2008 Round Britain Offshore Powerboat Race arrives in Argyll

Forty-two competitors in the 2008 Round Britain Offshore Powerboat Race arrived in Oban, the bay white with the wakes of their massive double engines, each a thousand horse power – crews can face up to 6 g-force and back and rib injuries have already forced some from the race. This stage of the race began in Northern Ireland – at Bangor on the southern entrance to Belfast Lough – and ended in Oban at the Northern Lighthouse Board pier. Stage winner from the westpunkt.com stable, Aussie, Hannes Bohnic admitted he wasn’t likely to win the race overall. His boat may reach speeds of one hundred and fifteen miles per hour but this is a long and difficult race demanding extreme endurance of crews and their team mechanics. Proof of this is that some of the smaller and slower boats on the Bangor to Oban leg had to come through the Crinan canal rather than risk swamping in the lumpy waters in the Atlantic off Argyll’s Mull of Kintyre.