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F a s t O n Wa t e r M a g a z in e © Published by Fast On Water Publications 2017 All articles and photographs are copyright All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission. Editor Roy Cooper
Contributors Roy Cooper Phil Sharratt Steve Pinson Pat Ainge
Cover photo of ON start London 1985. Photo: David Ansell
Editors note Welcome to the latest edition of the Fast On Water magazine. I do hope you enjoy this issue and remember, we always welcome ideas and/or articles for future issues.
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John Nicholson Remembered
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Outboards and Things
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Chasewater – Photos from the Pat Ainge Archive
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Crash Helmets – A Relevant view from the 1980s
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In Memory of Bill Shakespeare
John Nicholson Remembered 6th October 1941 – 20th September 2017 It is with great sadness that this week we heard of the death of John Nicholson. I went to visit John last October, when he kindly passed on his trophies, original Lifeline life jacket and race overalls to Fast On Water. He spoke about his time in circuit racing as if it were yesterday; remembering in detail his various boats and what they were like to drive. He also talked about Nicholson McLaren engines and the work they continued to do for motor sport. I’m sure John must have been the only circuit racer to have taken part in a Formula One motor race. His time in the motor racing of that period goes some way to explaining why he was such an exciting powerboat racer to watch – no holds barred and straight on the pace.
whom he worked on CanAm and F5000 programmes. He subsequently set up his own business under the Nicholson-McLaren banner and continued to service F1 engines for McLaren throughout the Cosworth DFV era. Once established in the UK, John returned his sights to racing again and in 1971 he purchased a March to participate in formula Atlantic. The following yeard he raced a Lyncar, in which he achieved second in the British Championship. Using his own BDA engines he won Formula Atlantic titles in 1973 and 1974, against quality opposition that included Tom Pryce, David Purley and Alan Jones.
Chris Hodges, John and Matthew Tracy
In 1974 John commissioned a Lyncar F1 chassis. Budget restrictions meant he only raced in three events all in the UK and finishing 6th in the International Trophy Race. He then tried to qualify for the British Grand Prix at Brands in July, but it was to be a fraught weekend. First in practice, when John was involved in a collision with Carlos Pace, and later he damaged both ends of the car when he spun off on his own. He failed to make the grid. That year he also made his
John was born in Auckland, New Zealand, followed his father into powerboat racing before moving into racing Lotus and Brabham single-seaters. In 1969 he headed to England in search of a career in motorsport. In John's case his reputation as an engine builder in New Zealand earned him a job offer from Bruce McLaren, for
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only Le Mans start in the Gordon Murraydesigned De Cadenet, equipped with his own DFV, sharing driving duties with Chris Craft. After a troubled race John crashed the car on the pit straight when the suspension failed shortly after 5am.
John returned to win the British title again in 1981, 1982 and 1983. After another crash he subsequently retired from boat
1975 saw him once again entering the same F1 three race schedule, only this time he did make the grid in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. He was one of many drivers to crash in the rain storm that stopped the race, joining James Hunt in the pile of wrecked cars at Club, although he was classified 17th. It was to be his only Grand Prix start, selling the only Lyncar F1 machine to Emilio de villota.
John and Phil Duggan, Stewartby racing. In the mid-80s he was seen briefly back on four wheels in the Group C2 class in the World Sportscar Championship, where several teams used his engines.
In 1976 he took a step back to F2 with a year-old March, which he raced in both the European championship and the domestic Shellsport Group 8 series, and the following year he raced in Formula Atlantic in his native New Zealand.
Nicholson-McLaren stopped involvement in F1 when the turbo era arrived but it continued to find success with Cosworth products in F3000 and Group C2, in the British hillclimb series, historic F1 racing, and the short-lived GP Masters series. The company remains successful and John continued to be its chairman. In recent years he would spend the winter months in New Zealand.
His driving career gradually wound down, mainly because time pressures meant that he had to focus on his thriving engine business. In 1976 a friend of John’s invited him to Bristol to watch the Embassy Grand Prix circuit powerboat event. John was well impressed and soon realised that this was a form of motor sport that he could take part in while still running his engine business. He won the British ON title in 1979, but in 1980 he suffered 18 rib fractures and a punctured lung in a major crash at the Embassy Grand Prix.
