bristol harbour powerboat racing crash

fastonwater

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Ethos behind the ‘fast on water’ website

It was June 7th 1975. I had known about the powerboat racing in Bristol’s Floating harbour, but although I had been a long time fan of Formula One, I hadn’t really taken in just how exciting boat racing might be. My life would never be the same again. That first experience of the sights and sounds of powerboat racing had me totally hooked. For me ‘as good as it gets’ was watching Billy Seebold and Renato Molinari fighting it out for the lead on a hot summer’s afternoon with the sun glinting off the rooster tails – sheer magic! The highlight of my year was the weekend of the powerboat racing, from the first moment of Friday qualifying, through to the presentations on the Sunday afternoon. For that one weekend a year Bristol was transformed into something it never had been before and never has been since. For that initial brave venture into the unknown we must thank the persistence and determination of Charlie Sheppard and the power of WD and HO Wills. The red print inside race programmes, which read ‘powerboat racing is a dangerous sport…’ was never truer, than for those racing between the granite walls of Bristol’s Floating Harbour. In those days before safety cells and enclosed cockpits, Bristol was an incredibly challenging circuit that did not always allow driver error or boat failures to go unpunished. Even safety cells did not guarantee protection from the dreaded dock walls. Nonetheless, even those drivers that hated the circuit would return year after year because it was ‘the circuit’ to compete and win at. Those 19 years of racing were some of the most outstandingly skilful and brave I, and many others, have had the pleasure to see. What else makes circuit powerboat racing so special? What other motor sport allows spectators to get so close to the action? What other motor sport allows spectators to have such close access to those taking part? I hope you find the site interesting and informative.

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Powerboat Racing World

Frode Sundsdal

What is prw.

It’s a powerboat racing website that has covered circuit racing, offshore racing and PWC since 2016. Maintained by The Race Factory based in Norway who have specialists in event planning and promotion, social media, graphic design, and photography. We are currently working on our vision and believe that we can and will make a different in powerboating. We will dedicate our time to produce accurate factual stories and to promote the sport to a wider global audience.

A Fiftieth anniversary is always a milestone to be celebrated, and this anniversary probably deserved the celebration more than many.

The first race in Bristol Docks took place back in March 1972; a trial race to prove to Bristol City Council that such an event could be held safely. That was followed by the first International race four months later in which over two hundred thousand people attended.

That marked beginning of what became the most iconic powerboat race on the international circuit calendar; often compared to the Formula One Monaco Grand prix, the narrow, twisting course with its high granite walls, tested both driving skill and boat set up.

The top powerboat racers from all over the world would come to Bristol every June to take on the challenge that was the Embassy Grand Prix.

One driver in particular made Bristol his own and that was Bill Seebold. He won the coveted Duke of York Trophy no fewer than six times and became the ‘darling of Bristol’ to the spectators that turned up in their tens of thousands to watch the spectacle of catamarans reaching speeds more than one hundred mph racing around the tight confines of the City Docks.

Seebold, along with seventy-six ex-drivers and guests, attended the Bristol 50 event, organised by The Fast On Water Charity with the Guest of Honour for the day being Charlie Sheppard’s daughter, Penny, who played a major part in helping her father organise the races.

As always, when a group of powerboat racers get together, memories and stories flow as swiftly as the alcohol. And what memories there were of those great races in Bristol.

The stand-out year for many was 1982. That was the year when Bristol was the only event on the calendar that had both the OMC V8 powered Formula One boats and the two litre Grand Prix boats on the race schedule. The Seebold Team along with Mercury Racing decided to compete in both classes. To do this they needed to swap the powerhead over between races. So, a seven-and-a-half-minute powerhead change to one that was 2001cc; just enough to allow him to compete against V8s was successfully undertaken.

That weekend Seebold completed a gruelling ninety-six laps in total and to the delight of thousands of spectators around the circuit went out and beat those V8’s in the nimble Seebold hull to collect not only the Duke of York Trophy but also the Embassy Challenge Cup.

Amongst those taking a trip down’ memory lane’ aboard the Tower Belle included Brian Kendall, who took part in the trial race in the docks; Tony Williams (who raced in every event held in Bristol); Andrew Pugh, who raced in the first event, and Jack Wilson, whose Cosworth powered Hodges reverberated between those granite dock walls. Jason Mantripp picked up his microphone whilst on board and interviewed Bill and Tim Seebold. Bill was keen to show Tim what the racecourse was like and the strategies he used to be so successful in Bristol.

