Cowes Torquay Cowes 2008

[jim o'toole]

All

Firstly, a huge congratulations to all involved in the RB08, I was lucky to attend the awards dinner in Portsmouth and was struck by the passion, commitment and collective spirit of all involved, a tremendous event...once again, respect to all involved, it was a pleasure to put faces to many of the names in this site.

Secondly, I am pleased to confirm that the Cowes Torquay is indeed happening on Saturday 23 August ......can't beat a good negative rumour though))..

Sunday 24th will be reserve day, and we will also have an abbreviated Storm Course in The Solent just in case. A brief note in advance of a press announcement this week and issuing of the advance notice of a couple of details on the Cowes Torquay Cowes race:

The race will use the RB08 Class structure so all heroes and heroines( BOATS AND HUMANS) who competed the excellent RB08, consider yourselves eligible, and more importantly ,invited to particpate.

As a guiding principle the essence of the event is a non stop race, leaving Cowes, going around a marker bhuoy in Toprquay and getting back to Cowes as quickly as possbile. This is the "core"race, racers in each class who can acheive this will race for the CTC class prizes, with prizes for first, second and third in each class. Those boats which cannot complete the race non stop and who have to have a fuel break in Torquay will in effect be racing in a second category per class,with their own prIzes.

There will of course be an overall race, with prizes for first,second and third.

Some other points:

- we 'll be using the cowes Yacht Haven for dry pits,(we will encourage people to leave their boats in the water overnight or to arrive early am) the cowes marina for wetpits and the yachthaven building for day time corporate hospitality and the evening bash

- Presentations will be at 5pm, party at 7-8 ish....it will be a barbeque and a rocking band, sadly harry hammersmith and the flyovers are otherwise engaged but we will have a cracking alternative

- Teams will receive an exclusive pilot only merchandise Pack, various goodies and special souvenir boat plaques

- They will get vouchers for breakfast, lunch and for food and limited drink at the evening party ( I know what you boys drink and can't afford to pay for all that )))

- Access to breakfast, parties and lunches will be tightly controlled by passes, we are not anticpating anyone other that teams, media, sponsors, corpprate guests, organisers and volunteers/marshalls joining the party

- A bacon roll breakfast from 730, boats ready by 915, start time1000, with a staggered start based on the logic of big fast boats first, smaller slow boats second.

- The plan is for the Thundercats fleet to race under their own steam over the full course with a separate safety and fueling fleet, preparation apparantly for a 1000 mile race they'll be doing in South Africa.

- Boats not capable of doing the whole course will be offered the chance to do a shortened race, Cowes-Poole -Cowes

- anyone wishing to buy corporate hopspitalit packages for theor team or sponsors I'd advise you to book now

- ditto on accommodation

- Lastly, anyone signing up as a first time entrant in the 2009 P1 World Championship after competing in the 2008 CTC will get their entry fees back

There will be many questions, which will be addressed in formal communication, these are the headlines.

The P1 team is in Tunisia this week for the very hot Tunisian Grand Prix, so please be patient of any burning questions are not answered immediately

Any raindancers out there, we will pay good money for any results generated in the Hammamet area next weekend.

rgds

jim o'toole
p1 ceo


jim.otoole@powerboatp1.com

[Top Banana]

I can only add to the congratulations expressed here for the guys who put on the RB08 race, and to the CTC organizers here at P1.

After just doing the behind the scenes work for the first time at the Don Aronow Memorial Race, I stand in awe of the amount of details etc that must be covered and handled by the organizers for a safe race. Kudos to everyone over there and all of us here at HORBA wish you all safe race for the CTC.

If there is anything that we can offer by way of our archives of old photos etc to help, please know, that all you need to do is ask and it is yours.

[Jon fuller]

Charlie, why don't you bring one of your boats over and take part in this amazing race. none of ya 'round the cans' this one, it's the real deal..

[Pepe]

Grmbllllll......


LOW ENTRY FIGURE FORCES CANCELLATION OF COWES-TORQUAY-COWES RACE

London, Tuesday 29th July, 2008: Powerboat P1, the commercial rights holder to the Cowes-Torquay-Cowes race, has announced with sadness its decision to cancel the event as a result of insufficient entries.

The race organisers – the British Powerboat Racing Club, the Royal Yachting Association and Powerboat P1 - had hoped to resurrect the historic race after a three year break in response to requests from British powerboat racers. However, the number of entries received has made the event economically unviable and would fail to deliver a genuine and competitive sporting spectacle.

Powerboat P1 Chief Executive, Jim O’Toole said: “A race of this nature requires significant investment and at least 40 entries were needed to justify the six-figure event costs. Despite extending the deadline for entries by one week, we have not reached this figure and the race will not go ahead on 23 August. This decision was not taken lightly and we know that the powerboat community will share in our disappointment, but will understand the reasons.”

The first Cowes-Torquay-Cowes powerboat race took place in 1961 and it is regarded as one of British offshore racing’s most celebrated and demanding events.