Power boat skipper injured in race

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32734, 11 October 1971, Page 14

Power boat skipper injured in race

(New Zealand Press Association) TAURANGA. Events took a dramatic turn in the 60mile and 100-mile power boat races on Tauranga harbour on Saturday, three boats sinking and another retiring with a badly injured crew member.

Because of the bad conditions, the organisers called off the 60-mile race after 30 miles, awarding it to Waitawa II (K. R. P. Aidworth, of Otaki), and the 100-mile event after 60 miles, which was awarded to Tara Too (I. Boyce of Auckland). Of the 64 boats which started, only 22 braved the

eight-foot waves and winds up to 50 knots to the finish. The skipper of the Feildlng host Star Flight. B. McKay, suffered a badly injured back when his boat hit a particularly large wave, and he had to be transferred to another boat and landed at Mount Maunganui, where an ambulance was waiUng to take him to hospital. LitUe Steade (K. Eade, of Auckland) and Belle XII (K. R. Sinclair, of Auckland) sank under tow after being swamped by the large waves inside the harbour, but the boats were later salvaged. Red Baron (P. A. Newton, of Rotorua) rammed a propeller through its hull after becoming airborne coming off the crest of a wave and broke up. The two-man crew was picked up by B. Godfrev, of Mount Maunganui, In Pine Knot, who retired from the race to make the rescue.

Provisional results were:— 60-mlle —Waitawa II (average speed 25.98 m.p.h.) 1, Glastron VlB4 (A. W. Everiss. Paraparaumul 2, Zodiac II (L. Tappenden, Tauranga) 3. 100-mile—Tara Too (average speed 41.14 m.p.h.) 1, Formula (C. J. Meredith, Masterton) 2, Clipper Command (R. WestonWebb, Auckland) 3.