Cowes 2022 done and dusted

The power boating highlight of the year, the Cowes Torquay Cowes race is now done and dusted for 2022. We have had some amazing times on and off the water! The one thing that I can say is that this was an unforgiving event, the sea was flat calm on Saturday, but come Race Day Sunday and it was a complete different story. The sea was rough, maybe the roughest it has been in quite a few years.

When the flag dropped on the start, 40 boats took to the water to Torquay for the bigger marathon class boats and Poole for the smaller sprint class boats.

We did get of to a good start when suddenly the GPS decided to pop out and land in the lap of Berti Munro the navigator. After getting it back in place and duck taping it in place while Darryn was at full throttle the GPS decided once again that it needed to miss behave. Making Darryn stop completely while Berti got it back in place properly!! A frustrating start but nonetheless getting back to racing.

Darryn and Berti were pushing hard and catching the back markers that had passed them while sorting the GPS. The two of them were being tossed around the boat like a salad being prepared for BBQ. Both were taking a pounding. At the 75 km of the 121 km race is when the new tohatsu engine bracket decided that it was no longer holding together and snap it went. Darryn and Berti said that with that almighty snap the boat rolled to the port side taking both of them from a 0° degree to 95° on the port, with Berti’s helmet hitting the water and Darryn starting to fall from his race seat and the wave crested and boat rolled back in to position. Both have told me that the boat should have rolled over, that it did not is still a mystery.

Unfortunately that brought an instant end to their race. They did manage to tie the motor up so that the bracket would not snap and have the possibility of losing the engine in its entirety! After limping at 6mph for just over an hour the Moku racing support boat and crew were able to hook the race boat up and take her back to Cowes.

This was not the result out come that we wanted for this event but this is racing and with that come great disappointment. All we can do now is get the problem solved and prepare for the next race in Falmouth….see you there!

Thanks to Mike Attrill Photography, Iceman Images and Snap-Photography for the amazing pictures.