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Exmouth hosts powerboat grand-prix

40 top powerboat racers head for Jurassic Gateway Grand-prix at Exmouth for this weekend’s racing

The third round of the RYA British National Powerboat Championship at Exmouth this weekend has attracted 40 of Britain’s top crews. Organised by British Inflatable Boat Owners Association and Exe Powerboat and Ski Club, the two-day series is a vital one for competitors, as points count towards a coveted place in the RYA National Championship to be held off Gibraltar in November.

With the beach and cliffs surrounding the River Exe estuary acting as a natural amphitheatre, spectators are assured a grandstand view of the excitement. The programme is designed for all the family, commencing on Saturday 6th July with an air/sea rescue demonstration by the RNLI and Coastguard services at 1130.

Saturday’s race, styled The Dash for Cash? opens with a Le Mans style start, with drivers running down the beach to leap into their boats before chasing off round an 18.5 mile course to Torbay and back.

At 1830, competitors and their boats will join a carnival procession through the Town accompanied by a jazz band.

Sunday’s offshore race will start close to the beach and clock tower at 1100.

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Competing classes include class III, 4litre, 2litre and 1.3litre, Pro-vee and Rigid Inflatable Boats (RIBS) Among those to watch out for is local ace Stuart Anthony and his 80mph R21 Graffiti? who is currently tied in 1st place in the Formula I RIB class with Jackie Hunt, the sole lady driver in this Class.

“The Le Man start should provide quite a spectacle with competitors and perhaps spectators getting their feet wet,” says John Puddifoot, the RYA’s Powerboat Racing Manager who will also be competing in his R6 Dragon’s Revenge? which leads the Formula 2 Rib class. “This is a new concept in powerboat racing, and if successful could well be introduced at other events around the Country.”

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Moment Devon powerboat duo cheat death in 70mph crash

The champion Devon powerboat racing duo walked away unscathed from a 70mph 'rare' flip and will be competing again this weekend

• 16:54, 6 OCT 2023

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A powerboat champion racing duo from Devon will be back out at sea competing this weekend after being involved in an extremely rare' high-speed flip at more than 70mph.

Vastly experienced rough water specialists Malachy Browne, of Exmouth, and Jeremy Gibson, of Salcombe, were competing in North Wales in the Offshore Circuit Racing Drivers Association (OCRDA) Aqua Adrenaline Tour in Caernarfon around eight weeks ago when they suddenly found themselves in particularly challenging conditions.

Malachy, a gas engineer and volunteer harbour master in Exmouth, said: "It was the first race of the day and 65mph had been forecast. On the first straight, 200 metres after the start flag we were hitting speeds of more than 70mph with oncoming winds. It caused the nose of the boat to lift up and spin around in the air and flip over.

"It's very, very rare in a monohull [a single-hulled boat similar to a ski boat]. They don't tend to flip so it's very unusual to do an acrobat in the air like we did.

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"We were both ejected from the boat safely and were assessed by medics. The boat was recovered and brought back to shore and our mechanics managed to get it ready to race again the next day.

"I was fine but Jeremey erred on the side of caution and got checked out in hospital and decided not to race the next day. I took the reigns in the driving seat and got another guy to navigate with me and we won."

Currently, Malachy, the navigator, and Jeremy, the driver, are UIM OCR Formula 1 World Champions.

Adrenalin junkie Malachy, who has been racing for 15 years and has been British Champion in three different classes of powerboat racing, says he is not daunted by being thrown out of a boat at high speed and that the recent incident in Wales has not made him fear racing again.

The 41-year-old said: "I come from a jet skier background and thundercat racing so I am used to doing back flips, being upside down in the water and landing in the water at high speed so it's not new to me.

"I'm always in the water or doing something fun like riding a motorbike or another vehicle."

This weekend, Malachy and Jeremy will be competing in the final round of the Aqua Adrenaline Tour which is being held in Brixham from October 6 to 8. The popular offshore powerboat racing series travels to venues all over the UK with seven race weekends – each weekend comprising of four races.

In Brixham, a fleet of 17 boats and 15 jet ski racers will begin their final battle on Saturday at 12.30pm close to Brixham Breakwater with race control being close by.

