One Hull Of Boat : P1 Racing On The Humber

For a few weeks, I have to say I have been looking forward to this event and so today I went to the first of two days of racing on the Humber.

Leaving everything to the last minute I punched into Google ‘One Hull of a Boat’ found the web site and logged on.

What I found was no information, nothing about the race, no schedule or not even a map of the course. After a bit of searching online, I finally found the details but still no information about where the race was or where you could go to see the action. For anyone who has not been the Humber is quite a big stretch of water!

Lucky for me I had a couple of weeks back been to Mr. Chews for a networking event and at that meeting, they said that the chinese restaurant was the start and finish line, so that’s where I headed.

On my arrival, there were lots of people there, not as many as I thought there would be but still there was a good crowd and plenty of things happening both on and off the river.

At first, I found a spot and started to shoot the action on the river though soon had to move away because of the constant overly loud PA system that was polluting the air with a relentless barrage of information. It was so loud you could not even hear the person next to talking or and more importantly, the engines of the crafts as they whizzed by.

The answer was simple, move away, move as far away as possible from the central part of the event. I chose to head towards the massive Lordline building where I met a couple with their son who were sat enjoying the sun and racing. We got talking and they, like me had struggled to get any information about the event.

These two, however, had seen racing on the Humber River before, and they gave me some very useful advice about the direction, the course and what I could expect. So there we were four people, sitting on waste land waiting for this One Hull of Boat.

We knew it was coming by the arrival of the chopper which was filming the action for Sky TV. Now frankly speaking the Helicopter was the highlight of the afternoon. It was a few feet above the water making tight turns chasing the boats around! The chopper was darting about like something you would see in James Bond movie. It was ace.

So, what about One Hull of a Boat, what about it? The boats came, went around and round at speeds that seemed far slower than the Jet Skis. The chopper flew away, and that race was over. I checked in with Andy Holey a mate of mine who was shooting further down the bank. He already left and went home. Like me, he was disappointed with the ‘race’. In fact, I was convinced what I was watching was the warm up and sat down and stopped taking pictures!

Heading back to my car, I notice a massive line of cars all trying to get out so I decided to head towards the Humber Bridge on foot and wait for the final race of the afternoon, the Jet Skis. Now these little blighters are interesting. They are quick. They are trying to over take each other and they are just far more engaging then the boats. Maybe there should have been One Hull of a Jet Ski.

From my own point of view, I would have happily purchased a programme or something that explained what was happening. Another chap I was talking to knew loads, but that is because he spent some time earlier in the day listening to the information being blasted out of PA System.

Sunday will see a further two races, if you are planning on going to watch my advice to you stay well away from the middle section and head towards B&Q. If you get there early you can sit in the pub, and have a pint and watch them go by. I am not sure whether the chopper will be out again, but if it is that is the best bit, followed by the Jet Skis and the then boats.

The race times are as follows;

Sunday 2 June