Team JB-R

Cowes… what should have been VS what was!

A weekend of headache, ball ache and arse ache from the get go…

Obviously we had the original fiasco of eligibility but working with sustain and BPRC we found a way through it and we are eternally grateful to all involved for their efforts… but that was just the start of the universe knocking us back!

On the way over we had a break down with the support boat for the team, right in the driving rain and wind… moved as much stuff as we could into the race boat and Luke took the Red-jet into Cowes with the rest of the kit, whilst I proceeded in the race boat to Cowes, scruitineered fine, I done a nice talk with a Charity that does experiences for Autistic children, showed them around the race boats and talked them through what we do with Sustain, fantastic bunch of guys! Had a great catch up with Sarah Donohue which had laid the foundation for some exciting plans for this year and very much into next… watch this space!

Later in the day we learnt that the event had a shortage of safety vessels to stretch the course and with the uncertainty of the weather the decision was made to run shorter courses, the big boats only going to Poole and the smaller categories only doing two laps between cowes and Yarmouth, a huge blow for us, massive disappointment but ultimately thats the hand we where dealt and BPRC made the decision based upon the factors in front of them at the time, so absolutely no digs thrown at them in anyway from this side.

Then 11pm roles around… Luke goes down chronically unwell and is unable to race… luckily for me… Richard Watson steps up and fills the seat, absolute legend.

Our course on race day was flat carm… pretty sure the only time I got the boat airborne was off of a wash from a bigger boat! I can’t lie… it was tedious and boring! The biggest contributor to this was my decision to enter in the 55mph class, the boat runs 60mph in race trim but this can be limited when it’s rough… banking on it being rough this is what I opted for as I know I can run that speed fairly consistently in a good chop…

With the class structure being as it is in BPRC my competition included a rather large Bertram 31 (I think) with around 800hp… which can run 55mph in the rough with great ease in comparison to our 22ft 115hp VSX!

In the end we made the executive decision aboard to rip up the rule book regarding speed brackets and just open the taps on the VSX and let her sing… to which we did! Crossing the line in first place with 1 second between ourselves and Thunderstreak, because we broke out the speed bracket we received a penalty which demoted us back to 2nd place and Thunderstreak where rightfully given there first place back, they played it on the level and drove a really good and clean race so hats off to them! Great bunch of guys, absolutely lovely people! Massive shame they didn’t get a trophy for winning, it seems the smaller boats dont get awards for podium positions so sadly for them they raced a solid and clean race for nothing material!

I think for us going forwards… we’ll give Cowes a miss, the class structure doesn’t really work for us and we feel much happier and better looked after within UKOPRA.

But we will return next year as spectators and to socialise with the many fantastic people that make up the event, including many officials, so many great and helpful people involved.

Hopefully see you all in Gunwharf!

A huge thanks to Sustain Fuels for there on going support and of Course Adam Younger design for the boat, both have been consistently supportive to us and that forms the biggest part of our continuing success.

A misty and wet start for us this morning… but the water was at least nice and smooth for the crossing to cowes.

Scruitineering done, boats at full health… Roll on tomorrow!

Balancing summer holidays child care whilst sticking to race boat testing schedules before an event can be challenging for some… but not here! She’s a rough water Monkey like me! Needles bound!

First we were going… then we weren’t… now we are!

Before we put our entry in initially, I had a good read of the rule book which for any of you that know me… know it’s something I enjoy doing, the rule book only ever tells you what you can’t do… not what you can so it’s always a nice way to find the loopholes and advantages you can have!

On this occasion though I stumbled upon an issue… our fuel… it was non compliant under BPRC regulations, specifically our octane rating and it not being ‘pump’ fuel, I applied to the BPRC for a dispensation, it was denied due to a fellow competitor having objections to us running it, ultimately given the rule book that is absolutely their right to do so, so it counted us out.

This is where Sustain Fuels really showed there commitment to the people they have fuel partnerships with, they have provided us with a different fuel thats to spec for the BPRC rule book and it is available on pump to the general public to purchase at will, absolute commitment to motorsport requirements at any level.

So we are back in the game, in our engine the octane rating actually has no performance gains, we simply don’t have the compression ratio to make use of any extra octane above 99RON and ultimately we are in speed bracket classes for the cowes event and in anticipation of it being the usual Solent white water rafting conditions… we have opted for the lower speed as based on previous data collected, we averagely only run 55mph when it gets rough anyway and when it gets proper rough, much less averagely!

I think the thing I’m actually most excited about is the competition for this event, we are bracketed the same as another boat that traditionally runs three classes above us, 600hp vs our 115hp… 26ft vs our 22ft… now if conditions are flat carm… then no pressure, however if it does rough up like it traditionally does… their ability to maintain 55mph in the rough is far superior to ours… I’m rather hopeful it does rough up and it presents us with the challenge we’ve so desperately craved this season.

Huge thanks to Sustain for saving the day! And ultimately BPRC for being great to work with, easy to talk too and very helpful when it came to finding a solution whilst upholding their rule book, something I absolutely respect any club for doing so.

See you all in Cowes, come say Hi and if you’d like to buy our boat after the Gunwharf race to help fund the new boat for next year… you might even get a drink out of me as well!

CPC - Entry No 8
B26 Sustain Fuel

Driver: John Bunyan
Navigator: Luke Cloudsdale

6.5m Adam Younger Design
Evinrude 115hp

📸Tracey Beers

Sponsorship opportunities for 2027.

As a team we are putting a second boat out into UKOPRA 3B for 2027 and as of today we now have a new (to offshore) crew for the full 2027 season, They will be running an offshore spec Banshee 595 built by Power marine in Ireland.

The boat is a blank canvass in terms of sponsorship so we are interested in any level at this point, I’m happy to talk through pricing structures with you, what we offer in return etc etc.

The UKOPRA series attracts realistically the biggest audience both online and in person as well as internationally when it comes to UK power boat racing, this is a great opportunity for the right person/ company.

Please feel free to reach out to me personally or via this page.