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Outboards – And Things By Phil Sharratt Chasewater Club Member from the late 1950s until 1973 Boating all started for me when I was nine years old, but I don't know where the boating-idea originated. Anyway, I believe one idea was to have a small boat and use it on the canals, but we ended up at a company called J R Woodissee & Co. Ltd who were originally invalid carriage makers but had diversified!! We bought (by “bought” I mean Dad and Mom bought) a Cee-Craft, with red deck and white hull, of about fourteen feet in length, made of fibre-glass. This boat was not new and had been used in some sort of an endurance venture when it had crossed the English Channel powered by a British Anzani outboard engine. On the foredeck, there was a swage which culminated in the windscreen cowling, where there had been a large Castrol Oil decal which had left the colour slightly darker than the rest. The outboard engine that we had, which was new, was a Johnson 18hp. I think that it was Woodissee's who pointed us in the direction of Chasewater, where they were also members (P47, I think) and in the summer of 1958 or '59, we as a family, became members and acquired the boat number of P77 (P for 'power').
where water is siphoned off to feed the canal system in times of water shortage. When we joined Chasewater, the wooden clubhouse was just being completed. I believe that before then there had been some sort of caravan-effort, but this now was a club-house proper. The toilet facilities, still, were primitive to say the least. I cannot vouch for the ladies', but the gents had a large hole dug behind a corrugated enclosure (open to the weather) and also a 'thunder-box'. This was to be the first improvements for when the clubhouse was completed. Very soon there was a kitchen added (The Galley) and the all-important bar. These were both run by volunteer club-members for a good many years. In the pool, the club had secured some exArmy (or Navy?) landing stages which were wooden and so floated, fastening so many end-on-end to meet our requirements. One or two affluent members had made their own landing stages, in U-shape, where the owner had the luxury of the inner mooring berth and other members could tie-up on the outer moorings. As time went on, the ex-Army staging became battered from constant use and were replaced by more robust and static moorings.
Chasewater is in Cannock, Staffordshire; part of Norton Canes. It came about from being a marl-hole. 'Marl' is small stones that were quarried for road-building, the marl-hole eventually filled up with water because the hole was non-porous and it left a space big enough to host both The Chase Sailing Club and the South Staffordshire Hydroplane and Speedboat Club (SSHSC). The pool was split equally from north to south. On the south-western side, there is also an adjacent small pool called Geoffrey's Swag which is not for boating but kept as a bird sanctuary. At the northern end is a huge dam with a sluice
There was a foreshore, where the boats were brought on road-trailers behind cars, and where they were prepared for launching having been divested of their strappings and also the trailer-light set that was required by law; and the fitting and setting-up of fuel tanks (still two-stroke engines then) and generally readying the boat for use.
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There was a slipway constructed of concrete where boat-owners would then reverse the trailer down to the water's edge without having to bother about becoming stuck in a mud-hole. If the water was high, then the slipway could be used by two people man-handling the trailer into the water, releasing the boat at the landingstage and then parking the trailer in the suitable trailer-park out of everyone's way. If the water was low (perhaps in times of drought), the trailer was better reversed down the slipway behind the car and then the car could drag the trailer away afterwards. Someone had constructed what was called a Long Tom, which extended the space between the car and the trailer so that the trailer-and-boat could go deeper into the water without the car having to go into the water (and maybe flooding!).
boats had to be sixteen years or older and any younger drivers (and I became one of them) had to pass a scrutineer's test. Outboard engines not only had to be clamped onto the boat (using the standard system) but they had to have bolts through the transom, as just transom-clamps of bigger-size engines had become insubstantial. Painters (the rope at the bow used to tie up at mooring) had to be no longer than the length of the boat and should not be capable of fouling the propeller. Petrol tanks had to be suitably strapped down so as not to move about within the boat. There was also a cut-out plug that was fitted to racing boats so if the driver was ejected, the engine would cut out. I know that after my time at the Club, this measure became standard even for general boaters and skiers.
Every boat that was allowed on the water was obliged to display a 'P' number, written in black lettering (or a contrasting single colour from the hull), a minimum of eight inches high and one inch in thickness and on both sides of the boat. The alternative was that the number could be shown on a board as part of the boat and again painted in black numbers on a white background. As a ten-year-old, I could memorise so many of the owners, boats and engines that occasionally club officers would find me to ask, instead of digging through the Club records!!
