Ultra 30?

Hi everyone,

As mentioned previously, I taped some of the events in the early 90's, I can't remember when the boats were invented or when the series ended and the boats became defunct.

In 1992 the boats on the circuit were Black Bottle (Lawrie Smith - Rob Cruickshank, Phil Annis and others), Barberry (Ossie Stewart - Justin Eblin, Severine Rees-Jones and others), Research Machines (Pete Newlands - Adrian Stead and others), DBS (Russell Peters and others), Animal (Gordon Maguire and others) and Ultra Virgin (John Caulcutt - Ian Southworth and others).  Andy Beadsworth also helmed one of the boats occasionally. The venues were Hull, Strathclyde Park, Liverpool, Cowes, Torquay and Hartlepool.  At the Hull event, there were 3000 spectators and probably even more at Torquay.

In 1993 the boats were Black Bottle (Lawrie Smith - Richard Parslow, Neil McDonald and others), Rockport (Ossie Stewart - Phil Annis, Tom Hutchinson, Adam Bowers and others), Barberry Team Birmingham (Kevin Sproule and others), Roland Signmaker (Pete Newlands - Adrian Stead and others), BT Marine (Ian Southworth and others) and DBS (Russell Peters - Dick Parker and others). Again, Andy Beadsworth also helmed occasionally.  The venues were Strathclyde Park, Pwllheli, Cowes and Torbay.

In 1994 the boats were Frontera (Lawrie Smith and others), DBS  (Russell Peters and others), Roland Signmaker (Pete Newlands and others), BT Marine (Glyn Charles and others), Barberry Team Birmingham (Roger Yeoman and others) and Rockport (Ossie Stewart and others).  The venues were Southampton, Portsmouth, Hull and Cardiff.

I obtained the names from the commentaries which were mainly by Bob Fisher.  The courses were 800m. windward/leeward courses with a mid course gate, the races were about 30 to 40 minutes long.

It can be seen that many of the sailors were top dinghy sailors in their former days. I can't remember how many years the events ran for but it must have been for more than the three years that I have mentioned.  I also seem to remember Jim Hunt and possibly Mike McIntyre helming in some of the events.

Without checking on Google and other sailing sites, I wonder what all of these people are doing now? Although one or two may occasionally be sailing dinghies, most will have, no doubt, gone on to mainly yacht racing to earn a salary from their sailing.

Ian  (Yorkshire Dales S.C.)

The funniest bit of film involving boats (IMHO) was from an on-board stern camera when the boats were hiking only. After rounding the leward mark and starting to hike the last guy to sit down missed the toe-straps and flung himself backwards off the rack. The whole team turned arround to watch him disappearing into the distance for a good few seconds before they thought of going back for him.

I had a similar incedent when crewing a Hornet when the helm did the same leaving me to sail back downwind on my own in a good F4.

What would be quite funny in these like 8 man trapeeze boats is if when you tack and everyone sprints to the other side and dives for their wire, you do this only to find yours has been taken ny the guy next to you, andyour momentum carries you over the side!

There were a number of interesting moments when the trap wires were introduced!

If the first person to cross the boat grabbed the wrong wire, the last person across would probally find the spare wire to be at the opposite end of the boat. It caused some embarassment as they would have to resort to hiking again. It was a little easier for the guys at the front as the bowman spent most of his time packing the chute whilst going upwind , so his wire was usually un-occupied and a handy spare when required. Depending on the calibre of the Helmsman , they also didn't spend much time on the wire !

To help the crew each wire was colour coded. This made it a little easier to find and generally solved some of the issues.

I do remember being swept off and trawled behind the boat during a pre-start at Portsmouth.I guess I was about 30ft away from the boat as the windward wing lifted out of the water and the boat began to accelerate again . I was reunited with the crew pretty dam quick. I only managed to wipe out 3 of them on the way through. It did end in tears as I was stopped in my tracks by the boom!

I didn't fall off again!