V24 Powerboats out in front again!

After a disappointing start to the weekend's racing when 6' swells forced the cancellation of Saturday's offshore powerboat racing in Poole, the V24s were in superb form for Sunday's races.

The reduced swell on Sunday morning suited the V24 fleet perfectly and they put on a commanding display of fast, close offshore racing. Having thundered up the start straight closely bunched, giving spectators on Bournemouth beach the full impact of their V8 5.7l 320hp engines, a navigational error by V9 (Ricky Hill and Alan Layton) gave Poole's Richard Carr and James Sydenham in V69 the lead.

The second lap saw Tom Powell in his new boat V9 storm up the field to take 3rd position. The second leg took them out to sea and across some lumpy water giving real airborne action for the racers. Dermot Kearney and Ian Summerfield (V1) went skyward, landing heavily on their port wing with the water punching a hole through the kevlar. Determined driving from Dermot and accurate navigation from Ian gave them the opportunity to claw their way back up the field finally finishing in 3rd place for their first podium place of the season.

A second navigational blip from V9 (Hill and Layton) allowed four times World Champions Peter Little and David Arthur in White Stuff's V27 to come through on a corner to take a lead which proved unassailable.

Sadly the local team of Carr and Sydenham (V69) missed a mark out at sea and decided to call it a day. Southampton based Shelley Jory and Gavin Brown in V8 ran another consistent race to pick up second place and more points for the V24 championships. Fourth place went to Charles Gardiner and David Langmead in V24 Bacardi Breezer.

Sunday afternoon's basic race the Club Classic, gave a number of newcomers the chance to have a taste of powerboat racing as 'guest' navigators. Four of the V24s started the race but only one decided to stay the distance with inexperienced crew in rough waters, providing a fantastic display of racing. Mark Pascoe, with a huge amount of race experience under his belt, is the builder of the V24s in the UK and he really showed just what the boats are capable of.

The first few laps saw Pascoe and navigator Mark Bridges (V1) and Carr and Sydenham (V69) literally eat up the ground as they tore round the circuit with some thrilling neck and neck racing. A technical problem for V69 forced them to pull up and in Carr's words 'wait for another day'. V1 was left to battle it out for the lead with Max Walker's 4 litre boat D8 which finally succumbed to engine problems leaving the V1 boat to take the chequered flag and another winning spot on the podium for a V24 boat.

Race results:
V24 Championship and RYA National V24 Championship
1st V27 Peter Little and David Arthur
2nd V8 Shelley Jory and Gavin Brown
3rd V1 Dermot Kearney and Ian Summerfield

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Note to editor:
Future V24 race dates are:
23/24 August Cowes 27/28 September TBC

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