He told Mantripp,

The first lap of Bristol was just to sight the course. You then had to work out quickly in your head the best way to drive Bristol which was you either ran extremely close to the wall or run to the very centre of the course. The only time I almost hit the wall was on the exit of the pit turn when we were running with the big mercury T4.

The ex-monohull drivers who attended also reminisced over the trials and tribulations of surviving the rough water of the docks. These included, Malcolm Cox, Anne Walder, Will Chambers, Bill Owen, and Phil Lagden. Adrian Morse along with Richard Wood achieved some memorable results as back in 1988, 1989 and 1990 Morse won all five heats in the T750 class.

Bearing in mind that we started fifteen seconds after the T850’s so we’re in rough water from the start I managed to get past quite a few of those as well.

The last winner of the City of Bristol Cup and like Morse another competitor to win five heats in his class: three in the International and two in the Gulf Fuels national race was Wood and when he spoke to PRW he reminded us of what the conditions were like,

It was an experience you never forgot. When you reached the steam crane it was like ‘welcome to the roughest ride of your life’ as you spent most of the time in the air. Then when you got round the right hander you could relax and get ready for the next rough ride apart from that it was fantastic to drive the course.

The commemorative dinner setting was completed by Jon Jones displaying one of his Dragon F1 boats, stickered up with the Bristol 50 logo.

PRW asked the multi-world champion about Bristol,

It was the most prestigious and demanding circuit I have ever had the honour of competing at. It was the event that got me interested in powerboat racing when I was a young spectator. I never dreamt I would compete there, let alone win two monohull races and the Duke of York Trophy along with winning the team event for the Harmsworth trophy.

Dinner was followed by ex UIM F3 World Champion Ken McCrorie giving a very moving tribute to his best friend Andy Elliott. Penny Sheppard was invited to say a few words about her father, Charlie, and the part he played in preserving the City Docks for future generations. Roy, on behalf of Fast On Water, presented Penny with a commemorative award and a bouquet of flowers, and also an award to Mantripp for his dedication in helping to preserve the history of circuit powerboat racing.

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Powerboat crashes in racing championship off Key West. At least one hospitalized

At least one person was taken to the hospital after a vessel taking part in an annual powerboat race off Key West crashed Wednesday morning, according to the police.

It was not immediately known if the person was a member of the racing boat’s crew. Key West police spokeswoman Alyson Crean confirmed the person was hospitalized and was being evaluated to possibly be flown to a mainland hospital for treatment.

The boat was participating in the Race World Offshore World Championship, which ends Sunday. Some of the boats can reach speeds of up to 160 mph, according to the Monroe County Tourist Development Council.

“A portion of the challenging 4.4-mile-per-lap course runs through Key West Harbor, meaning smooth water where racers can achieve breathtaking speeds and fans can watch from vantage points that are extraordinarily close to the action,” the TDC said in a press release about the race.

Representatives with Race World Offshore have not returned emailed and phone messages for comment.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Agency, which typically investigates boat crashes, nor the Coast Guard, investigate accidents at league-sanctioned races, sources with those agencies said.

This story will be updated as more information becomes available.

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Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow wounds one, shuts airport

Russian officials and media say ‘attempted terrorist attack’ on the capital city wounded one person, damaged two buildings and briefly suspended traffic at the Vnukovo airport.

Russian forces have intercepted three Ukrainian drones over Moscow, in an attack that wounded one person, damaged two office blocks and briefly forced the closure of an airport in the city.

The Russian defence ministry blamed the assault early on Sunday on Kyiv, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy – without commenting on the drone attacks – warned that “war was coming to the territory of Russia”.

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In a message on Telegram, the defence ministry said: “The Kyiv regime’s attempted terrorist attack with unmanned aerial vehicles on objects in the city of Moscow was thwarted”.

It said one of the drones was shot down, while two, “suppressed by electronic warfare”, crashed into a building complex in Moscow’s business district.

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A security guard was wounded, Russia’s state news agency TASS reported, citing emergency officials.

No flights went into or out of the Vnukovo airport on the southern outskirts of the city for about an hour, according to TASS, and the air space over Moscow and the outlying regions was temporarily closed for any aircraft.

Those restrictions have since been lifted.

Authorities also briefly closed a street for traffic near the site of the crash in the Moscow City area.

