is a constant source of wisdom and advice on the Rib forums and it was good to see his race boat with many of his ideas incorporated. Main take-aways for me were:

1. Drive to finish rather than to beat the boat next to you (a good theory!!)

2. Look after the engine cradle and ensure the throttle man (Roger in our case) keeps the propeller revs down when landing

3. John uses buttons rather than switches to reduce the risk of them turning of when the boat lands hard

4. He has multiple bungees round the engine leg to reduce the movement of the leg as the power comes on and off

5. He also suggested bleeding the two stroke oil every night at the engine mounted tank as air in this can trigger the alarms

6. John also strongly recommended that I buy a device to manage and reset the Mercury alarms

Next stop was the E P Barrus stand. This is important as Barrus will be providing a three-person team and truck full of parts to support Mercury engines.

We have given them information on our engine, drive and propeller. It was very good to hear about their plans and they even wanted to know what filter elements that we have in the fuel pre filter so that they can load them on the truck.

Up at 5 am tomorrow in order to get across to the Belgian Mercury Racing dealer with my three week old gearbox.

- Gavin May 4th

Gearbox problem

All our plans for this weekend have come to nothing as we have found water in the gearbox.

While the boat was back in Lymington this week at the Scorpion yard, I asked Dave Crawford to give the engine its first service and to change the gearbox oil which several people had advised.

Dave was very busy and thought that he might not get to do it, but on Thursday he did. With hindsight, it was just as well he did because he found the oil was contaminated with sea water.

This could have been very damaging. The unit needs a careful rebuild and checking in order to see how this happened after only 23 hours of use and never knowingly having anything tangle around the propeller.

We have lost a week in the schedule, but it is worth finding things like this before we start the race.

- Gavin April 26

Prep for Plymouth (again)

Our two main issues from last weekend look likely to be solved by tomorrow. The aft locker floor, which holds our spare 18hp Tohatsu outboard motor (41kg) and its 25 litre fuel tank (25kg), is being replaced in the moulding shop by Scorpion as we speak. The strain that the floor takes when we land from a wave is enormous. It is unusual to store an engine of this size here.

The fault that triggered our alarms and 4% power restriction last weekend has been identified by Dave Crawford - a loose cap on the oil tank. Not sure how it would cause this problem, nor even how it happened. Scorpion's Graham Jelley suggests that we ask the engine people for some instruction just in case something like it happens again. Graham had a similar experience near the top of Scotland once.

Meanwhile at home, MarineTrack has just delivered the satellite tracking transponder which we need to install and which ultimately should feed our position to this site during the race. And we now have the PC Planner software and card reader so that we can navigate with our laptops at night. We know how to have a good time!

The weekend's forecast looks much better than previous weekends. I'm looking forward to our first long passage.

Gavin April 25th, 2008

Gearhead stuff

It's amazing how much gear we accumulate for each new participant activity. Offshore sailing, dinghy sailing, ski-ing, hill walking, cycling are just a few before we get to ball sports. And, I have 26 sails stored in my garden shed. Part of the "fun" of going round Britain in a rib is planning how you can equip yourself to cope best with what you might have to face. Needless to say it means buying a whole lot of new stuff!

Clothing. People whose advice we respect have said you must do it in dry suits. I even have one in the wardrobe for board sailing. We have decided to go the summer comfort route and after some discussions with Henri Lloyd have gone for their TP2 Shadow smock and salopettes without the collar.

The smock as a neoprene waistband and a soft collar which tightens round your neck. June should be sunny and warm, but with a permanent headwind of circa 50 to 60 mph, different rules apply.

Gloves. You do get knocked about a bit in a rib contrary to what it says in the brochure. I don't suffer from cold hands but on a two hour run found I'd got a blister somehow from the Italian suede covered steering wheel. We will have thin sailing type gloves in the future.

Footwear. We are using toe straps with the Ullman seats so we need shoes that are smooth on top. Roger has a preference for boots so we may go that way although I hope we don't get too much water in the boat.

Helmets. We first talked to Gecko who provide the RNLI. Unfortunately their helmets aren't approved for the race and we have to have motor cycle ones. I have heard of the bucket effect if you fall out going fast with a full-face helmet so we have gone for open-face helmets with visors and separate sun shades.

Intercoms. Driving a Caterham 7, you realise how communication could be improved with an intercom system. I had looked at the ones on the lifeboats which are industrial quality. We are going for a battery-powered system which reduces hole drilling in the boat and which was developed for rally cars but which will have to live in a polythene bag.

