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