The exciting-to-watch circuit racing boats compete in three classes based on engine capacity with the class denoted by the colour of the boats bow; Formula 1 – yellow, Formula 2 – pink, and Formula 3 – red. The boats reach speeds of up to 75mph.

A fleet of 15 jet skis will compete in three classes in four races on a slightly shorter course than that used by the boats. For spectators, there will be excellent viewing along the breakwater.

Each race, both boats and jet skis, will run for a duration of 25 minutes plus one lap. Malachy and Jeremy will be among three teams fighting for the F1 championship win with only a few points between them. The F2 & F3 championships will also be decided this weekend.

Malachy said: "The aim for us is to win this weekend. The sea conditions are predicted to be quite flat; we would normally prefer rougher conditions. It will be very close who wins."

The event is being by the UK’s Offshore Circuit Racing Drivers Association (OCRDA). A live stream will be available on Aqua Adrenaline's social media platforms.

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Last updated 12:51 on 14 May 2024

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In Maine, a Father-Daughter Team Wins a Lobster Boat Race

Jeremy Beal, a boat builder and lobsterman, had a simple strategy: “Point it and punch it!” His 14-year-old daughter took it from there.

By Steven Kurutz

Reporting from Long Island, Maine.

Dozens of boats zipped across Casco Bay during the Maine Lobster Boat Races on Saturday. Only one had a purple bottom.

That boat, a 32-footer with a powerful diesel engine, belonged to Jeremy Beal, 45, a large, soft-spoken man who comes from a long line of boat builders and lobstermen.

“See, I grew up right in it,” he said between drags of a cigarette while leaning against the rail of his boat on the evening before the big race.

For decades, Mr. Beal’s father, Wayne Beal, and an uncle, Calvin Beal, have built boats used by commercial fishers up and down the Maine coast. After years spent learning the family trade, Jeremy took over his dad’s business, Wayne Beal’s Boat Shop, in Jonesport, a seaside town more than 200 miles northeast of Portland.

“I bought the boat off my father,” Mr. Beal said. “It was his last power boat. He’s retired out of the boat shop. I won’t sell the boat unless I have to. Just for the fact that it was my dad’s.”

To pay off the boat, Mr. Beal has returned part-time to lobster fishing, something he first started doing at age 6. This summer he has been helped by his 14-year-old daughter, Mariena Beal, who will enter ninth grade at Jonesport-Beals High School next month.

Together, father and daughter have been dropping 250 traps into the Gulf of Maine to catch thousands of the large lobsters prized around the world for their meat. They split whatever money is left after paying for the bait (herring, mostly), fuel and the monthly boat bill.

Mr. Beal said he hoped the experience would teach his daughter both financial responsibility and the family’s way of life on the water. But Mariena didn’t quite get her way when it came to the color of the boat.

“She wanted a pink bottom, but I wouldn’t let that fly,” he said.

The pair hit on purple as a compromise. And Mariena got to name the boat — My Turn, she called it.

When they are not hauling up traps, Mr. Beal and his daughter have been competing on the lobster boat racing circuit, an annual series of summertime competitions along the Maine coast. The events, run by the Maine Lobster Boat Racing Association, are essentially drag races — the fastest boat wins.

“I’ve always been a competitor,” Mr. Beal said.

He summarized his racing strategy: “Point it and punch it!”

Two days before the recent race, Mr. Beal unloaded the buckets of herring he keeps on deck. He lugged out the lobster crates and the 55-gallon plastic drums that store the catch. Finally, he took a scrub brush and washed down the deck with Dawn dish soap.

On Friday morning, after waking early and packing sandwiches for lunch, Mr. Beal charted a scenic southwesterly course from Jonesport. Alone on deck, he took in the sight of the rocky coastline and marine life, including porpoises. His wife and daughters, including Mariena, drove the 200 miles separately in a car.

It took Mr. Beal just under five hours to sail to Long Island, one of Maine’s Casco Bay islands that lie a few miles from Portland. Many of its 230 residents work on boats or own one.

A crowd had gathered for a cookout at the old boathouse on Wharf Street when Mr. Beal moored his vessel. Men and women were eating hamburgers, drinking beer and lining up to buy race merchandise from Lisa Kimball, an islander who co-chairs the race. The proceeds were going toward a scholarship fund for children on the island.