Our original Cee-Craft, with the Johnson 18hp outboard stowed inside ready for the road.
From before the start of my time there, everyone allowed in a boat must wear a regulation life-jacket at all times, and this was strictly adhered to. As the boating fraternity became more established, so unfortunately more rules had to be generated, and soon there had to be scrutineering at the start of each season (and every race- meeting for those participants) to be sure that all craft were fit for purpose. The only exception was the use of wet-suits for water skiers. Wet suits were considered to be buoyant enough to not need life-jackets, which made skiing cumbersome. Drivers of all
Also it was decreed that there must be a minimum of two boats at the pool for boating to continue. This was after one boater was there on his own and he came into difficulties (I believe that he might have capsized his boat) and as there was no-one there to assist, he was drowned. Speedboat racing was the main activity, apart from the ‘General Boater’ who came purely to ride for pleasure in his boat. But many of those people became inveigled into racing. To start with, there were no race programmes; there was just a list of all the Club members, the boat-names, 4
boat manufacturer and engine – but very often Club members changed and they changed their boats or engines, so that idea was soon discontinued. The pool was limited to around thirty-five boats allowed at any one time, and on a number of occasions when the weather was ideal, some boaters had to wait for others to leave before they could join the fray. In those days Chasewater was a haven for week-end day-trippers and many times the venue was inundated.
owner. P2 belonged to Stan Pearson, a one-time Commodore, who made his pile with a company that made pots and pans and he was always very generous when raffle prizes were required!! John Merryfield had P3 – he was a boat chandler and dealer from Henley-in-Arden where he sold Mercury (and probably other) outboards. He had designed the 11ft 6in Meadcraft which was a very popular racing boat when we first became interested. These boats were powered from 22hp to 50hp engines and rumour had it that no-one had ever capsized a Meadcraft. John Merryfield later designed the Merrycraft (which was built by Brooklands Aviation) which was 13ft long. My parents bought one which was powered by a 50hp (719cc) Mercury twostroke outboard, which my brother later raced. We were also later interested in buying the original prototype Merrycraft which had been named Mr Kiekhaefer (after the originator of Mercury outboards). This deal took a long time to materialise but eventually it was found in a Brooklands Aviation warehouse; and again my brother John raced it with moderate but enjoyable success.
The Cee-Craft on the water at Chasewater's replacement landing stages, with me holding the painter.
P8 was owned by Reg Trevellick who had a two-seater Albatross inboard boat powered by a marinised Ford 100E engine, and he was an avid racer. He had come from car-racing but had become fed-up with it and had decided to switch to water. Reg became one of Chasewater's chief scrutineers for both racing and general boating and when he died at 91 years old he had been a major force during all that time.
There was also a small contingent of hydroplane racers’ and the one or two that I can still remember were Sid Seymour, who was very slightly built and physically was the ideal build for hydroplanes. The other was Derek Winters, his wife Winnie and their son Max. Derek didn't stay long with hydroplanes and later bought a speedboat for racing. Chasewater was a huge expanse of water and mostly the wind forces made the water too rough for hydroplanes. Most of them decamped to Bodymoor Heath in Birmingham which was much better suited.
P13, I remember, was raced by Bill Udy and his son in our early days and several other people later carried that number so they were obviously not superstitious!! P14 was used by Eric Platt who was the Chairman of The South Staffordshire Hydroplane and Speedboat Club when we first joined. He owned a coal yard and transport business just a stone's-throw away from Chasewater. His wife Dolly
Some names from the early list of Clubmembers I can still remember. P1 was designated to Len Chatterley – but in all my considerable time at Chasewater, I never, ever, saw P1: not the boat or the 5
also ran a successful transport café on the same premises and they were both very pleasant people. Eric owned a Meadcraft when we first saw him. He later owned other boats and even co-designed a boat, but it was not a commercial success. Eric had designed this boat with chandler David Barton who had a dealership in Meriden where he sold Scott outboards. Eric's Meadcraft was called Red Fin, and there were a number of owners who also used “Fin” in their boat names. There was Dolfin (P45 owned by Cliff Platt, Eric's brother and the treasurer of SSHSC); Nuffin (P125 owned by Mike Atkinson); Lafin-Buoy (P23) owned by Dennis Grogan, who had to change the boat's name to Lafin Buoys when his wife gave birth to twin sons!!