Life jackets. We race with 13 on our sail boat. We have eight life jackets for cruising on the rib. But for the race, we need another design. We have gone for Austrian Grabner jackets which look okay and have a lot of power boat followers. The main difference for power boating is that you need foam rather than air.

Camera. We hope to take a Panasonic video camera but after just a couple of trips, my Nikon Coolpix compact has given up and I have ordered an Olympus 850 SW. The S stands for shock and the W stands for water down to 3 metres. It's great to have a camera at hand and I hope the Olympus doesn't go the same way as the Nikon! I'll still have my D200 Nikon SLR in its padded bag with me, but it's not at all easy to use under way.

Back Support. On our first runs, I used a ski back brace which has an articulated support right up the spine. This is less than perfect in the rib as it tends to push you forward in the seats.

Roger experimented with an industrial type of garment which has plenty of elastic and Velcro and can be tightened in use. I am getting the same now. Of course, you never know whether these really help, but we both recognise that a back injury could take us out of the event and once a back goes slightly wrong, ribbing is not a lot of fun!

Underwear. Last but certainly not least, early rides have demonstrated the need for getting this right. The Ullman jockey seats have a narrower part at the front which you grip with your thighs. After a couple of hours, it gets uncomfortable so I plan to use undershorts with chamois running down both legs.


We will keep you updated as we discover new needs. Gavin 21.4.08

Not a Good Day!

As usual a poor weather forecast preceded a "lets go anyway" trip to the coast. First issue was that the number for Hamble Point's dry stack service. It went straight to voicemail. I tried 118118 to check the number but it was the same. So when we got to the Hamble how good to see Black Gold waiting in the water with her cover off.

After topping up Black Gold's oil tank, daughter Emma and I loaded up an odd collection of cleaning kit and were set for a mission to spring clean our sail boat moored in East Cowes. We started the engine. Almost immediately an alarm sounded. I looked at the two screens that we have - system view and the gauges on the GPS screen fed by Smartcraft. All looked okay so we pottered out into the Solent at 32 knots. I couldn't resist watching some of the sail racing - a big and competitive Laser SB3 start and the usual Hamble Spring Series. We continued to Cowes slowly. The alarm was still sounding and the engine didn't want to run fast.

We turned everything off in Cowes and, being the eternal optimist, I assumed a re-boot might restart the alarm system in normal mode. We cleaned the teak deck on Black Tie for the first time this season and had a good lunch in the Lifeboat in East Cowes. Back in the rib ready to go home, the alarm gremlin hadn't gone away. I found a crack in the false floor that supports the spare outboard so we decided to return to Lymington so that the Scorpion team could have a look.

I'm sure that there is nothing wrong with the engine, but I can't have it going into engine protection mode in the race. Our cruise to Lymington was down to 6.2 knots as we made use of the 4% power that the engine management system allowed.

By next weekend I hope we have dealt with the gremlins. It would be good to practise the first leg to Plymouth on Saturday.

Not a great day, but at least the sun was out and the sea calm.

HIGHS AND LOWS

We knew that the forecast was bad for Saturday, but having gone through the last checks at the Scorpion HQ in Lymington we headed out into a hailstorm to try the passage to Plymouth - an important part of our race preparation.

First lesson: my head was freezing in the hail so we shot over the Yarmouth and Roger slipped ashore to buy me a hat.

Off down the Needles Channel, the seas were large and surprisingly very large and steep fronted outside. After an hour of pushing on West, and after a minor nosedive and a couple a tail stands at very low speed, we decided reluctantly that bashing on like this to Plymouth was futile.

We rationalised it this way: The race committee wouldn't start a leg with Forces up in the eights, so why should we practice for it! And we decided a circumnavigation of the Isle of Wight would be good, so we turned downwind and trimmed the nose out and opened up.

Lesson 2: The difference between the conditions that a rib can work well in and the opposite is more extreme than a sailboat.

We spent the night in Cowes on Black Tie with Black Gold alongside. We made a call to one of our new ribnet.com friends, Phil Boarer, who is also doing the Round Britain Race in a Scorpion.

Phil has a new 8.1 metre with a 300hp Suzuki. We quickly agreed that subject to the weather being sane in the morning, we'd meet him in Chichester and do a fast run to Brighton and back.

