Go, Speed Racer, Go!
August 4, 2003
I’m sitting in the cockpit of a Bladerunner GT, powering down the Solent River, headed straight into a Force 8. The sea is a cauldron of three-foot swells and wind-beaten chop. Although the Bladerunner shakes like a Japanese rally car on a forest road, I manage to read the GPS navigation screen: 55.61 knots. Call it 64 mph. Jeremy Watts, managing director of Ice Marine, lifts off the gas pedal, throws the wheel to the left, then reapplies full power. Within seconds, the Bladerunner’s prow is aimed directly at the side of a rusting oil tanker.
My right brain says we are going to die. My left brain reminds me that Watts is a European powerboat champion with a wife and two children. Improbably, mercifully, the Bladerunner GT powers away from danger with at least a thousand yards to spare. Equally astounding, the Bladerunner remains perfectly flat, even though the lateral g’s squeeze me into the leather seat’s right bolster. And there is none of the “leap, crash, leap” behavior traditionally associated with hot rod motorboats doing their thing over heavy seas. It is a powerboat—but not as we know it.
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The car-like placement of instrumentation includes a GPS monitor. (Click image to enlarge)Credit naval architect Lorne Campbell. The 56-year-old designer’s boats hold six world championships and five world records. In 1998, Watts persuaded Campbell to join his Ice Marine team to create the ultimate offshore powerboat. “Our goal was to build an entirely new hull,” Campbell says, “something that combined maximum stability with race-winning efficiency.” Three years later, the first Bladerunner circumnavigated the Isle of Wight to win the prestigious Cowes Classic. In 2002, the Bladerunner repeated the victory and placed second in the European Championships.
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