President Vladimir Putin, who was in his hometown of Saint Petersburg at the time of the attempted attacks for meetings with African leaders and a naval celebration, was briefed, his spokesman said.

Separately, the Russian defence ministry said it had also successfully thwarted an overnight attack on the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, by 25 Ukrainian drones that Moscow said it had either shot down or forced to crash. Nobody had been hurt and no damage was caused in the Crimea, it added.

Ukrainian officials did not acknowledge the attacks but Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address: “Gradually, the war is returning to the territory of Russia – to its symbolic centres and military bases, and this is an inevitable, natural and absolutely fair process.”

“Ukraine is getting stronger,” he added.

A Ukrainian air force spokesman also did not claim responsibility but said the Russian people were seeing the consequences of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“All of the people who think the war ‘doesn’t concern them’ – it’s already touching them,” spokesperson Yurii Ihnat told journalists.

“There’s already a certain mood in Russia: that something is flying in, and loudly,” he said. “There’s no discussion of peace or calm in the Russian interior any more. They got what they wanted.”

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Cause of Moscow passenger jet crash that killed 41, including an American, under investigation

Bad weather may have been a factor, authorities said.

MOSCOW -- Russian investigators examining the fiery crash landing of a passenger plane at a Moscow airport that killed 41 people, said on Monday they were focused on pilot error, failings among ground staff, bad weather and technical faults as possible causes.

The Aeroflot flight carrying 78 people was engulfed in flames as it made an emergency landing at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport on Sunday, careening down the runway streaming a huge trail of fire.

Authorities said 37 passengers managed to escape down evacuation slides as the aircraft's rear was entirely consumed. But the other 41 passengers, including at least one child, are now believed dead.

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"The fire was after landing, as far as I understand. Probably the cause is in that," Yevdokimov said in the audio interview. Yevdokimov did not explain why the plane had landed so hard, saying he had believed it had come in at a usual speed.

The interview could not be authenticated, but a stewardess aboard the flight, Tatiana Kasatkina, also told Russian television the plane had run into hail and lightning. Another passenger, Pyotr Egorov, also said the plane was struck.

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"We were flying and lightning struck the plane," Egorov told the tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda. "The plane turned back, there was a hard landing. We almost lost consciousness from fear. The plane jumped off the runway, like a grasshopper."

The plane’s flight attendants have been praised for helping people escape, guiding them to the evacuation slides despite the terrifying scenes. Russian media has hailed Maksim Moiseyev, a 22 year-old flight attendant, after it was reported he died having stayed aboard fighting to open the rear doors of the plane, trying to get more people out.

Questions also quickly focused on the model of the plane. The Sukhoi Superjet 100, the first new Russian passenger jet developed since the Soviet Union, has a troubled history and has struggled to find buyers outside Russia, amid worries about its reliability and safety record.

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Russian investigators continued to examine the wreckage on Monday; a large crane later lifted the broken shell of the plane to allow the runway to reopen.

Sheremetyevo Airport was largely operating as normal Monday, despite the closure of one runway for most of the day. Dozens of flights were delayed or diverted the night before.

ABC News' Conor Finnegan contributed reporting from the State Department.

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How Bristol Harbour Festival was born and the docks were saved

It dates back to a time when the docks were in doubt, with a plan that would have meant ships and boats would not be able to pass in and out anymore

• 05:00, 16 JUL 2023

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The Harbour Festival is taking over Bristol's waters once again this weekend, with the Sunday line-up featuring boat racing, flyboarding and plenty more entertainment and music . It continues a long tradition along the city's harbourside - the forerunner of the Harbour Festival, the Bristol Water Festival, first took place in 1971.

The origins of the event , though, date back to the dark days when the council wanted to pave over and fill in bits of the City Docks. By 1971, the docks were no longer a working port in any meaningful sense. Bristol’s historic function as a port was now all focused on Avonmouth .

Aside from sand dredgers and the sewerage ship Glen Avon there wasn’t much traffic left. The area was starting to look very run-down, with the old transit sheds quietly falling apart, and almost all the old dockside cranes were being taken down and sold for scrap. One historic dock, Merchant’s, had already been filled in and would later become the site of one of the earliest major housing developments, Rownham Mead.

Read more: Bristol Harbour Festival 2023: Travel info, stage times, weather forecast and more

The SS Great Britain was back in her birthplace, but her future there was far from assured. She was lying directly on the line of a planned road bridge over the water. Those who had worked hard to bring her home complained that local councillors and officials were less than supportive, and there was serious talk of her going to a dedicated berth in London.

