British RYA Awards Dinner 2009
At a lavish awards ceremony held in the royal bath hotel in Bournemouth, the UK’s Royal Yachting Association celebrated no less than thirty four powerboat champions and record holders.
The RYA awards were always presented at the Earls Court London Boat Show, but when the Powerboat Show was launched in the mid 1990’s, the RYA decided to move their awards presentations to coincide with the weekend event, making it a gala evening with an awards dinner. With the Brass Monkey offshore race also taking place, a unique event in mid-winter, the weekend turned into a bonanza occasion for the powerboat racing community. Unfortunately, the Powerboat Show did not survive, but both the Brass Monkey Race and the RYA Awards Dinner are still going strong, and this year the RYA guest presenter was UIM President Dr Raffael Chiulli, the first UIM President to attend the RYA’s flagship powerboat racing function. Few can dispute that for a variety of reasons powerboat racing in the UK has been in decline in recent years, and certainly the latest credit crunch has done no favours for the RYA. However, there is new life for the sport emerging with Jet Ski racing and the introduction of Junior classes which has increased interest in the sport together with the revival of the Cowes-Torquay race and the 2008 Round Britain marathon which have done a great deal to attract new faces. The UK has always managed to feature a healthy list of World Champions and World Record holders, and 2008 was no exception. Colin Jelf added the UIM World F2 title to his list of credits, and is now the only pilot to have won three consecutive world F2 championships. 
Britain also managed two World Offshore championships: the gold medal in the UIM World P1 Evolution Class went to Fountain Worldwide crewed by Brits James Shepherd and Grant Wilson who now lives in the US, so Shepherd collected their award from Dr Chuilli; and Channel Islander Roy Smith, a flower grower from Jersey who has been a staunch Class 3 – 2 litre supporter for many years collected the 2008 World title. He announced that 2008 was to be his last season and what better way to enter retirement. Smith was unable to make the awards ceremony so his trophy was collected by Peter Phillipson, the last of a long line of navigators who has shared in Roy’s successes over the years. In the fiercely competitive world of Jet Skiing, Anya Colley won the Jet Sport World Novice, Ski and Novice Ski Limited championships, while Joe Edwards won the Jet Sport World Junior Ski, 10-12 year old title. Several world speed records were increased, and possibly the most awesome was Chris Loney in F3000 who set a new record of 130.92mph. while fellow member of Team Loney, Helen Loney set a world outright speed record for electric powered boats at 76.80mph, an increase of 13.80mph. Alan Pickard, on a Runabout Super Stock 1200 Jet Ski, recorded 80.76mph for a new World Record, and Thomas Gilderdale raised the World T850 record to 65.85 mph. Gareth Williams, driving the P1 Supersport Hustler monohull ‘Voom Voom’, established a new world record at 87.18mph only to see the record broken by team partner Vahid Ganjavian in the same boat with a speed of 89.69 mph. Ganjavian then set an Evolution record at 119.52 mph in Cranfield Wines only to see it increased to 121.90mph with owner Siegfried Greve and navigator Gino Passchier. It’s ironic to think that the maximum racing speed in Supersports is only 85mph. Jan Falkowski, a seasoned offshore campaigner who normally partners Drew Langdon in Super Sport, was part of a SL250 single seater team including John Puddifoot and Keith Whittle. 
Between them they recorded a new National record of 118.48mph, while Drew Langdon’s sponsor Silverline Tools won the Offshore Sponsors Trophy. The RYA Awards Dinner was a very enjoyable evening and although in the past we have, on occasions been critical of Britain’s governing body, we have got to, nevertheless give credit where it’s due. The Association over the last twelve months have worked very hard to revitalise offshore racing in the UK and 2009 looks like it could be one of the best seasons for many years.