The weather was good and we met Phil at East Head and were soon following him as he leapt out of the harbour in a F4/5 with some big lumps on the bar. What followed was a great run with two well matched Scorpions past the bank where Ted Heath's Morning Cloud sank with loss of life and then on to Brighton for a coffee and croissant.

It was great watching another boat with a similar hull work through the waves and Roger and I were very glad of our Ullman seats although we found the toestraps essential in quartering seas which sometimes caused us to lurch sideways.

Coffee done we went out past the Brighton race fleet and buzzed Jonty Layfield's J39, Sleeper, which had many of our team from Black Tie on board. That done we had an uneventful upwind leg back to the Solent in company with Phil's striking Syncro and start to discuss what we'd learned from this good day out.

First: I need cycling pants or something to stop saddle soreness.
Second: I had cut my hand on the wheel and some sailing type gloves would be good.
Third: We will go for intercoms in our helmets.
Fourth: I need a direction-to-waypoint display in my direct line of sight.
Fifth: Our experiment with Roger on the throttle and me on the wheel worked really well.

Even though he had me screaming for mercy at one point, he was doing a good job. The boat did great and Phil commented on how level she flew.

We need to reschedule Plymouth, but we learnt a lot this weekend and logged 180 miles.

Gavin Sunday April 13

SNOW SCORPION

Not sure why we deserve this weather in April. Terrible driving conditions and deep snow at home didn't stop us from heading to Lymington for the next stage in our preparations. Joy from Scorpion www.scorpionribs.com had come in to see us on Sunday (thank you Joy) and Matt at the Haven Boatyard was ready to help get the snow off the cover and launch Black Gold.We now have new straps everywhere: more in the aft locker securing the spare engine and its full fuel tank, straps in both directions in the console locker and most importantly of all, foot straps for the driver and navigator!

We had drawn round our feet last weekend with a pencil and we now think our feet are in the right place according to the instructions from the seat designer, Dr Ullman.

The big interest for this trip, the last before our big run to Plymouth and back next weekend, was to evaluate another propeller. Last week we had done six runs on the measured mile in Southampton Water, fed the results back to Scorpion. This is not perfect science, but there are several web tools to help you with these decisions and one "propslipcalculator" at www.mercuryracing.com was helpful for me as a guide.

The reason it isn't an exact science is that there are so many variables (changing fuel load and boat weight, atmosphere, wind and sea conditions, height of engine on transom, engine leg angle and more).

What we were trying to do was reduce these variables and run at similar boat weights, constant shaft angle, two way runs on the same water and of course, noting everything. We also decided to stay with the same make of propeller as we were happy with the boat's behaviour and just wanted to evaluate the pitch (angle) the prop. Needless to say our snowy weather meant that Southampton Water was bitterly cold as we ran one way into a 20 knot plus NW wind and the opposite effect the other way. The sea had also become lumpy which adds another set of variables. Two runs in the freezing cold and lunch in the Jolly Sailor in Bursledon with friends seemed like a good idea.

The promise being that we came back to finish the job when the wind and tide were going in the same direction (this makes the water smoother).

We completed the runs after our roast lunch in the pub and then coffee on board our friend's well heated Oyster sailing boat.

I wouldn't say the results were of great scientific merit, but we had knocked 300 rpm off our previous weekend's top end runs and gained some knots while still being able to reach peak power on the engine's power curve.

Another good day's work and Paul, Nicholas and I drove home on less snowy roads with the car heater set at 22 degrees...

Next weekend we go on our first big run, which I guess for Roger and me will be more of a test of the crew than the boat.

Gavin

April 6th, 2008

ROUND THE ISLAND

A late night charity auction, a terrible weather forecast and the European time change made getting up at 7 am a struggle this morning. Still my boat partner Paul and his wife Grace were ready to go, and the weather seemed to brighten as we drove from Surrey down to Lymington. Paul had been looking closely at the weather forecasts and channel buoy readings and so a 2.6 metre wave height at the mid Channel buoy didn't sound good for our planned Round the Island mission.

Down in Lymington after a bit of preparation, adding a gallon of two stroke oil and some boat shifting by the yard, we were launched and pottering down the river.


We started gently and headed West but we could see that the Needles Channel had a lot of breaking water despite the neap tides. Big overfalls on the Shingles bank and by the Needles on the opposite side of the channel weren't encouraging. We progressed slowly. Once round the Needles the sea became more regular and we were able to increase our pace to 43 mph as we ran in a quartering sea down to St Catherines Point. Black Gold coped beautifully with these conditions and for the two of us using the Ullman suspension seats the ride was very easy. The third person standing behind but holding these seats found it rather disconcerting as they moved up and down.

