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The BAD BOYS Of The Sport and
their Boats. |
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Lord
“Lucky” Lucan
Top of
the list in this section of British
Powerboat history must go to one
Lord Lucan who took up powerboat
racing after seeing his brother in
law Bill Shand Kydd the wallpaper
heir, racing in Blue Moppie the ex
Bertram/Griffiths boat of 1962.
Lucky’s
first boat was a 25ft Bruce Campbell
Christina powered by 2 Ford
Dearborne Interceptors totalling
800hp, quite a power ratio in those
days. |
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The race in 1963 was run in flat
calm for the first stages and Lucan
was seen having a battle royal with
Tom Sopwith in Thunderstreak, Keith
Schellenberg in Blue Moppie, Sonny
Levi in A’Spereanziella and Dennis
Miller in Damian 3 all averaging 42
knots through the Solent,
approaching the Needles White
Migrant (right) suddenly vanished
from the timesheets when leading, it
was never clarified what the cause
was but she sank off the Needles.
Lucan and co driver Bruce Campbell
were rescued unharmed. |
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In 1964
Lucan was back with one of the new
Don Aronow Formula 233’s powered by
a single 388hp Daytona called
“MIGRANT”. He returned again with
the same boat the following year but
never raced again. Lucan of course
hit the news in 1975 following the
murder of his children’s nanny and
his subsequent “disappearance”…
Dr Emil Savundra….
Boss of
the Fire and Marine insurance
company entered the Cowes Torquay in
1962 with Jackie S powered by three
Chrysler inboards. This Cyril
Hughes design was unusual in that
there was no superstructure, the
following year though he returned
with a cabin and wheelhouse and the
hull stuffed full with 4 Jaguar
engines totalling 1000hp… Jackie had
stability problems and the good
Doctor’s boat first climbed on to
the deck of Don Shead’s
TRIDENT……then proceeded to hit a
small converted ships lifeboat
called the Skipjack amidships ,
Skipjack sank under the weight and
all aboard scrambled onto Jackie..
Once safely transferred Jackie set
off again but luck was not on the
Doctor’s side as this time the
Needles lighthouse was the target of
her amorous advances, luckily
hitting the base at a mere 10mph and
causing little damage to either
party…and retired….
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1964 saw the Doctor return with a
new Fred Cross design built by
R.W.CLARK at Cowes, also called
Jackie S she was designed with a
hull based on Flying Boat pontoon
designs, extremely innovative but
suffered engine problems.. 1965 and
he is back again with Westlake built
engines which again were
temperamental and consumed spark
plugs at an alarming rate!, the
original Jackie was also entered
although not so powerful these days.
Neither finished… Next up was
another JACKIE, Flying Jackie was
built by Watermota powered by Sea
unicorns as the Doctor called his
engines and there was also a Vosper
design powered by 2 Daytona’s later
to be called Flying Fish…BUT the
Doctors finances were extremely
shakey his business was subsidising
the boats and the ends did not meet.
The collapse of FIRE and MARINE was
one of the biggest failures of the
day and it was jail for fraud that
beckoned the Doctor next not the
sea…… |
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