Following the gale that howled across the Western Approaches on Sunday, forcing the cancellation of Leg 2 of the Round Britain Powerboat Race, Monday dawned with bright sunshine and zephyrs of wind that barely stirred the surface of Milford Haven. ‘Hooray’, said the competitors as they launched their boats at 06.00 and at 11.00, embarked on their 201 nautical mile haul across the sea to Bangor in Northern Ireland.

    It was a day of mixed fortunes for Jonathan Napier’s crew on the Team 747 Fairey Spearfish running in Historic Class. Cormac Lundy, himself a braw broth of a Belfast boy, saw it this way:

    “I’m still a bit new to this powerboat racing game but we all cracked on out of Milford Haven. The first 5-7 miles were a bit choppy but then things got easier, until our mast fell down so we had to stop to re-fit the electronic aerials that it normally holds up.

    “That lost us a bit of time and our main competitor in class, Gee, which had been running alongside us, stopped to see if we were OK so we waved them on and then a few miles further up the track we saw they had stopped so returned the compliment but they were OK too. All very friendly this racing.

    “Then, when we found some shelter from the Irish mainland, Jonathan hit the throttles and we went up to 38 knots and just stayed there at 2800rpm having a lovely time, until we discovered that we were running low on fuel. We made a few telephone calls, found a pump on the waterside about 5 miles short of Bangor and dropped 200 litres in but that lost us another 7 minutes.

    “Then we had a bit of difficulty finding the finishing line and I said to my senior Captains that it was probably because there were no landing lights on the final approach and they went a bit quiet but Bangor was en fete for us and we have clawed some time back from Gee in the overall standings, which was nice.”

    While the gallant captains and a journalist from Motorboat & Yachting were cruising across the Irish Sea, to a very creditable 28^th. place overall, the ground crew of Mike Napier and Fred Kemp were moving inexorably up country, dragging their mobile rest module astern of them and took the opportunity of calling on Mark Jealous. Recuperating at Schloss Jealous in Cheshire, Mark is still sore after his bouncing about on Leg 1 but is threatening to rejoin the team in Inverness so east coast balti houses beware.

    With John Skuse electing to make his way with Xanthus to Oban by road, courtesy of William Cadbury's Fairey Logistics on the bounce from trucking Team 747 from Plymouth to Milford Haven, and Mike Barlow still bringing Ocean Pirate round from Devon to join up again for the Oban leg, the Historic Class looks set to be a battle between Gee and Team 747, both powered by Cummins Mercruiser Diesel QSM 5.9 turbo diesels.

    Day 4 sees the relatively short haul of 113 nautical miles from Bangor to Oban but the weather remains unpredictable so anything could still happen.