Norwegian Rib Lionhead leads Round Britain race

by Round Britain Offshore Powerboat media on 26 Jun 2008 Following three days of rough and tumble, racing the 2008 Round Britain Powerboat Race fleet spent today (Wednesday) transversing Scotland either by road trailer or via the Caledonian Canal. The convoy covered the 100 odd miles from Oban in the West to Inverness in the East in readiness to start the four remaining racing legs, the first heading for Edinburgh, on Friday writes Ray Bulman.

Although some teams face time penalties for rule infringements occurring as they sped North up the West Coast, it’s now certain the event is headed overall by the Norwegian Rib (Rigid Hull Inflatable) Lionhead. Its crew, Pat and Henrick Sollie together with James Sydenham have taken 8hrs 50mins 46secs to cover the 506 statue miles raced so far from their Portsmouth starting point. It represents an average speed of around 60mph and puts Lionhead 10mins 9secs ahead of the Greek entered Blue FPT filling second slot. Gutta Boyz, another Norwegian entry of father and son, Ivar and Nick Tollefsen, lies third overall with a time of 9hrs 2min 3secs demonstrating the high performance of the international entries in the race.

By contrast Austrian Hannes Bohinc, who has finished first with Wettpunkt.Com on the last two legs to Bangor NI and Oban but failed to finish the opening leg between Portsmouth and Plymouth, is well down the table at this halfway point in 33rd place. Although he is likely to lead most of the remaining legs back to Portsmouth, those ahead would need to suffer serious breakdown for him to feature among the winners.

The glamour of the race is always up ahead but many individual contests are taking place further down the fleet. The Watford based taxi drivers now lie 16th overall and second in the RB2 class with a time of 11hrs 11mins 44secs aboard ‘The Bandit’ Barry Deacon, Graeme Young and Carl Hemp are chasing Silverline / Original Style, their RB2 class leader four places ahead, and although a much more powerful contender, Drew Langdon’s Silverline / Original Style has suffered mechanical problems.

Drew and his crew, Jan Falkowski and Miles Jennings, were working at Inverness to correct their problems but if breakdown reoccurs then the taxi drivers driving ‘The Bandit’ may find they have quicker journey.

Another backmarker by no means out of the running in the lower powered MC2 category, is one of the smallest boats in the race. The hull of the single diesel engined ‘TFO’ was once owned and raced by the Countess of Arran as ‘Laura Lucy’ which its current crew, Tom and Charlie Williams-Hawk (sons of Ed Williams-Hawk aboard Wettpunkt.Com) bought for less than the entry fee for the race. They are the youngest competitors in the event and lying a creditable 25th overall with a total elapsed time of 12hrs 43mins 43secs ahead of the well reported 42 year old Gee running in the Historic Class.

The two-day non-racing break at Inverness has allowed several teams to catch up. These suffered various mechanical problems en-route and withdrew. They have since been worked upon and been transported north to rejoin the fleet on its journey south.

These include the Top Gear team aboard ‘Garmin’ which failed finish the opening leg. ‘Round Britain Challenger’ driver by veteran racer Richard Griffith, who competed in the previous Round Britain contests in 1969 and 1984 and now alongside his son Dorian, is another to arrive.

‘Xanthus’, entered by Harley Street dentist John Skuse, has made it by road from Plymouth while a strong possibility remains that Ocean Pirate and Italian favourite, Red FPT driven by Fabio Buzzi has now retired from the race, and is taking a plane back to Italy this evening.

Blue FPT - Better get on boat than on car.

While the boats were transferred from Oban, on the west coast of Scotland, to Inverness, on the east coast, there is time to talk with the team. Panos says: 'The start at Milford Haven was really difficult, the sea was very rough and there were many boats very close to us, but the most dangerous situation along the Round Britain I lived as a passenger, with Fabio Buzzi, while he is driving as a madman… the van! writes Maurizio Bulleri.

Better in boat with him, never more in a car' Lefteris is responsible for the engines: 'I totally trust of FPT, my father has a boat with Iveco engines that have 6000 hours and it still run perfectly.'

Vassilis remains concentrated on the race, 'We will continue as we started, running fast, but avoiding any risk. We will decide to attack for the first position in the overall standings only in the last two legs, now we want to keep the leadership in our category. We would like to maintain the advantage of 25 minutes that now we have on the second'. The great expert navigator Dag Pike, the only English in a three quarters Greek crew, says 'Blue FPT is extraordinary on the rough sea, you just have to push the throttle and have no fear.'

http://www.roundbritainrace.co.uk/