Our 45hp Mercury pictured in our shed before we had chance to use it. Another early Chasewater member was Trevor Fox (P16) who owned TW Fox Engineering in Oldbury, West Midlands. Trevor originally had a Simmonds inboard boat but later became an outboard racing enthusiast using a Shakespeare boat and he competed internationally with his boats Kay-Oss and later Kay-O-Tic (both named after his wife!!) Then there was Les Good – P26 – who I came to know quite well as he became a good friend of my parents. Les originally had a heavy clinker-built wooden boat with a Johnson 35hp outboard, when I first saw him. He later changed the engine for a 50hp Mercury and then changed the boat for a Blu-fin 13R (more of which later), which I crewed in races. He then sold that outfit to Archie Rolls and he bought a Shakespeare Avon hull powered by a100hp Mercury.
There was also P15 owned by Vic Labrum, his wife Elsie and daughter Denise who had an Albatross four-seater inboard boat with the bigger 1600cc Ford engine. Vic was the Commodore of SSHSC when we joined and he also had come from carracing but had become disillusioned with it. He was also a member of the Chasewater Karting Club and often had his Albatross on a road-trailer with the kart on a cradle above. Two early members of the Club who just concentrated on water-skiing were Mike Brown and Phil Conn, who had an Albatross inboard boat, which was ideal for skiing. A little later on the Club had as a skier Phil Hawley, one of the Hawley bakery family. He bought a Dowty Turbocraft, which was driven not by a propeller, but by water induction. Phil Hawley delighted in spinning this boat as it travelled, making it potentially dangerous for on-coming boaters and it always completely soaked the passengers in the rear of the boat. Eventually he was reprimanded and he subsequently left the Club.
I became very friendly with Archie Rolls (P52). Archie's real first name was Arthur, named after his father, but he had always been known as Archie as a child to avoid confusion. It was only his wife Pam who ever called him Arthur. He had worked at BMC Longbridge, but he now had a motor-repair business near home. When he first joined the Club, he had a Miami fibreglass boat and the hull-shape was known as round-bilge. This meant that the hull was U-shaped and when racing it could 6
negotiate turn-buoys with unerring accuracy. His boat was named Wendy Wou, which I believe was the pet-name for his daughter Wendy. Archie's wife Pam usually accompanied him, as did his children. Apart from Wendy, he had an older son Adrian and a younger son Marc who later went to race much larger boats in the 1980's (notably at Bristol and other international events). When Archie bought the Blu-fin from Les Good, Archie needed a crew and so I carried on my duties from Les.
held an Annual Dinner and Dance, part of which was to re-present major trophies and also to Club members an award was made for having been 'ducked' during a race – so I had one. I still have my china duck, complete with SSHSC badge, in our glass cabinet and it will always be a prized possession.