Other new roads and bridges covering over other parts of the Floating Harbour near the Bush warehouse (now the Arnolfini) were just waiting for the finance to become available. On top of this were also plans to fill in the Feeder canal, which would have stopped vessels navigating upstream towards Bath .

Under the council plans there would still be plenty of water in the middle of Bristol, but nobody would be able to bring ships and boats in and out anymore. There were several groups objecting, notably the Clifton & Hotwells Improvement Society and the Bristol Civic Society, who believed that all the roads and building would ruin central Bristol.

Other opponents, such as the Cabot Cruising Club and the Inland Waterways Association (IWA), wanted to preserve all the water for navigation. It was the South West branch of the IWA, in the form of its chairman, Fred Blampied, which took the leading role in creating what we now call the Harbour Festival.

Mr Blampied had been living in Bristol since 1940 and suggested that a “rally of boats” would be a good way of demonstrating the Floating Harbour’s potential as an amenity. With help from the Cabot Cruising Club and other Bristol boat owners, the first Bristol Water Festival – it was opened by the Lord Mayor, Helen Bloom – was held over the weekend of June 26-27, 1971.

Despite the council’s ambitions, its own Docks Committee was fully on board for the event. It couldn’t have happened if they were not. So the organising committee included people from the IWA and the Cabot Cruising Club, backed by 50 or 60 volunteers who worked very hard to make the event a success.

Around 50,000 people turned up over the weekend to see all the ships and boats and watch a programme of entertainment. It's since grown and now pulls in crowds of around 250,000.

This article is an updated version of a piece that appeared in print in the Bristol Post last year (2022)

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Marussia f1 team return to russia for moscow city racing, andy webb, marussia ceo: we have seen the strength of that support again in the last few days following the very pleasing announcement of our new powertrain partnership with scuderia ferrari..

Max Chilton, Marussia F1 Team MR02

Despite the three-week gap between Rounds 9 and 10 of the FIA Formula 1 World Championship® the Marussia F1 Team has had little time to draw breath, embarking on a series of promotional events to reward the loyal support of its fans.

This week, while the race team conduct the Young Driver Test at Silverstone, the demonstration team are heading ‘home’ to Russia for their second year of participation in ‘Moscow City Racing’.

The event takes place on 20 and 21 July, with the demonstration runs scheduled for Sunday 21 July on the streets surrounding the Kremlin and the ‘paddock’ located close to Red Square.

Photo by: XPB Images

Visitors will also be given the opportunity to enter the inner-sanctum - the Paddock - to soak up the atmosphere and see for themselves the intricacies of Formula 1 design and engineering.

Aside from his on-track duties, Max will participate in a range of promotional activities, taking time out to mingle with the Russian fans during autograph sessions and photo opportunities.

Supporting the Marussia F1 Team over the weekend are main event partner Liga Stavok along with additional partners Instaforex, QNet and RBC.

Max Chilton: “There have been quite a few ‘firsts’ for me in my debut season in Formula One - new racetracks, new cities, meeting new fans - and Moscow City Racing will be my very first visit to Russia. I can’t wait. From what I hear from previous events, the demonstration runs are a fantastic spectacle and the crowd is huge and very supportive.

That’s nice, because we are the only Anglo-Russian team and it is good to keep building on their love of Formula 1 before Russia gets its very own race next year in Sochi. I’m really excited about making the trip and I hope to meet as many of the Russian fans as possible, when I’m not driving through their streets!”

Andy Webb, CEO: “The Marussia F1 Team are very excited to be returning to Russia to participate in the Moscow City Racing event for a second successive year. As the only Anglo-Russian team in Formula One, this event has become a very important date in our Team calendar, as we continue our determined efforts to bring more of F1 to Russia and more of Russia to F1.

This is our opportunity to get closer to the fans and for them to see our car and drivers right on their doorstep, not just on the TV. Our drivers Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton are enjoying a flying start to their exciting debut seasons and the Marussia F1 Team really is going from strength to strength now, making good progress towards its long-term ambitions.

We look forward to a fantastic crowd in Moscow and to expressing our thanks for all the incredible support we receive ‘back home’ in Russia. We have seen the strength of that support again in the last few days following the very pleasing announcement of our new powertrain partnership with Scuderia Ferrari. It seems the fans share our optimism for the future of the Marussia F1 Team.”

Marussia F1 Team

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