British Team cracks Round Britain World Record

by PPL on 25 Aug 2001 At 8.01 pm last night, Friday, 24 August, the Hampshire based XS Racing Team of Ian
Sanderson from Lymington and Peter Dredge from Warsash, Southampton brought their 38 foot
Sunseeker XS2000 powerboat thundering across the finish line to knock 3 hours
and 4 minutes off the World Record for powered circumnavigation of mainland
Great Britain.

Their time of 39 hours and 50 minutes for the 1440 nautical miles (1658 statute
miles) gave them an average of 36.15 knots (41.62 miles per hour) and a seventh
world benchmark within four weeks of high speed motor boating, taking the KSI
Perpetual Trophy and the Drambuie Norman Mackinnon Trophy for their efforts.


After a textbook start on Thursday morning, they had experienced a number of
niggling but time consuming fuel system problems from the moment they turned
north at Lands End 3 hours into their record bid but showing remarkable resolve
and no mean mechanical skills, the British men pressed on to their first re-fuelling
stop in Bangor, Northern Ireland.

Already some 6 hours behind schedule after 448 n.miles, the twin Yanmar diesel-powered
boat left Bangor Marina as dusk was falling and after navigator, Dredge, had
decided to re-route their course outside Islay, Tiree and Skye and blasted off
into the night and the Western Isles.

Five hours of punching into some enormously big seas off the north west corner
of Scotland and another three hours picking their way along the north coast,
they eventually turned south off John 'O Groats and immediatly, their luck changed.
A flat calm North Sea allowed them to crank up their speed to better than 70
mph on the run to Peterhead in Aberdeenshire and their second re-fuelling stop.


A rapid turn round there got them on their way again and there followed a perfect
run south to Lowestoft and the last stop, during which the boat rarely dropped
below 65 mph. Fuelled up again at the Royal Norfolk & Suffolk Yacht Club, the
crew knew that the record could be theirs and pushed harder than ever, blasting
along the South Coast to arrive in Poole in good order as the sun set over what
had turned into a perfect summer day.

A welcoming reception at the Sunseeker shipyard on Poole Quay saw KSI's CEO,
Ralf Tilkowski present the tired but happy crew with the trophies for fastest
passage overall and fastest passage for a boat between 30-50 feet and the time
recorded has been submitted to the Union International Motonautique in Monaco
for official ratification as a new World Record.

The next target for the boat and crew is the fabled Honda Cowes Classic Cowes-Torquay-Cowes
race which starts from Cowes on 1 September and later in that month, an attempt
on the London to Monte Carlo world record.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON THE KSI ROUND BRITAIN CHALLENGE AND SUNSEEKER XS
RACING, CONTACT JOHN WALKER/ALAN EWENS on: Office: +44 (0)1794-368997/
Mobile: +44 (0)7771-886050 email: waynefleet@mcmail.com

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