For one weekend, Archie decided to race at The Cotswold Motorboat and Racing Club at Fairford in Gloucestershire, so a large contingent of Archie, Pam, three children, a crew-member (me!) and all the boating gear (and some camping gear) were crammed into an Austin A55 vanwith-windows and then the boat and trailer behind. The Rollses were seasoned campers - but I wasn't - so whilst they enjoyed their tents overnight, I slept in the car!! We raced and we enjoyed the weekend (I think) but the car struggled on the way home. With Archie, I also raced at the Lancashire Speedboat Club at Carr Mill and that was an interesting experience. One of my last races with him before two-up racing gave way to singleseaters (and I was also having problems with my back) was at Chasewater in 1965, whilst negotiating a right-hand turn-buoy in the chicane, I fell out of the boat in rough water and amid the following boats. Archie saw me going and turned the boat around quickly to shield me from the melĂŠe. I still remember that it was the only time that I ever opened my eyes under water (it happened too quickly for me to shut them) and I remembered how green the water looked!! Archie unceremoniously dragged me back into the boat and as I knew that we only had one more lap to complete, I insisted that we finish the race. I later learned that had we finished the race without my ducking, we would have exceeded our handicap and therefore been disqualified from the race. In the closed season, the Club each year
John's photo of me on the foreshore with our Merrycraft and the Mercury. Another crew-member around my age was Adrian Scrimogeur whom I was often in competition with. Adrian suffered a bad accident during a race when a wayward boat bounced across his ride and the outboard's skeg caught his back and Adrian was waylaid for quite a while. Many P numbers changed regularly, but amongst some I remember was Norman Fletcher who had P73 and who had joined the Club just before us. Norman originally was part of Falcon Marine with Edgar Fullard but Norman had left to go his own way. Norman went on to great success with his Fletcher speedboats for both general boating, water skiing and offshore racing, but his craft were rarely a success at inshore racing. He also made larger boats of 20'+ and even an outboardpowered 16' cruiser, and he himself was successful in racing offshore. To demonstrate his cruiser, he teamed up with West Midland company BRD who were then making their Bermuda outboards and a Fletcher cruiser powered by twin
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Bermudas was scheduled to run non-stop at Chasewater for a week. Another Chasewater member was Les Clark (P74), who raced a number of boats including one in a Paris Six-Hours race when he was badly injured and he left the boating scene. Another notable was Jeremy James, a grandson of the James motor-cycle family – he had P102. He had a variety of boats, one of which briefly was Eric Platt's Meadcraft Red Fin which he had thought of buying. Jeremy became friends with Bill Shakespeare (more of him later) from the Cotswold club and Jeremy raced many Shakespeare boats in this country and abroad but unfortunately he died during a race- practice run in France when his boat failed to negotiate a weir. Also around this time were Dick Hardy (P119) and his wife Joy and their daughter Claire, after whom Dick instigated a trophy to be raced for by Club members each year. Dick had one of the earliest catamarans that was seen on Chasewater, another John Merryfield design. One of the Chasewater members who joined immediately before us was Al Wright and his buddy Austin Harper – Al had P76. Al was a publican by trade and he was an avid water skier, but he and his wife also went to view much of the racing, particularly to at least one Paris Six-Hour race... Part 2 in next issue.
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Chasewater
photos from the Pat Ainge Archive
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That Sinking Feeling!
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In Memory of Bill Shakespeare 03.05.30 – 23.10.71 This month we remember Bill Shakespeare, boat builder and racer, who was tragically killed while practising for the Windermere Grand Prix on 23 October, 1971. Bill, who became known as the ‘Tewksebury Terror’, started his career as an apprentice for Bathursts in Tewkesbury. He started building his own boats in the 1950s and in 1960 began to develop his glass fibre race boats. In 196l he exhibited his first production craft at the London Boat Show - the 26ft. wooden "Star" cruiser. Later that year saw the birth of the Avon runabout, a 13ft. 6in. hard chine timber built craft that was followed within 12 months by the famous 15ft. 4in. Avon Special that was soon taking prizes at all the major European races.
Shakespeare's main task centred on domestic runabout design and production, by the end of 1968 he had built his first series of racing catamarans. It was while driving one of these craft that his business colleague and racing companion Jeremy James was killed when practising for the Liege 6-Hour race in 1969.
In 1963 his was the first ever British boat to win the gruelling Paris 6 hour race on the Seine. In 1964 he became the youngest ever president of the British Motor Boat Racing Drivers’ Club and, in 1968 he published his book, 'Powerboat Racing'.
In 1970 he set a new World Record for ON class outboards of 104 mph on Lake Windermere, in one of his own designed and built fibreglass catamarans. Bill was killed during the final few minutes of practice for the 1971 Windermere 3 hour Grand Prix. He was travelling at around 100 mph when his craft suddenly flipped and disappeared under the surface. Although several patrol boats rushed to the rescue no trace of either the driver or his boat was found.
