Fiat Powertrain Technologies is taking part in the dramatic 2008 Round Britain Powerboat Race supporting, with engines and parts two of the FB Design Racing Boats taking part, including the recently restored Cesa 1882 now with the name of Red FPT.

Red FPT was built in 1985 by FB Design and was originally powered by four Iveco engines of 5.8 litres and 520 bhp. It was then powered with four Seatek units with 650 hp and was World Champion in 1988 with Fabio Buzzi with the name of Cesa 1882 and World Champion in 1989 with Stefano Casiraghi with the name of Gancia dei Gancia. Currently re-powered with four Fiat Powertrain Technologies engines of 6.7 litres, rated at 600 bhp.

More than 50 entrants represents by itself an important success for this event; 24 years since the last competition of Round Britain, 10 years since the big final endurance race, the Venice – Montecarlo, Round Britain 2008 is ready to write an important chapter in the history of powerboat race and Fiat Powertrain Technologies is ready to be part of history.

The Fiat Powertrain Technologies will also award with a special Trophy and prize the crew that will be able to increase his performance more than the other competitors during  the race. The spirit is to award not only the overall winner, but the boat that will have the most relevant improvement day by day, miles after miles. The prize is a Fiat 500 Round Britain 2008 Special Edition.

To be eligible for the trophy and the prize the boat must be classified as a finisher for every leg of the race. The winner will be chosen between the seven winners of the seven classes of the Round Britain Race. The race will be divided in two legs: the first from Portsmouth to Oban and the second from Inverness to Portsmouth. The average speed in the first part of the race will be compared to the average speed in the second half. The boat with the largest percentage improvement will be the winner of the Fiat Powertrain Technologies Trophy and prize. With this rule, every boat of each Class has the same chance to win the Trophy and the prize, out of the category, the dimensions and the speed of the boat. Midsummer day turned into midsummer madness for some of the 47 starters on Day One of the 2008 Round Britain Powerboat Race yesterday, as near gale force winds swept in from the west and the fleet fought their way to Plymouth.

Yesterday the first leg got the race underway and the first boat home overall and in Class RB2, in a sparkling time of 2 hours 34 minutes to average 50.34 knots (57.93mph), was the 42ft. Buzzi design of Drew Langdon, Miles Jennings and Jan Falkowski, which made best use of its speed to beat the approaching weather front. Langdon was ecstatic: “We found some really good patches of water but then we would get hit by some equally unfriendly lumps so it was very much a case of picking our way through. Everything ran really well today.” John Christensen, CMD’s resident engineer with the Silverline team and riding in the boat today commented: “The engines ran without missing a beat and gave us the confidence to push on but it was pretty taxing at times.”

The three CMD powered runners in Historic Class had mixed fortunes. Mike Barlow in Ocean Pirate struck an underwater obstruction at the start and having been lifted out in Port Solent, drove his damaged prop to St. Neots, Huntingdonshire for repairs and was planning to leave Portsmouth again later on Saturday night to rejoin the fleet for Leg Two from Plymouth to Milford Haven.

The 40 year old Gee with its crew of John Guille, Mark Clayton, Chris Clayton, Richard Hoskins, Nathan Ward and sponsor, Fiona Pankhurst from Raymarine, made good running to win the Historic Class. In a time of 4 hours 17 minutes and an average speed of 30.25 knots (34.81mph). Owner, Chris Clayton, looked a little windswept but was happy with his boat’s performance: “It was very rough in places and the boat took a couple of really big bangs so we will lift her out and check her running surfaces and sterngear before Sunday’s leg. It was actually more fun than I thought it would be!”

Team 747 had a different take on proceedings, as Jonathan Napier explained: “Our navigator, Mark Jealous, slipped awkwardly and injured his ribs on the run out past the Needles and he was in some pain so eventually, we had to be put him ashore in Weymouth for medical attention, so his race is over. We didn’t have a totally trouble-free day but the engines ran well and it was just circumstances and the that conspired against us”

Even with this setback, Team 747 was making good progress until water in the fuel system slowed them further but they finished second in class astern of Gee and are ready for another day’s racing and some closer combat in a class which has now been reduced to four boats.

Day Two, today, of the 2008 Round Britain Powerboat Race was an surreal experience for most of the 400 people directly involved, writes John Walker. As one observer noted, Parry Thomas used to create world land speed records on the Pendine Sands, just east of Milford Haven but for today’s powerboat racers, there would be no record set, on the race day that never was. It was scheduled to be the day that the 45 boats still in contention raced 180 nautical miles from Plymouth in Devon to Pembroke Dock in Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, passing the big milestone of Lands End and crossing the Bristol Channel but it didn’t happen.

Waking up to a meteorological prediction of  south westerly winds of Force 5-7 with occasional touches of 8, all delivered by TV forecasters jolly as ravens, Safety Officer, Richard Salaman, was pondering the nonsense of launching his fleet into the western approaches but it was a no-brainer and after considering a delay to take advantage of any reduction in wind speed as the day progressed, the Race Committee accepted the inevitable and cancelled the day’s racing.

The alternatives were then twofold. One, to slip the schedule by one day, with all the administrative logistical horrors to organisers and teams or two, lose the second leg and re-start on the scheduled day from Milford Haven, leaving the competitors to make their own way to South Wales on land or sea. After the battering of the first day, most teams happily opted for the second alternative but those who lacked road trailers looked glum; after all, cruising 180 miles in a Force 7 would be little different to racing those same miles so the prospect was not entrancing.

As those teams without trailers began to pull in favours, upsetting the Sunday morning lie-in of more than a few hauliers and chums with their plaintive requests, the wise virgins of the fleet and their support crews began to load up, shape up and ship out for the run up the M5 and M4, beginning to arrive in the Pembroke Docks in mid-afternoon. Sitting on that dockside, listening to the French F1 Grand Prix in a vehicle buffeted  by what was still a substantial wind, the unreality of the situation was underlined by history.

There may have been none of today’s race boats in the Haven but just after lunch, a boat appeared over the horizon with race numbers and on closer inspection, it turned out to be one of the two Miss Bovril Triana 25s that competed in the 1969 race, one of which was owned by South Wales businessman, David Bassett. Could it have been him at the wheel, looking to re-live the glory of days gone by? We shall never know, as having seen 100% of nothing going on, it sped away west, into the teeth of the gale.

Perversely, the met forecast for Day Three, tomorrow, suggests no wind at all over the Irish Sea, a circumstance that will appeal greatly to the crews as they make their way to Bangor, on arguably the toughest leg of this race.