Jonathan Napier’s crew of BA Captains aboard the Team 747 Spearfish experienced some unexpected turbulence today (Saturday) when a fine class victory over arch rival Gee was offset by damage to both the steering system and starboard rudder tube, this latter almost certainly a hangover from the west coast grounding last week.

    The 115 nautical miles between Edinburgh’s Port Edgar Marina and Newcastle’s Royal Quays Marina was run in a south to westerly blow that hovered around Force 4. This produced a big following sea in the exit to the Firth of Forth which took its toll of some less well found hulls and over-enthusiastic drivers and gave the airborne photographers some interesting shots of partial or total submersions.

    Team 747 and Napier’s back came through it well and surprisingly, the smaller and lighter Spearfish gained and extended its lead over the heavier Gee through the heavy pobble and in the flatter conditions that followed it. Even when the waters kicked up again in the entrance to the Tyne estuary, 747 kept ahead and took the leg by a handy 10 minutes but all was not well, as Napier explained:

    “The steering had begun to feel stiff and less responsive early in the leg and we were carrying a fair quantity of water in the bilge but the real attention-grabber came 500 metres from the finishing line when one of our stainless steel tie-bars on the steering system failed at 40 knots. We got over the line on engines alone and within 30 minutes of coming ashore, those nice people in the FPT team had cleaned and TIG welded it back together so our thanks to them. That’s what you get when our team manager and their team manager used to race against each other!

    “Then we looked deeper into the water ingress problem and it looks like we may have stirred the starboard rudder tube pad a bit so we lifted her out and our ground support team of Fred Kemp and Michael Napier went to work with grinder, heat gun and fibreglass to make us good for the next leg. It’s tiresome, but no one said racing was easy, or perhaps I did before the start but I really can’t remember.”

    Gee’s trim tab failures continue to dog her progress and today was particularly tricky and caused them to back off to preserve the hull, giving Team 747 a clearer run and a small advantage.

    As for the other members of the Fairey Owners Club, John Skuse brought Xanthus home at an average of 28.38 knots (32.65mph), Mike Barlow in Ocean Pirate made 27.17 knots (31.27mph) and Jonathan Townsend’s Swordsman came home in a tidy 26.44 knots (30.43) to prove once more that good design and intelligent driving delivers.

    The regular riding crew of Jonathan, Andy and Cormac have been joined again by Mark, he of the damaged ribs on leg one, who turned up on the Newcastle dockside looking less pained and ready for action but whether on board the Spearfish or in the support road vehicle remains to be seen.

    Travelling the length and breadth of the country, one sees some interesting things. The banner suspended across Inverness High Street that carried the legend ‘cooking when drunk is a recipe for disaster’ foretold of gastronomic pleasures over and above the deep-fried Mars and the signs on the Newcastle marina dock wall warning,’ nesting terns liable to attack, do not proceed beyond this point’.  You couldn’t make it up.