By 1967 International demand for the deluxe version of the Avon Special, which was by now also successfully competing in Class III offshore, reached such a height that Bill, together with the help of Jeremy James, converted the complete range to grp in order to speed production and reduce labour costs. The Boat Show following this saw an outstanding display of grp runabouts on the Shakespeare stand. Although Bill
Known as "Shakey Bill" to his close racing friends, for almost 10 years he 17
was synonymous with circuit racing in Britain and Europe. At 40, he was one of the top British drivers, having won nearly all the major circuit trophies presented in this country at least once, and to a lesser degree, his fair share of honours abroad. But it was not only in racing that he was known. Many everyday runabout and water skiing enthusiasts owed much to Bill for it was as a boat builder using his racing knowledge to improve the breed that he will also be remembered.
at Chasewater but for Windermere he wanted to run the same gearcase as his record boat, which was 10 to 12 mph faster. This was a very safe boat which I had driven with Bill at the Chasewater 500 mile race. We had followed Molinari round both days and finished half a lap down and got 2nd place overall. Rumour had it that Molinari was to race with a new engine. OMC even sent over Jack Leek, Head of Racing, to watch as they expected a good result.
Many thanks to Steve Pinson for the following piece. The Shakespeare team at Windermere in 1970 were Bill Shakespeare, Robert Glen from E P Barrus, Steve Pinson and 2 mechanics. The record boat was very lightweight and I saw one man carry the deck folded under his arm at the boatyard. It was made using a fibreglass and foam sandwich construction, which was a new concept at that time. Bill had only driven this boat on the River Severn very briefly. The engine was running a 1-1 sports gearcase and propeller sent from the OMC factory, not normally used on circuit cats, for top speed only. He had a few top speed runs, which were very fast but too many revs meant the engine blew up. Bill rang the Shakespeare boatyard and had the engine taken off the boat that had finished the Paris 6 hour race the week before . Six hours later it was at Windermere, fitted and running, and took the record at an average 104mph.
In practise for the 3 hour race Bill had a portable workshop style rev counter, which was on the floor of the boat between his legs. I had used this myself and the scale was hard to read. To check the RPM would take a good 10 seconds; long enough for him to fly the boat. The first boat on the scene of the accident was John Hill. He could just see Bill's boat disappearing underwater. The only thing still floating was the works rev counter. I was the last person to speak to him and lost a good friend that day. Bill Shakespeare’s successful record attempt at reaching a top speed of 119mph in October 1970 was followed by another record attempt in March 1971 at the OMC Johnson/Evinrude manufacturing plant at Brugge Belgium. He would be using a uprated powerhead and have a selection of props to try compared to just one for his previous attempt, so he thought he could go much faster.
For the 1971 Windermere 3 hour Grand Prix Bill’s boat was a stepped cat. The only thing the boat didn’t like was cornering. We ran a stock gearcase
Robert Glen from E P Barrus who were the UK importers of Johnson Outboard 18
engines at that time made all the arrangements and John Tucker who was the head of the European Boat Racing Division at Brugge arranged for the UIM officials and timekeepers to attend and had Angelo Vassena as the UIM observer.
but where these buildings stopped was the fastest part of his run and here he was exposed to these crosswinds. His 3 pointer boat looked a little out of control forcing him to slow down. He tried this several times over that day but to no avail so we went home a very disappointed team. Bill always intended to try again but due to his fatal accident in October 1971 this was not to be.
On the day his attempt was to take place we had serious crosswinds blowing across the canal. At the beginning of Bill’s run he had the factory buildings shielding the canal
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The International Harmsworth Trophy
The Duke of York Trophy 20
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Fast On Water Update We are now in the process of restoring John Hill’s 1990 Burgess. Nigel Ringwood has been undertaking the hull restoration, replacing one whole deck and making internal repairs to that side’s sponson. We have also had the deformable pickles removed and the sponsons put back to their original style.
suitable items for the Bristol, such as steering wheel, seat, steering gear etc, we would love to hear from you.
The photo above shows her in her racing days.
And as she looks at the moment. _______________________________ Here at Fast On Water we were very uplifted to hear that the F1H20 race in London’s Victoria Docks is definitely going ahead. Hopefully this is just the beginning of taking circuit racing to the people. Just think how many Londoners will be seeing circuit powerboat racing for the first time. Remember when you saw circuit powerboat racing for the first time!
The next step is to have the black paint stripped from the underside of the hull (hoping that we don’t find anything too worrying under the paint!) and then prepping the hull for its respray. ________________________________ The Bristol hull has finally made it to East Anglia and work will start on restoration as and when. James Boggis, who is also restoring a Bristol has offered to work on both, which is great news and a very generous offer. If anyone has or knows the whereabouts of any 22
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