Last Sunday (April 25th) saw the opening round of the ISA P750 Powerboat National Championships, and Thundercat Racing Ireland (through Youghal Bay Boat Club) were out in force. With our boats making up half the fleet good things were expected. Saturday was a training day and it proved to be a worthy exercise since it provided some great insights into the coming season out on the water. All activity over the weekend was headquartered at the great Waterworld (fab place) out beyond Castlegregory. The format for the actual race was decided to be Long-Haul ......100km+ of it  ..... in arse-busting conditions. A sample run-out on Saturday afternoon gave a small idea of what was in store, but one lap of the course couldn't really give anyone an idea of how gruelling the real thing was going to be. A few tasty scoops on the Saturday night would have been savoured even more if we'd had crystal balls (24 hours later, we'd have no balls ....crystal or otherwise). Racing began just before 1pm, with an 18km course laid out across Brandon Bay. Even from the shoreline you could tell that it was going to be tough. One lap alone would be tough, nevermind six of the things. Crews were to come in every 2 laps to re-fuel, but casualties appeared on the beach after just one lap. Our very own Ronan and Mike (in Garfield) set the early pace and led up to the second mark when Garfield decided 'feck this, I'm a lazy cat after all' and starting spluttering. Cue trip to shore at end of lap. Martin and Joe were having other problems when a rogue wave (weren't they all?) smashed them on the deck causing old wounds to re-open. So ...end of lap one ... one broken crew ... one broken boat. But, that's a glass half-full way of looking at things .....we also now had one good crew and one good boat (as well as another good crew and boat still out there fightin' the fight - Clive & Keith, with their super-duper protectmearse patented technology strapped to their wetsuits). Although he was now well behind the fleet, Ronan cleared it with the OOD to take the good cat (Casper) back out into the race .....I think Padraig (OOD) thought he was so far behind by now that it wouldn't matter a jot. Ronan, of course, set off like his bum was on fire and within a few laps had managed to work his way up to SECOND PLACE!!!! Only Sean Dillon and Gary Hogg (Irish Offshore Powerboat Club) lay between him and the chequered flag. Towards the final third of the race the conditions started taking their toll, with the two cats from Buccaneers also retiring. Ronan's lunatic policy of just hammering along at full speed through the crazy conditions meant that something had to give .... it was never going to be him, so the boat eventually said 'really?' on the last lap, allowing Clive & Keith to re-take second place. To be honest, from the second mark of the first lap it was always Sean and Gary's race to lose. They drove amazingly well in the conditions and clearly had a well-prepared cat. When the dust settled and before the dyfene and talc appeared, we had the prize-giving and quite a few moans and girly-screams as crews eased themselves into the cars for the long-journey home. First race of the season over - many more to come. 2nd and 3rd places .....great work all!! Peter took some great piccies of all the action, and you can see them by clicking here