Tauranga Power Boat Racing

New Zealand Power Boat Racing competition held its last round in the Tauranga Harbour on the 14th of May 2005, this competition involves boats of all sizes racing together in separate classes. Graeme and Pam both know the brothers that drive "Jessie James" a 31ft twin V8 boat that puts out 1300HP, and because of this we were invited to be a marshall for the day which involved sitting in Graeme's boat on the racing line. After the brief of the events to come, we were sent out on the water to marshall between two points, which included stopping boats from crossing the racing line, helping boats in distress and general lookout. As the race started, we were more concerned about stopping boats crossing the racing line as we had the Harbour entrance, little did we know that in the second lap a boat called "Broomstick" a sleek black 6m outboard powered boat proved us wrong by getting some air right in front of us, clipping the next chop and nose diving into the third piece of chop. So here we were keeping an eye on it as it started to fill up with water in great volumes, a quick distress wave from the crew and we were next to the sinking boat and the two occupants in no time. I was stationed at the back of the boat, after making the initial call to race control, trying to help the driver out of the water, who happened to be female. After giving the rope she had to Kevin, who was looking after the sinking boat, I realized the rope was still tangled around her arm and neck, after quickly releasing the rope from around her neck, I helped the driver into the boat. The driver had a bleeding nose from head butting the dashboard and the passenger was okay. Meanwhile, Pam and Robin were hiding in the front of the boat out of the way. Within seconds of getting the crew into the boat we had a two helicopters, the coast guard and a 10m launch surrounding us. We then gave the semi sunken boat to the launch who towed it in and we took the crew back to shore, before returning to our marshalling area. After the rescue, the race finished about an hour later with no other real incidents, except for a boat nearly hitting us. About three other boats sank in the race from similar events but not within our area. The winner of the top class was "Jessie James" but missed out by a few points to take the championship from the "Placemakers" boat. A bbq and plenty of drinks finished the eventful day off. I was a little busy to take photos of the sinking "Broomstick" but got a few snaps of the other racing boats.