em rib final

East Midlands RIB final

Cameron Knox and Mark Sears represented Notts County SC at the Midland Region Honda Rib Challenge on Saturday 9th July.

6 clubs sent a pair of competitors each, one for the 8-12 age group and the other in the 13-16 age range.

The competition takes the form of a time trial around a set of marks - the fastest time wins. The slalom buoys are set 12.5m apart so that skill and control, and not necessarily speed, are the most important factors. Each competitor has two runs, one as a practice and one as a 'hot lap'. Both runs are timed and the fastest time put forward.

Mark and Cameron both went 5th in the competion order. Many of the earlier competitors found the course challenging, particularly as the boats were equipped with 60Hp engines, making the throttle response rather keen. Mark attacked the course with his usual gusto, and picked up penalties on the 1st run for touching 1 mark and shipping water during the reversing manoeuvre. His 2nd was slightly better, but still penalised for water coming in. Cameron, in the younger group, managed the slalom section well, but ran into difficulties on his 1st run with the stopping & reversing buoys. His 2nd run went better and he put up a creditable performance in his first year.

At the prizegiving tension mounted as no one knew the times or who had received penalties. In the event it seemed everyone had some penalty. Cameron was outside the top 3 but Mark did a time of 1minute 30 sec, winning the older group by a margin of 2 seconds.

This means that Mark will represent the club at the National final at the Southampton Boat show on 18th September. He has the opportunity to win a Honda Rib for the club if he beats all the others, but this is a real challenge considering last year's winning time of 1minute 9 sec.

A big thank you to all the club members who have helped train competitors at the club and run the heats this year.