POWERBOAT P1 MAKES THE PAPERS

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Powerboat P1 found itself in The Sunday Times newspaper in the UK last weekend, courtesy of TV presenter and motoring journalist Jonny Smith, who got a ride to remember in the #11 Sunseeker Challenger SuperSport class boat off the coast of Poole, in the south of the UK.

Entering the boat with the preconception that ‘boats are for wusses’, he ends the test likening the experience to being ‘like circuit-racing an Aston Martin with stone wheels at more than 150mph, and every so often encountering a humpback bridge mid-corner’.

‘The idea of a powerboating innocent like me sharing control of such a machine seems utterly wrong,’ Smith explains. ‘But the thrill of easing forward the throttle is immediate. The pair of Fiat straight-six diesels obey the order and within seconds we are away from the harbour and into the open sea. Both tacho needles read 3000rpm and pleasure craft flash by as we charge past the Dorset coast in a drug runner's dream ride. Suddenly the idea of having two people driving the boat makes sense. Only a fool would try to drive this thing with one hand on the wheel.

‘It's shocking what a couple of lorry engines can do to a 4.5-tonne tub. The Sunseeker XS Challenger has the torque to drag sandbanks out to sea, the strength to brush off colossal 20ft jumps and the power to make me close my eyes and think of a happy place.’