Predator Jet: 2011

Monday, 17 October 2011

SPRINT 8-11 - Meremere - Sun 16 Oct 11

Well, it’s a first for me - having to do a write-up for the Predator sprint class, and I will do my best.
The day started off with weather more like summer, with just a quick shower half way through the meet.
Today we only had three boats turn up, and four or five V8s made the trip as well. The day didn’t start off too well with Honda spitting the dummy with heating problems, so we were down to two, but that didn’t bother us too much.
Competition was evenly matched throughout the day, Ree starting off with good times (having me as navi helped ha!)
Wayne and I were having a couple of rotation issues, Doug and Den were playing with their toys (gps) and Rodger was Mr Consistent as usual.
All in all, a good even day’s racing, with Den taking the honours in Wayne’s boat, ahead of Doug and Ree.
Cheers, Andy

Tuesday, 19 April 2011

SPRINT 3-11 - Meremere - Sun 17 Apr 2011

Sunday’s meeting was a series of firsts for me… First time not being hungover on a Sunday in a while, first time navigating for the old man in a while… first time driving a boat in the track in a while… First time taking the cake and winning the day for a while! And because I was on such a roll and feeling so fresh, knowing I wouldn’t suffer a bad case of Monday-itis since I wasn’t still hungover after a hard weekend.. I volunteered to produce a whopper write-up! Another first! Probably a last though ;-)

The wet, windy weather didn’t stop us Jet Boat enthusiasts from heading down to Meremere on the weekend! But the V8’s that were on must have! Where was everybody?

With only 4 boats and Doug’s M Sprint along for the day, we collectively had 6 drivers and what seemed to sound like 1 navigator… me?

With much contemplation and making my “non-hangover” Sunday one to remember (literally) I decided I would scrap navigating for every driver and drive myself.

I picked the red course. The red one. God knows why because I hate red? But oh well the course was set! Den was out with a seamless demo making the total 360 rotation around Baldy Island look easy!

So naturally in an orderly fashion, one by one we all went out on our reco runs to try the same and must I say, good work everybody! Not one single park up the entire day! A few boats were chocka full of weed however, but a good mow was much needed around a few corners!

Defining the law of “Weedy is Greedy” I took the pleasure of accompanying Dad whilst he threw our poor little “Mini Me” boat hard into 11 and practically split the Island in half! Needless to say the rest of the run was a slow clogged up one, but was super fun never the less!

An early quick pace of 1.14 – 1.15seconds were set by all the drivers so the day was to be a close one! With only 7 drivers (Den, Ree, Doug, Roger, Wayne, Dad and Myself) making the top ten and top five was inevitable so pressure was off until the final run!

I did take a while to get my groove back.. I dislike this new steering skeg.. whose idea was that by the way? But after thinking F*** it just go for it (and with help from my navi Rhys) I whipped 10 seconds off my first time, catching back up to the lead guys before having boat trouble on my cut off run due to an unhealthy engine which likes to shut off when it gets up to top speed… something it's probably not used to I guess?

So with two booster seats and pointed toes, I jumped into Roger’s boat to give that one a turn and WOW! What a boat! It took a run to get used to very light and very touch-sensitive steering, but by the top 5 final run I think I had it down packed with a smooth fast run timed at 1.12 seconds flat!

Pressure was on the rest of the field to match it! All day Wayne dropped a second or two off every run he went out! Ree was right up our rear ends also - she always is a tough match, this time racing Trevor’s boat. Roger stormed out and sadly went faster on his top ten run (1-13.74) then his final but still came in at 4th with a competitive time of 1-16.12, however, he did drop 6 seconds straight away when he swapped his 95kg navi for me! Den with Doug in beside him, raced to the finish at third with a 1-14.28 while Dad faced the same challenge as I did with mastering a borrowed boat in the last two runs. He was close! But no cigar, coming in second with a 1 minute 12.75!

The saying “a quick game's a good game” interpreted the entire day perfectly. We all helped out with timing, kept the running of the 4 boats continuous and everybody helped out with navigating for one another – great to see. Needless to say, we were over by lunch time so we could all go home quickly and enjoy the V8s! I’m not usually even out of bed by lunchtime on a Sunday, so wasn’t too sure what to do with myself after that…

As I said before, there were no exciting park ups (get ya mind out of the gutters please guys), no dork of the day (although Den did get close when he didn’t hook his boat onto the trailer AGAIN - lucky it stayed stable!) and no juicy club goss that generally circulates around! All in all it was just a fantastic day of racing! Thanks to the newbie Navigators Rhys and Andy who helped me and Wayne out! Was also cool to get a visit from Kerry and Tristan who came along for a nosey and a catch up!

That’s all from me - See you all next time!

“All in favour of Tahlia not borrowing your boat again say aye” ….aye aye aye aye aye aye

Sorry Roger xx

Catch yas!

Tahlia

Wednesday, 23 March 2011

Sprint 2-11 - Meremere - Sun 20 Mar 2011

It was a misty morning when we left home, but as always, as the day progressed, the sun came out with a vengeance.

It was a day of differences for Den and me. First, driving the Honda boat (P8), the pedal must have been moved further towards me. I could never reach it before. Then Lucinha was left at home because she had the flu, so Den burgled Jackson for the day as our navigator.

It was nice to see the owners of P13 travel from Taupo, Robbie, Robbie and Belinda who all got the opportunity to ride/drive in the boats. Be nice to see their boat up and running in the pond.

With only eight drivers, Simon’s roundy-round rotation got the brain working. Some forgot which roundy they were up to (me), while someone else learned to never change your direction (Robbie) as you’ll end up on the bank, someone else forgot to put the bungs back in their boat before putting it back in the water (Greg), and someone forgot you don’t blitz the field on your first run, then again on the final to record FTD. Yay Cam.

With so few drivers it was nice to finish the day early.

See you all at the next sprint - April 17. - Ree