In 2018 the club held a 50 mile ski challenge to mark the 50 anniversary of the first national ski race at Hartlepool. The event is planned again for 2020 and hopefully will become an annual event.
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Red Devil at Chasewater early 1970's. Ron Featherstone,
Tommy Richardson and Derek Richardson skiing. Photo from
a Fletcher catalogue kindly sent by Martin Davies. |
In
1968 the first organised national ski racing series took place at several
locations across the UK. The
venues for that first series were Chasewater reservoir, Greatstone on Sea,
Hunstanton, Hartlepool, Penarth and the River Medway. The race at Hartlepool in 1968 saw a small field
entered. The course of the day was from Hartlepool to Sunderland and back, some 32 miles. Most would have been using a pair
of skis. Competing for Hartlepool in Red
Devil were Ron Featherstone (driving) and Tommy Richardson (observer).
Their skier, a young Cliff Featherstone went on to be one of the UK’s top ski racers competing at many European
and World championship events. Thick fog that day caused some problems for
teams with route finding. The turn at Sunderland was marked by a trawler, but not everyone found it.
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| Red Devil along side Snoopy Doop at Hartlepool 1973 |
The Red Devil team
ended up going ashore near Seaham to find out where they were. Every team made
it back safely, though there were only about six teams in the race that day.
Worse still for the Red Devil was
that they picked up a plastic bag on the gearbox which slowed them to almost a
halt. John Boardman was the winner that day receiving the Whitbread Trophy. John
also won a number of the early cross channel races, or equivalent events in
those early years.
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| The Whitbread Trophy - Long distance waterski race |
Over subsequent years Hartlepool became a
regular feature on the national circuit, however the racing changed from a
point to point event in the early 1970’s. Instead racing went onto a circuit
which was better for spectators and safety. The standard distance became 50
miles for a national race, hence the theme of this challenge.
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Organisers of the 1st World Ski Racing champiohsips 1979.
Ray Berriman is 7th from right. |
Many teams from HYC (Hartlepool Yacht Club)
went on to compete in the national series and at higher level. Hartlepool also hosted
a round of the European cup in 1976 where the crowds came out in huge numbers
to watch the racing.
1979 saw the first World Championships held in the UK at
Whitstable and the Welsh Harp reservoir in London. Hartlepool teams were also
competing there, notably Clive Griffiths who drove for Australian skier Bronwyn
Wright, the first Ladies world champion. HYC member Ray Berriman was amongst the organisers of this first event and he went on
to be an International Judge for many years.
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European cup 1976 Ray Berriman driving Bootlegger as
the Godfather passes towing Cliff Featherstone.
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The event
The challenge for teams of skier(s) is to ski
50 miles on a circuit set out in Middleton Bay. Teams may ski individually or
as a relay team over the distance. Skiers may also ski as little or as far as
They like over the 2 days.
Courses
The marks that are to be used are already on
the water and used for yacht racing. The shorter leg route is approximately 1
mile and the longer leg just under 2 miles.
-
Short leg – 50 laps = 50 miles
- Long leg course 27 laps = 50 miles
The 2018 event had a number of teams take part. Notably the "Bullet" team covered the 50 miles in approximately 1 hr 3 mins with skier Simon Binks.
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| Teams skiing 50 miles 2018 |
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Clive Griffiths at the helm at the Welsh Harp 1979,
1st World ski racing championships |
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HYC 1975 – Hartlepool library service
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