Evinrude ETEC outboard takes King of the Rivers title

by Kate Gordon on 18 Mar 2010 A standard 225 HP Evinrude® ETEC® outboard powered ‘Illusion' to a class win and second overall in the recent Twin Rivers water ski race run by the NZ Water Ski Race Association.

The Twin Rivers race, the second long river race of the NZWSRA season, is 55 kilometres in length and takes competitors down the Piako River, out into the Gulf of Thames, then up the Waihou River to finish at the Paeroa Bridge near the Paeroa Maritime Park.

Hamilton's Brendan Macpherson drove ‘Illusion', the 225 HP Evinrude-powered Cyclone to second place home with a time of 30 minutes and four seconds, a very credible two minutes and eleven seconds behind the winner, a 600+ HP twin-outboard boat called ‘Warlord'. Reaching speeds of 130 km/h during the race, ‘Illusion' was also the first SMOC (standard mono open cockpit) class boat finishing 37 seconds ahead of the third-placed ‘Hoofit' which competed in the 300+ HP modified outboard (MOC) class. Beating ‘Hoofit' also gave ‘Illusion' the MOC class victory.

Hamish Macpherson was the co-driver/observer on ‘Illusion' and the top-performing skiers were Bevan Scott and Ben Mayne, both from Auckland.

'It was a fantastic result for the whole ‘Illusion' team,' says Macpherson. 'We were particularly delighted to find that the great Twin Rivers result added to our earlier result in the Bridge to Bridge race to earn us the prestigious ‘King of the Rivers' title for the 2009/10 season.'

Team ‘Illusion' finished fifth overall in November's Hamilton Bridge to Bridge while setting two new class records. The combined race results while using the same team members earned them the title.

Macpherson says the ‘King of the Rivers' title has never been won by a standard engine (SMOC) boat before.

'It's a title normally won by open class boats like ‘Warlord'; even the 300+ HP modified outboard (MOC) class boats have won it only twice.

'This is a fantastic achievement for Evinrude ETEC to be the first-ever standard 225 HP engine to win this title.'

After finishing the Twin Rivers race, Macpherson then piloted ‘Illusion' in a shorter masters and novice race, taking the chequered flag with masters skier John Maine, from Hamilton.

'Our Evinrude is straight out of the box. Now it's done over of 70 hours running this season with the majority of the hours being competitive ski racing. It's needed only oil and fuel. This is a real testament to the durability of these ETEC engines. To date, it's been completely trouble-free.'

Richard Shaw, BRP Evinrude New Zealand manager, congratulates the team from ‘Illusion'.

'This is an outstanding result for Brendan and the team, and for Evinrude. We were delighted to hear of the outboard's faultless performance under intensely competitive conditions in one of New Zealand's great river water ski races,' says Shaw. 'We look forward to hearing of ‘Illusion's' future successes with Evinrude.'