Superstock brings the thrills and spills of powerboats to the Clyde
MY maiden powerboat experience begins with some light relief. Or is it black humour? “I’m afraid I’ve only got insurance to go at 35mph with you guys in the boat,” deadpans Dino Zavaroni, one half of the Team Inverclyde duo which will compete in the Superstock powerboat category in the first ever P1 Scottish Grand Prix of the Sea in the Clyde just off Greenock Esplanade this weekend.
The wicked smiles which he and his partner in crime Gordon Wicklow exchange as I clamber on board in the company of one other hardy media colleague suggest that we are not getting the full story. True enough, before long we are belting around this stretch of water with abandon, ticking off the landmarks of the area’s proud shipbuilding heritage as we zoom by.
A top speed of 65.9mph is reached, with sudden, stomach-churning cornering being undertaken at about 55mph. Past us in a blur are the cranes of the old Scott Lithgow yard, the Waterfront leisure centre, the outline of Greenock town hall, then ‘doon the watter’ to Cardwell Bay and Gourock.
It has long been a pet project of Inverclyde Council and Riverside Inverclyde to regenerate this famous stretch of river and this weekend’s event is their latest brainchild.
A crowd of 20,000 over two days is expected to line the town’s Esplanade, with entry free of charge to a mile-long viewing platform, which will be surrounded by bustling stalls for the weekend. It is my good fortune for the day to be taken along for the ride.
It is all breathless and spectacular enough without the thought of the rest of the field thundering along in your slipstream. The ultimate goal of Roy Mantle, the powerboat equivalent of Bernie Ecclestone, is to make Powerboat P1 into the boating equivalent of Formula One. In addition to the Superstock series which tours Britain’s coast, he has events out in Orlando, Florida, and on the great lakes of the USA. Next on his plans for world domination are destinations in Malaysia and India, with a world tour the ultimate goal.
But while F1 is all about whose vehicle moves fastest, and all manner of minute tinkering under the bonnet, all of the powerboats which will be zooming around the choppy waters of the Clyde this weekend are identical.
It all places the onus on the rider and the navigator, and judging by the manner in which Zavaroni and Wicklow are controlling this one, Team Inverclyde seems to be in safe hands – even if they managed to snap a crucial piece of the boat on their only previous outing so far, at a stormy Scarborough.
Zavaroni, born in Greenock but brought up as part of a famous family on the Isle of Bute, bought his first boat at the age of 14 and now repairs and fits them out for a living through his business at Largs Yacht Haven. Wicklow, who he encountered through their love of the sport in 2010, lives in East Kilbride, where he works at a family-run spice blends manufacturer.
But it is powerboats which really provides the thrills and spills they are after. Crashes are commonplace in the sport, and even fatalities are not entirely unheard of. It is certainly quite an adrenaline rush, and one of the faster 10 minutes in my life is soon over and we are back on dry land.
“The company started racing in 2003,” says Mantle, once we have retired to a safe distance, “and we launched the current series, Superstock, as a one-design racing series. The boats are identical, the engines are identical and that means what really matters is the skill of the driver and the skill of the navigator.
“We are looking to attract a crowd of 20,000 over the two days of racing,” he added. “This is the second round of our 2016 racing season and we race at four other racing venues. We kicked off in rough conditions in Scarborough. It will be rough again in the Clyde, we then move on next month to Gosport, then Cardiff, then back-to-back races in Bournemouth.
“What the crowd will see is a double bill of powerboat racing and jet skis. We alternate the races from 11am through to 4pm and most importantly it is free to watch. We hope that lots of local people and visitors will make it down to the Esplanade. There will also be a lot of trade stalls as part of the Inverclyde showcase. It is very much family entertainment, with displays from our Hydro flight champion Sonnie Bean, who has just won the European title.”
The weather, even more remarkably, is threatening to play ball. “The weather forecast is looking okay,” says Mantle. “Everyone was telling us to take your umbrella, but we are here now, it is dry, it is bright with fairly light wind. In fact, these are relatively still conditions.”