Mr. Beal made the rounds. Several of the partygoers had bought their boats from him or his father. The price of lobsters was solid this year, everyone agreed, though the catch varied from “good” to “horrible,” depending on who you asked.

Adam Kimball, Ms. Kimball’s husband, planned to race the next day. He works on an oil tanker in Alaska, but you don’t need a commercial fishing license to compete — so long as you have a typical lobster boat, which he does.

“It’s a lot of money to spend for not a lot of return,” Mr. Kimball, 46, said with a laugh.

He was referring to the modest prize money, usually a few hundred dollars, and to the way some boat owners invest thousands to gain horsepower and perhaps a knot or two in speed.

“They call it ‘gooning up’ the engine,” Mr. Kimball said. “There are some risks to that. Like you blow it up.”

Mr. Beal spotted one of the modern legends of the lobster boat racing.

“Stevie Johnson,” he said. “Now there’s a real character.”

Mr. Johnson, the proprietor of Johnson’s Boatyard on Long Island, is known for building unusual boats , some with automobiles mounted on the hulls. One of them, the “Vette-Boat,” features a 1984 Corvette on a 28-foot hull. Mr. Johnson has won his share of races on his tricked-out vessels over the years, but their main purpose is “to cause a scene,” he likes to say.

Dressed in a blue Hawaiian-print shirt, blue board shorts and Crocs, and nursing Canadian Club whiskey and ginger ale in a red plastic cup, Mr. Johnson, who is in his 70s, was trailed by a small entourage at the cookout.

It was getting late. Mr. Beal untied his boat and sailed over to Portland, where a friend was letting him dock while in town.

Mariena had missed the cookout — she was at the Maine Mall, the largest shopping plaza in the state, doing some back-to-school shopping with her mother. The next day, she would be at the wheel of My Turn.

“She’s like me,” Mr. Beal said. “She likes to go fast.”

And the Winner Is …

She also likes to shop. Mariena and her family members missed the noonish start time of the races on Saturday because they had gotten stuck in traffic after spending the morning back at the mall.

Mr. Beal stood at the wheel of My Turn, engine idling, listening to an announcer call the first few races over a marine radio.

At quarter to one, Mariena came bounding down the dock and onto the boat. She wore black shorts, a white North Face long-sleeved top and leather sandals. Her toenails were painted purple, matching the color of her nose ring and the bottom of My Turn.

Like her father, Mariena was reserved. Asked what she liked about racing lobster boats, she replied, “Everything.”

She was joined on the boat by her mother, Maria Beal; her boyfriend, Caleb Geel; her older sister, Caitlin Childers; and Caitlin’s boyfriend, Nick Guptill.

Mr. Beal gunned the throttle and sped toward Long Island. By now, dozens of pleasure crafts and lobster boats were on the water. A crowd of spectators stood at the ferry dock.

Mr. Beal pulled up to the large boat where officials kept watch over the day’s races through binoculars. His passengers disembarked, leaving My Turn for the so-called committee boat.

Then Mr. Beal and Mariena motored toward the starting line, which was nearly a mile north. Once they were among the other boats in their race category — the G classification race, for boats from 28 to 35 feet in length with diesel engines — Mariena took the wheel.

The committee boat was like a floating party, with coolers of food and drinks. Jon Johansen, the bearded president of Maine Lobster Racing, and the publisher of Maine Coastal News , which covers the races, used a telephoto lens to call out the action.

On board, Maria Beal told a story.

Well into the time she was pregnant with Mariena, she said, she had done a lot of lobstering with her husband. That meant hauling up heavy traps to the point that she ruptured her placenta. The doctors thought she would lose the baby.

”But I went to bed for two weeks and it healed up,” Maria said. “And that’s why we named her Mariena — it means ‘lover of the sea.’”

It was now time for the G classification race.

The lead boat was a speck on the water. As it came closer, you could make out its purple bottom leaving a white-capped wake and all the other boats behind it.

Mariena had won, easily. The Beal contingent whooped and cheered.

“She doesn’t have much fear,” her mother said. “Never has. She’s been looking for speed since she was born.”

My Turn sidled up to the committee boat. Amy Tierney, a race co-chair, handed over an envelope of prize money. Mariena was $200 richer.

What did she plan to do with her winnings?

She smiled.

Steven Kurutz covers cultural trends, social media and the world of design for The Times. More about Steven Kurutz

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