Focus On: Drew Langdon

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I am married to Judy with two sons Ali and Dom. Judy is very much an outdoor person and enjoys boating. A couple of years ago for my birthday present, Judy commissioned a painting of an offshore race start, and all the boats which were lined up for a rolling start were all my race boats from the beginning to now. Unfortunately this was before I bought the ‘Cesa’. Ali is 18 and last year started racing with me in my Buzzi RIB in some RYA Basic races so he can get his National License. Dom enjoys the fast boats and cars as well as sailing and is c urrently in the RYA National Squad sailing a Cadet Class dinghy. I live in Devon and a stones throw away from fellow offshore racers and good friends Miles Jennings, Ed and Charlie Williams-Hawkes.

OTHER HOBBIES I am a keen air enthusiast and currently have three military jets, a Harrier, Jaguar and Buccaneer. These are in my hangar alongside various boats and are currently being restored, this is known as my airfix for grown ups. I just need a very large tube of glue!.

WORK I am a chartered Architect but do not practice as I now have my own development and commercial property company with about 300,000 sq.ft of space.

HISTORY

My father competed in circuit racing Class SE and OE in the 1970s. He drove for the Johnson works team in the UK and Europe. I helped at races from an early age and travelled to as many as possible in the school holidays. I lost my father in a flying accident when I was 18. I started becoming involved with our Local Club, The South Devon Water Sports Club which my father was President, as a Lap Scorer when I was 10 years old. I progressed and by the age of 12 I became the Time Keeper. Times were really great then and everything was very basic I used a chess clock to record the times of each boat on the circuit. There were about 12 boats racing and I would sit with the race officials in the balcony of a Pub called Coombe Cellars which was right on the water front. The boats raced very close by the pub on the river Teign so lots of people could watch. On the balcony we had a big clock face about 4 feet in diameter so the drivers could see it count down during a rolling start. It had a single sweeping second hand which someone would turn with a handle by hand at the back of the clock as we called out the count down from a minute. I remember one occasion when the boats were all lined up heading towards the balcony and we had started the count down, we were at about 30 seconds when the person turning the handle fell off a stool which was being used as he couldn’t reach the handle, as he fell he still had hold of the handle so the clock suddenly swung through 30seconds in a flash. All the boats shot off early to a great start! No one protested and everyone carried on as if nothing had happened, such was the spirit in those days and no accident report to fill out! My first race boat was a Bristol NE circuit boat when I was 17, which I raced on the Exe and la ter I became a member of the Cotswold Motorboat Racing Club when I moved away from Devon to study for my degree. Once my studies were finished and my business set up I moved back to Devon and became interested in Offshore. One of my favorite P1 venues is Malta. While racing there in 2004 we had a broken saddle during a very rough race on the first day. We had no spare and were wondering what we could do when a Maltese mechanic, Steve, interested in the boat started talking to us. At that time I had a Buzzi RIB with twin Mercury 300 engines. The Maltese referred to all RIBs as ‘dinghies’. Interested in my dinghy Steve saw the broken saddle and asked what we would do and I replied we were s tuck, as we had no spare and the 300s were then a farily new model and spares were not available in Malta. Steve then said that he knew of a Mariner which had the same saddle and he had a friend who had one in his garden. We took off in the middle of the night driving down the back streets of malta. I was wondering where he was taking us, would we ever return? Then we stopped, Steve jumped out and over the garden wall and started rummaging around in the flower bed and pulled out a saddle. It was just like magic. He then helped us through the night to repair the engine so we could race the next day which we did coming second in the Grad Prix. We have remained friends ever since and meet each time we return to race. In order to gain valuable points in one race we started with only one propeller on the twin engine boat. We struggled in the rough water to get on the plane and every so often into the head sea we would fall off the plane. At one s tage on the long straight section of the course I remember being overtaken by a yacht! At that time there was no time limit to the race and we carried on when everyone had finished for an hour or so to comple te the required number of laps. The officer of the day Ray Bullman was not impressed with us and after that the rules were changed imposing a maximum time to complete a race. It was a very rough race and going out payed off as many of the boats broke, leaving us points for third place! My favourite race has to be the Pro-Vee Midnight Sun Grand Prix in Norway. For two years I was racing in P1 as well as Pro- Vee and the racing was particularly good. The venue was in Bodo Norway and is above the Artic Circle. The Norwegians are fanatical about powerboat racing and travelled from all over the country to watch. The race started at midnight and finished about 1.30 am all in daylight, then a party followed from 2am until about 6am then we all went to bed at about 7am along with the rest of the Town while it was still daylight, what a day! To get there took two flights and we landed at a military airfield along with F16s. While at the pitts The Norwegians had all sorts of contraptions heating water beside their boats, one had a very large BBQ filled with boiling water and one had a domestic hot water cylinder bubbling away. We couldn’t work out what they were doing until we were crained in and couldn’t get the Seatek to run beyond a short burst at tick over. It turned out that the water was so cold the engines would not run unless the engine block was first filled with hot water before starting and kept in the block until partially warmed up. There was a great aircraft museum there with a 360 degree jet simulator which went upside down round and round. Inside the simulator was room for two people and it was fitted out like a cockpit with the wind screen being a screen showing the moving scenery. I took a trip in this with James Shepperd, as I knew James flew his own plane so let him fly so I could enjoy the trip. James put the simulator through its paces flying upside down under a suspension bridge and engaging in a dog fight with enemy aircraft. You could really feel the G as the machine cleverly rotated and pitched to simulate the flight. It was an amazing experience. 2009 I will be racing with Jan Falkowski again this season in my Buzzi 42 in Powerboat P1 but will be entering the Evolution Class. The boat has undergone a complete transformation with a canopy, new bottom and petrol engines. I will also compete in the Endurance series where there is not a clash of races. I am als o partners with Jan Falkowski and JohnPuddifoot in a Formula S2000 circuit catamaran which we will compete in some National races this year and Rouen 24hrs in 2010.

Recent Results:

RIB Formula 1 National Speed record P1 Supersport World Speed record

RIB FORMULA 1 RYA National Champion runner up twice and once third

PRO-VEE 2004 & 2005 3 podium finishes

ENDURANCE Round Britain 2008 – 1st place overall in the first leg Portsmouth to Plymouth, final result second in class. Cowes-Torquay-Cowes completed 6 times, best place 3rd overall 2003

RYA National Endurance champion P1 World Chmampionship 5yrs from 2004 – 2008 5  Grand Prix wins 14 podiums.

P1 World Champion runner up three times.