Jet boats nearly home

Press, 18 September 1976, Page 4

Jet boats nearly home

From LES BLOXHAM Otira

Twice- John Butterfield travelled to Mexico with hopes of winning the President of Mexico Trophy. Twice it slipped through his grasp. Today, however, he is top favourite to win it in his home town. Butterfield holds a commanding lead at the start of the sixth and final day of the Citizen Watch jet boat marathon which will start in the upper reaches of the Waimakariri River this morning and finish in the Estuary about 1 p.m. e The solid silver trophy — won three years in succession by New Zealand jet boaters in the Rio Balsas International — is now the premier award in the tough new marathon over rivers and lakes in both the North and South Islands. Butterfield has' such a comfortable lead that he drove yesterday as if on a Sunday picnic run. “I’m not taking any risks at this stage,” he said after competing a faultless run up the Taramakau River. And later in the day, he made no attempt to beat up Lake Brunner in the 43-mile speed section. He was quite

satisfied to finish fifth and still have more than 40 minutes to spare.

The Taramakau was in its meanest mood yesterday and only a few boats got' through without scraping; the stones in the numerous; bonv rapids. The lack of water also complicated the task of getting the boats back on to trailers at the finish of the stage for those at the Sir Stanley Goosman Bridge. In fact Peter Phillips damaged the hull of PDL Jet so badly when trying to manhandle it on to the trailer that he was forced to withdraw from the Lake Brunnei stage.

‘We could have carried o but I was having difficulty in controlling her,” a disappointed Phillips said later. “It just wasn’t worth the risk — I would never have forgiven myself if we had. hit someone.”

Phillips, who was considered a top contender for. over-all honours, conceded: that for him the marathon' was over. He will not be] competing today. Nor will Neville Sutherland in Mister Suzuki. "Fibreglass was peeling off the hull — the river was a!

bit too low for a boat d this size," he said. But no-one could be morfc disappointed than Dick Fan rant. After working most of the night repairing cranlfr shaft and bearing problem# he had to pull out of thfe Lake Brunner stage whej his bilge pump failed an* the boat began filling wit| water. “We decided to give up when the water level started to cover the seats,” Farrant said. The fastest boat on thp lake was Kiwi Jet driven by Alan Johnson of Taumarunui. He averaged 75 miles an hour over the six laps. He was followed by Selwyfi Paynter in Hornet 3 and Rod Regan in Mighty Smoove. Max McKenzie in Tulacb Ard closely followed Sutherland to the finish on the Taramakau, with Butterfield third.

Official results for alt classes in yesterday’s stages were still not available late last night — much to the annoyance of competitors. The timekeepers were not available for comment but there were reports that there had been some confusion over the number of laps done by several boats on the lake.