Model boaters do well at Cowes Torquay

[Eric Bourlet]

Well Michael Bontoft has some broken ribs but also a great showing at a big offshore rece in the english channel. Lohring Miller was the navigator and Mike was the throttle man on the Dry Martini . Here is an email that I got from Lohring today. I feel that I have been lucky to know Mr. Bontoft he allways atacks a taskhead on and does things right.

".Well, we survived but it was close. First the good news. We were first in the historic division and Mike also won an award for the best restoration for his work on the Uno Embassy. We all got a huge amount of recognition from both the racers and the officials at the awards ceremony. People came up to me all week to comment on the boats. Some had been following the race for decades. I'm sure only a very few people understand what a huge effort went into both boats. The cost was way beyond money.

Now for the bad news. The race started with a huge thrash to get the final details ready so the boat could pass inspection. We made the start and things were about as I expected with 1 meter waves. We were running well when, 1/2 hour into the race, Mike got a little out of position and broke at least one rib during a hard hit. From that point on, we tried to take an easy and slower route. We were still fifth at the 1/2 way point, but our GPS had a plug get loose and stopped working. We followed another boat around the Torquay turn marks and headed home. Mike got out of the bottom of the boat and took over throttling again. Eric.had been throttling as well as driving since Mike's injury. We got the GPS plug fixed only to have one of the mounting knobs fall off. As the day went on, the waves got worse. We were running with the seas and stuffed the boat into several waves. Even though we were only running in the mid 20 mph area, that much water in the face was hard on my and Eric's necks. The Uno Embassy boat had its windshield broken from a wave. The GPS decided to work once in a while, but I ended up holding one side in the bracket for the last hours. Because of the way I had to stand, I was leaning against the side of the bolster. As Mike and I found out, it is not well padded. My back feels like it was beaten with a rubber hose. In the end, we made it around the last buoy and down the Solent in waves that were aproaching Tuesday's 2 meters. We weren't sure we actually crossed the finish until the GPS came on one last time and showed our track through the middle of the line. We made it! Many of the 40+ starters didn't. This is a picture of the Uno Embassy that Mike restored with Dry Martini in the background. Remember, that's a 5 ton boat. http://picasaweb.goo...896795579064738

Lohring Miller"

 

[lohring]

Thanks Eric. Here are some pictures to give you some idea of how rough it was. The second picture has the other boat restored by Mike, the Uno Embassy, in the foreground. The third picture is not us. Yes, that boat is completely under water.

This was not a speed contest, it was an endurance race. The old boats were lots tougher than modern electronics. Dry Martini suffered a few cosmetic wounds where the rub rail and some louvers were peeled back from our stuffs. The crew was a little more damaged. Eric Krume, our driver was key in keeping everything going. Independent loggers are a tough bunch that aren't stopped by much. He also drag races a vintage top fuel dragster.

Lohring Miller