Maritimo on side with ‘The Enforcer’

by Bob Wonders on 15 Apr 2009 When someone is given a nickname such as ‘The Enforcer’, I guess it signifies a man who won’t take cheek from anyone!

As far as Maritimo is concerned, all’s well with ‘The Enforcer’, also known as V8 Supercar driver Russell Ingall, who recently took delivery of his second vessel from the Gold Coast manufacturer.

The Maritimo 48 was traded in and the Maritimo 500 Convertible now holds pride of place on the pontoon outside Ingall’s Gold Coast waterfront.

Russell, wife Julia, and daughters Sasha, 6 and Jaz, 4, have fallen for the new boat ‘hook, line and sinker.’

'As far as the family and I are concerned, this is the ultimate boat.'

The Ingall family regard the Maritimo 500 as their ‘holiday home.’

'I probably spend half my year in hotels and airports,' Russell explained.

'When the opportunity comes for a break from the race track, the last thing we need is to be tracking out to hotels and airports; our holiday apartment is right outside the back door,' he said.

Russell chose the 715hp C-12 Caterpillar engine option, and from there he as the saying goes, ‘went to town’, specifying engineering and electronics to his personal demands.

His boat was the second, following a C60 Cabriolet, to have the innovative Joystick Manoeuvring System (JMS) from ZF Marine.

It is now offered as an option on all Maritimo vessels.

The JMS is a control system that provides simple and intuitive boat control that can be matched to all ZF Marine propulsion systems.

Ingall absolutely adores the system.

'It’s everything I had hoped for and then some,' he said.

The ease of control offered by the JMS is really quite incredible; manoeuvres such as sideways berthing, 360-degree spot rotation and other seemingly complicated moves, often difficult with standard control levers, become easy operations.

Furthermore, the JMS also controls engine speed and transmission shifting.

Other options to the Maritimo 500 specified by Ingall include one of the first installations of ZF propellers to his Caterpillar engines; there’s an elaborate Fusion entertainment system, Ocean LED underwater lighting, Hella LED lighting throughout the vessel and a superb Garmin touch screen GPS and Plotter.

The boat itself has been laid out to the same Ingall demands; clears instead of a fully-enclosed flying bridge, no lower helm ('you’d never drive the boat from down there,' Ingall declares) and furnishings to suit a family of four in all circumstances.

'A highlight of ordering and then taking delivery of the boat was the tremendous service and attention I received from all parties involved,' Ingall said.

'The boys at Maritimo were outstanding, nothing was a problem for them, and the people from ZF, Garmin, Hella and Ocean LED, together with the Caterpillar engineers deserve every accolade,' he added.

Standing at the helm aboard his pride and joy, Ingall looks very much at home.

Fraser Island, Hervey Bay, in fact anywhere along the coast are favourite destinations for the Ingall family.

'We keep the boat fully equipped, clothes, food and all, ready to jump aboard and cast off at a moment’s notice,' he says.

Now teamed up with co-driver Paul Morris in the Supercheap Auto V8 Holden, Ingall as usual is looking forward to the season.

He rates as one of the most experienced wheelmen in the V8 Supercar series, and although he spent five-years with Ford, he also drove for Holden for seven years prior.

What many don’t know about Ingall is that he is UK born.

'But I’m not a Pom anymore,' he says, 'after all, I have been here since I was three-years old.'

Ingall has previously teamed with well-known driver Larry Perkins and the duo won the punishing Bathurst race in 1995 and followed up with another victory in 1997.

He won the V8 Supercar series in 2005 and has been runner-up on no less than four occasions.

And how did he ‘win’ the nickname, ‘The Enforcer’?

'I think it was a journalist in Melbourne who hung that on me,' he recalled.

'From 1990 to 1996 I spent a lot of time racing in Europe and the racing there generally is much more aggressive.

'I think I was seen as someone who didn’t take prisoners, but at heart I’m a nice guy, really,' he joked.

For those thinking of taking up V8 Supercar racing, Ingall has a warning and it’s all about, you guessed it, money.

He estimates a budget of $2.5 million would be very much at the lower end to campaign a V8 for one year.

'For example, to run a car at Bathurst, taking into account travel, accommodation, entry fees, fuel, wheels, tyres, you’d be looking at a minimum spend of $100,000,' he explained.

'And that’s for someone who owns the car and has paid all the support staff.

'It’s a sport that does not come cheap, I’m afraid.'

When Russell is at the wheel of his Maritmo, Julia and the girls along side, circling race tracks at 300km/hr is the furthest thing from his mind.

'OK, my Maritimo won’t do 300km/hr, but speed on the water is not my go, I am perfectly happy at 20 knots', he added.