| Home Updates Hydros Racing page |
Hull, East Park 2010
20th June. Northern
Area Championships
Report and results -Tom
Clement Photo's from archives
The lake at East Park was drained for cleaning and maintenance over the winter but was not filled in time for the early regattas to take place. With the Kingsbury season not starting until June, this meant a very long winter for the competitors from the northernmost parts of the country. With the lake refilled all was set for the first meeting, except that this was the weekend that strong winds set in from the North, which is not an ideal direction for this venue. In spite of being a little on the rough side, all those present were able to run, although with differing results. In the end the choppy water decided the outcome of most runs.
 |
 |
Paul Windross with his mighty flash steamer managed a very creditable 97.86 mph, which put him ahead of Bob Kirtley, whose 'Pisces 2' was skipping about a bit and could only record 80.51 mph, well below the normal performance for this record holder. Worse was to come when the sudden force of the prop hitting the water after one wave caused a broken crankshaft. With flash steamers, there are no spares available from the model shop, so Bob was faced with several hours at a lathe to repair the damage.
|
|
After seeing the late John Scarnell's boat at Kingsbury, it was a particular pleasure to welcome John Innes over from Prestwich with a vintage 10cc boat & a Hornet engine. John is the son of the late David Innes, whose series of 'Satellite' hydros were so successful from the 1930s onward. It was good to see John get a run of 28.019 mph. as running vintage boats on the much heavier wire lines can be a bit of an adventure at times. Left: The late David Innes with 'Satellite V' |
|
Tom Clement has finished the
restoration of the late Norman Dixon's 'Fast Cat' with its 30cc E&M
motor, but after many years, the venerable two-stroke would not keep
running long enough to get the boat launched. Tom was also running the
late Doc English's 15cc boat, which fell foul of the rough water on both
runs. In the first it was going well until it kicked the prop out &
stopped, while on the second run it found a hole in the water & dived
in. His 'A' Class 'Hellcat' was also proving less than cooperative, not
getting away the 1st time & stopping after 5 laps the second time. |
|
Dave Singleton's 84.52 mph with his A2 boat was probably as fast as he wanted to go in the conditions and with the result at Kingsbury, shows that he has now got the CMB motor sorted. Hull usually has a good turnout of airscrew boats, but conditions were far from ideal for these classes, as Mike Drinkwater found when his vintage airscrew dived in twice.
 |
 |
 |
| Tom Clement with Hell Cat | Dave Singleton launches A2 boat | Mike Drinkwater and vintage airscrew |
©copyrightOTW2010
