#46 Spirit of Portomaso look for new drive

Monday 11 August 2008

The #46 Spirit of Portomaso boat tears through the waves in Tunisia

The #46 Spirit of Portomaso team are hoping that work spent improving the drives on their Mercury Racing-powered Chaudron hull over the course of the Powerboat P1 summer break will give them a boost in reliability and allow them to move up from last place in the SuperSport championship standings.

The Maltese-based team – which boasts the father/son crew of pilot Benjamin Van Riet and throttleman Robbe Van Riet – have shown good pace this year, but have been prevented from scoring a series of solid points finishes by problems with their propulsion system. Despite this, they lie just 30 points behind the #22 Big Sergio and 80 points behind the #59 Saho boats.

“One of our major problems is that we’re fighting with a boat that – at 33ft – is too small this year when the water is as rough as it was in Marseille or Malta,” said the #46 Spirit of Portomaso team’s general manager, Christine Veyt. “The Chaudron hull is flying as stable as an airplane, but the drives are not strong enough for these jumps.

“In San Benedetto, we were running in fifth when we lost the prop, in Malta the drive and gear broke, and in Tunisia the brand new props, drive and shaft all broke. It has been a major problem since the start of the season, and it’s getting very frustrating. Our mechanics are doing everything they can to get the boat back into perfect shape for the next round in Spain. We hope we can have a bit more luck in coming races.”