“It was certainly interesting,” admitted “There were a couple of times my navigator “My Dad goes misty eyed when looking back at
22-year-old Sutcliffe, of Rock Power Boats in Chris Smith came out of his seat and once the old Welsh 100, until 15 years ago, and the
Pwllheli. “We did not know what to expect as he landed on my knee, but we got away with 2003 Honda race, but even then I was only 16
it was our fi rst time - there were a couple of the standard bumps and bruises with only a
hairy moments. bit of whiplash. “Pwllheli has some cracking facilties, the Bay is
nice and sheltered and you can go close to the
“I had gone out on the water a dozen times “We enjoyed it so much we have entered beach.
or so, but I had never raced before and it is the whole season, competing in Plymouth,
different when you are 20-30 feet away from Lowestoft, Cowes and others. “The sailing club were a great help. Their feeling
10-12 other boats. was that if we could attract new people here
“We started it thinking of trying to get a bit then it was a good reason for the event and we
“We were doing around 60mph, taking the of publicity for the shop, then as it went on succeeded in those terms.
bends at 45mph, and there are no brakes. We it just spiralled.”
had driven boats for a few years, but had no “Visitors to the area have been down, in common
race experience Pwllheli is such a strong sailing centre that with everywhere else, so it was good to bring
the powerboating was always going to people in.
attract good local interest, with a Welsh
tradition in the sport through four-time “We ended up sponsoring it ourselves, which
world champion Jonathan Jones and others. cost £30,000, then entered it which was a bit
more and then entered the whole series so it has
Jones started through Formula Four, before become a pretty pricey weekend.
graduating to Formula One, so the Honda
F4SA Grand Prix of Pwllheli was a good “Hopefully we will get some sponsors for next
way of attracting the sport back to Welsh year, or a bit of extra support, but we will try to
shores. make it a sustainable date in the calendar.”
“It went really well, the whole team seemed Which just leaves the question of why the boat
to enjoy it and we did not embarrass was called Mr Daydream?
ourselves out on the water fi nishing fi fth
and eight in the two races,” said pilot “It was a homage to the chap who got us involved
Musgrave. who raced in the 1960’s in a boat called Mr Noisy,
which got world records for round the world and
“Hopefully we have started something round Britain racing,” explained Sutcliffe.
which can carry on, I am 99.9 per cent
certain it will be back again next year. So how did it get from Mr Noisy to Mr Daydream.
“That took a few bottles of red wine,” is the
“This was a new event really, even though explanation.
it happened six years ago and historically
North Wales has been very popular for It took a little more than that to see the return of
powerboating, so it was nice to reintroduce powerboating to Pwllheli shores – but hopefully
it. there will be more next year.
DAYDREAM
BELIEVERS
sportingwales
issue7twothousand&nine
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