St Catherines provided more irregular waves and breaking water. In fact it looked much worse that it was and despite one crew member letting out a scream we were soon through the race into the calmer water on the other side without even a drop on board. The remainder of the run round to my mooring in East Cowes Marina for lunch was very easy with the engine now sounding very good.

After lunch it was back to work, and on Graham Jelley's (Scorpion MD) advice, we did 6 runs, 3 each way in Southampton Water on the measured mile in order to assess our current propeller as the engine loosens up. We did these runs with a half tank of fuel and three on board with a constant leg angle of 7 degrees. We will use this data to decide on our next propeller.

We went back to Lymington in a typical Solent chop with the boat running very smoothly. In all a good day with no problems and us progressively gaining more confidence in Black Gold.

Gavin. 30.3.08

LAUNCH DAY AT LAST

After what seemed like a long wait, Black Gold was launched yesterday in Lymington. Launching a Rib is a bit of an overstatement, particularly as Scorpion had spent previous days doing propeller tests.

After four different props, we ended up with a 19-inch Revolution 4 bladed propeller which is very popular for Scorpions. By the time we "launched" the engine had done 6.5 hours running - 2.5 hours in the race engine factory. This means that we are virtually through the official running in process where the engine automatically gives itself a double oil dose. It still probably needs 20 hours in order to get to its full potential.

Scorpion had the boat ready to go and after a talk through the basic systems, we went on a trip out into the Solent with Ben from Scorpion - Ben manages the fit out and has also benefited from a week at Mercury's US facility. No problems at all, but given the Solent was "boiling" and the rain was heavy it wasn't a great time to do a serious evaluation of the boat.

What we did learn is that our glass screen dashboard will take a little learning and the Mercury "System View" with its 200-page manual looks very clear but we were struggling to find the page with the relevant information - like engine revs for example! We now know how to do this and have discovered that it can provide us with many things that we didn't know we needed, including an engine running history showing time at different rev levels!

One thing that struck Paul and me was how much this boat is an improvement on our previous Scorpion. Of course the boat in the water is very similar, albeit a metre longer. But every locker, every fitting seemed better - a great example of continuous improvement of what was already a first class Rib.

After the official hand-over, we took the boat down the Solent to Cowes, using the lee of the island to provide shelter from the gusts which we couldn't measure but which were forecast as up to Force 9.

A few things came to light: the trim tab controls are the other way round which makes them counter intuitive for me. The sexy "Zero Effort" engine controls feel good but the throttle control couldn't be left because it cuts back when you hit a wave. Maybe you need to keep your hand on the throttle! You also need to be careful that you don't change gear with the throttle open which of course you can't do with a single lever control.

Yet the boat didn't give us one anxious moment in quite extreme Solent conditions and the Ullman seats - which I'd selected without trying - appeared to be very good. You don't need to brace yourself for the hard landings. We have now drawn the position of our feet and will fit footstraps to ensure that we don't fall off sideways as well and always have a firm footing.

A lot to think about and a lot of manuals to read. We went home happy after Day One and look forward to tomorrow's run when we will put some more hours on the engine.

Links:
Scorpion
Mercury Racing
Round Britain Powerboat Race
Rib Racers
Gavin 29.3.08

Delivery delayed

We don't have a critical deadline to meet, but a new boat is always exciting and I was starting to prepare for what we'd do running it in over the Easter weekend.  Anyway, its important given issues like the propeller choice and critical engine height that Graham Jelley (the owner of Scorpion) gets some time in it. We plan to keep it in Lymington for a couple of weeks after launch to do any snagging and try out propeller options.  Launch date is now March 28th.

PROPELLERS

My knowledge is close to zero on propeller choice, but I have been surprised in this process how people attribute many aspects of the boat's handling to the prop design (trim, stability, chine riding, going up wind, going down wind, cornering, acceleration) even before you consider speed and revs.  As we will be running with the propellor close to the surface and higher, much of the time we will go to a four bladed prop which I assume provides more grip as its going to spend a lot of time operating on the surface. We have a 3 bladed Laser 11 on our current 7.5 metre Scorpion with a 21 inch pitch and this time I think its likely to be from the Bravo range. As for pitch, I guess it will be somewhere between 21 inch and 23 inch although we have a different gear ratio on this boat at 1.62.1 compared with 1.75.1 and a Sport Master gearbox.