The Endurance World Championship took place in Old Riga, Latvia for ribs
30 June and 01 july .
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Friday morning wake-up call at 3 am, 3. 30 departure for Charleroi airport. Fly, arrival in Riga and immediately to the race site. It was particularly busy in the pits when we arrived with our group of 8 team members. The boat arrived the night before, by road. Our two drivers-mechanics drove it across Belgium, the Netherlands ans Germany to Travemünde. From there they took the ferry to Latvi. It was a smooth trip . On arrival at the pits most teams had taken their place and were busy working the engines, cleaning the boats, polishing the propeller, an environment breathing racing. One feels at home.
The pits is situated on the Bank of the Daugava River in the center of Riga overlooking the new bridge downstream, a modern span Vansu bridge with next to it a fancy building, the old Akmens bridge upstream, a bridge part of the race circuit. On the other side of the River a view of old Riga with several historical buildings setting up a skyline that makes the race, especially at nightfall, a breathtaking event. Everyone is there, the ambiancee is good, let's go.
First race secretary: letter of enrollment and formalities, flag of the boat, insurance, race licenses, medical certificates, the friendly people at the desk helped us in every possible way, the language in the Secretariat was Russian but most of them helped us in English, so what's the problem. Dmitry Schiller, the organizer of the race was always there to help us through.
Scrutineers did a good and thorough checkup of the boat and , equipment of the pilots. There are rules to follow, requirements for safety, extra emergency lights, lights on the front of the boat, red rear lights, emergency stop etc. For the pilots special race jackets, overall etc. Safety First!!!
This is not the first time that we participate so everything is ok and we get the licence to race. The boat is ready, we walk back to the hotel, eat something and quickly to bed because tomorrow is going to be a long day.
Saturday morning getting up at 6 am, briefing at 8 am, in Russian of course with some English translation, from 8: 30 am the boats in the water (not obvious, 28 boats in the water with two cranes) a well organized chaos. Each pilot must do two laps with full equipment to get to know the circuit. We are 3 pilots so it will be a demanding race. Our team is ready for it, the boat is ready and fuelled (maximum 200 liters tank is allowed) while the pilots get ready for the real thing.
The whole team is ready and prepared and the tension in the pits rises. At 10.30 all boats are on the water for the parade, all boats pass slowly in front of race control and meanwhile positions are taken. The first group is Class 1, the fastest boats, after them the slower boats to make the start as safe as possible. The start is always a moment of suspense, all boats together and the possibility of minor accidents is great. These can immediately get you out of the race for some time and make you loose time. We start for a race of 12 hours so there is still a long way to go. The start is difficult because the start boat remains behind and suddenly the green flag is pulled. So 2 minutes after 11 we left for 12 hours racing with 28 boats. It is very busy on the water, constantly watching out for the other boats, pushing the speed, trimming the engine up and down, taking sharp turns, You are busy in the boat and must concentrate on everything.
After 1 hour 15 min. of racing, message through the VHF radio "still 15 minutes to go " . After 15 minutes we leave the circuit to go quickly to the pits, pilots changing, fuelling, pass some information to the next pilot and hop, after a few minutes, Amoury is gone. Then drink, drink, drink because after 1: 30 racing you lose a lot of liquid. Afterwards you can enjoy watching the boats racing the river with speeds up to more than 100km/h. Really spectacular.
After 1h30 Amoury comes in and Jean-Pierre gets in the boat and off he is. Everything goes well, we are in third position, still no breakdowns, no setbacks, the engine runs well and without any problem. After 1: 30 change pilots again and quickly back in the race, everything is going well. But after about an hour I took a wrong turn and ended up in spin that I still could correct without too much loss of time. Minutes later, before the 180 ° turn in the middle of the circuit the engine goes into high revs without propulsion. "What could that be? I hope this is not a breakdown"
The engine is running but there is no propulsion so the hub of the propelor must be damaged. "
Firt red flag in the air because I'm lying in the middle of the circuit while the boats at full speed shave along me, quickly out of the cockpit and prepare the tow, waiting for the security boat to tow me in. This towing is going very slow very. "Hopefully it's just the propelor, hopefully we don't lose to much time" these are the thoughts going through my mind.
The team prepared everything and entering the pits, the crane is ready. Everything goes very quickly, boat out of the water, propelor off and a new propelor on, back in the water, new pilot in the boat and of we go. Everything went well. Meanwhile, our position ihas improved because the boat in second place, had mechanical problems and has been some time out of the water.
Everything goes well and we continue to race, the pit stops don't take too much time. At 9.30 the lights of the boat go on and the race goes on in the dark which is also a special experience.
10 minutes before11uur the tension begins to rise in the pits, we start the countdown we will be second or third.
Meanwhile, half of the boats is out of the race, damage to the tubes, a boat nearly sunk, engines blown up, a boat lost his engine bonnet etc. In the pits it was very busy, reparing boats engisens, tubes, a lot of noise a lot of sweat, Delicious!
At eleven o' clock the race is finished. We raced 998km in 12 hours' time we did this with 3 pilots, 83 km/h average speed. For us " Well Done ".
Tired, empty but satisfied we went back to the hotel at 1 pm there was something to eat at night and then exhausted but happy we went to sleep. The ceremony is tomorrow in the afternoon so enough time to recuperate.
Sunday July 1st 2012, 5 pm, Ceremony.
We are team second, silver, after the Russian Red Star Team. A great team with extensive backup and a fantastic boat, losing from them is not very bad.
Our colleagues from Flanders Offshore Racing with the Dutch and Belgian friends are third, same position as last year.
Then follows the party with the other participants, twelve nationalities, Russians, Latvians, Estonians, Belgians, Dutch, a Canadian, a Uzbek Hungarians, Belarus, Armenia, Poland, a mixed company with one passion, "powerboat race", where can you find a better company?
"12 hours of Riga" World Championship 2012 Endurance Pneumatics
Marine Technics Racing Team:
Silver medal in Class 1
Pilots:
-Neels Jean-Pierre (B)
-Neels Amoury (B)
-Vandamme Thomas (B)
Flanders Offshore Racing:
Bronze medal in Class 1
Pilots:
-Deraedt Kris (B)
Gert-Jan-Derksen (NL)
-Smessaert Paul (NL)
Text Thomas Vandamme