The summer-long battle for supremacy in the Historic Class between Team 747 and Gee which started on the Round Britain race swung in favour of Jonathan Napier when his Fairey Spearfish pipped its biggest rival by one second after 182 nautical miles and over 5 hours of racing along the South Coast on Saturday.

    The 2008 Cowes Classic reverted to its more traditional format with a full Cowes-Torquay-Cowes course run in almost perfect sea conditions and good visibility and it was over this demanding stretch of water that Team 767 and her bigger rival, Gee, slugged it out.

    With a fleet approaching 40 boats, it was always going to be the greyhounds that caught the eye and Italian maestro, Fabio Buzzi, designed and built the first four boats home. Buzzi, driving his Red FPT raced away to the overall victory at an average of 91mph, from Mario Invernizzi in Silicon Fire, Andy Macateer in Venturer and Drew Langdon in Silverline, powered respectively by Fiat, Isotta Fraschini, Seatek and Cummins Mercruiser.

    With Cummins doing well at the front of the fleet, it was the two Cummins Mercruiser powered Historic Class boats that brought up the rear, but both classics were shaded by the only other entrant in the class, T.F.O., the 25ft. Shead design driven by the Williams-Hawkes brothers from Exmouth, which came home almost one hour ahead to take the Thunderbolt Trophy.

    Team 747’s average of 37.86mph was enough to take second place for Jonathan Napier, Andy Fielding and Fred Kemp and with it, the Lombard North Central Concours d’Elegance trophy, a small tribute to the race preparation by Yachting Projects Limited, the boatbuilding subsidiary of main sponsors, Swordsman Marine, as Napier acknowleged.

    “Winning this particular battle, even though it was by the slimmest margin possible, gives us some satisfaction; it was really nice to hear the very experienced Scrutineers complement us for having a ‘proper boat’ to run their rule over and a bonus to win the Concours trophy which they nominate. Our Cummins Mercruiser diesels never missed a beat and despite the normal chop off Portland Bill and Anvil Point the Spearfish ran at close to its maximum speed for much of the race.”

    Swordsman Marine’s Richard Gough commented: “Working with Jonathan since April has been a positive pleasure and we recognise the immense amount of effort that he and his team have contributed to both the Round Britain and Cowes races. Some people may not have understood why we sponsored Team 747 but for us it was a natural.

    “Being the modern custodians of Alan Burnard’s classic Fairey Spearfish design, it seemed logical to support the only original Spearfish brave enough to race in two of the toughest tests in the offshore powerboat racing calendar. Sir Max Aitken was always convinced that racing improves the breed and we could have no more obvious example of this than in the Fairey heritage.”

    Would Jonathan Napier race in another Round Britain marathon or Cowes Classic ? Probably not with this Spearfish but watch this space.