December 13, 2007
New Br Rib 35 Wins Beaujolais Run Nov 07!
On a cold crisp morning in November a four man crew, comprising 2 powerboat World Champions, a brave ‘Motor Boat and Yachting’ journalist and a rally driver, set out on an adventure across the channel in the latest addition to the Bladerunner stable, the brand new BR RIB 35.
The task, to help raise awareness of the Richard Burns Charity Foundation www.richardburnsfoundation.com and to also prove once and for all that boats are superior to cars when it comes to fun, freedom and channel crossings!
The Beaujolais Run is a hugely popular race started in 1972 which attracts a diverse number of competitors and vehicles including Aston Martin, Rolls Royce, Lamborghini to even tuned up Ford Cortina’s! The challenge is to be the first to deliver a bottle of this season’s Beaujolais Nouveau, via the shortest route starting from Beaujeu in France, to the Sunday Times offices in London.
The bottle was delivered to Calais in the ‘conventional’ way across land in a Subaru Impreza Turbo Rally car by Gavin Miller and Graeme Cleland, who are rally drivers working with the Richard Burns Charity Foundation.
Then Gavin jumped out of the Subaru into the waiting Bladerunner 35 RIB joining our team which included Jeremy Watts of ICE Marine and Rob Peake intrepid journalist of MBY. These guys had already enjoyed a thrilling early morning high speed ride across the channel in beautiful, if somewhat chilly conditions.
At noon French time they set off again facing a more demanding head sea but this is where the Bladerunner AEM Hull is in its element skimming across the waves and so despite the conditions they were able to make excellent progress and were soon happily maintaining a maximum speed of 65knots.
In less than two hours despite the Thames speed restriction they had covered the 100 nautical miles to the next rendez vous. At Butlers Wharf pontoon just under Tower Bridge the precious bottle was handed over to the editor of MBY Hugo Andreae waiting on a BMW F650 motorcycle and arrived on the editors desk at the Sunday Times before you could blink.
Meanwhile, miles away still stuck in the channel tunnel were eight Aston Martin DB9′s, three Ferraris, a Maserati, a 400hp Mercedes, a Lotus Elise, a Jaguar XJ etc…!!