23/08/2009
After some persuasive phone calls i made the decision to get the Z10 race boat out and get it quickly prepared, it was now Tuesday and we were heading north Thursday evening, the plan being to drive up to Mum’s in the lake district and then to get some sleep before heading up to Edinburgh, so i made my job list that was longer than the time i had to get the jobs finished, so it was get stuck in to 1 Changing boats on trailers,
2 Change over the floor boards
3 Seal up inspection hatch in nose cone
4 Inflate and clean hull
5 Remove my standard engine from around Britain boat
6 Fit new reads
7 Check carburettors
8 Remove cylinder head to replace head gasket.
9 Drain and flush gearbox re fill with neo oil
10 Fit fuel Line.
So its now 2.30 in the morning and i am now two thirds the way down my list ? so time to get home.
Thursday
Finish job list and ! Now try to remember where all your race kit is after 9 months, i had told G we could be on our way by 6pm latest, at 8.30 pm i am just starting to load the van and get the trailer out so the chances of making mums for dinner was right out the window, i eventually made it home in time for a shower at 11.30.
Packed and on our way north with the only advantage being the traffic was very light, we got to mums at about 4am i think it took me about 3 seconds to get to sleep.
Friday
Up and on our way Meg was asleep as soon as the van was moving. We got to Edinburgh and then started to finish the little jobs that had slipped through the system, we put the “Around Britain Boat” in front of the Ocean Terminal shopping centre on display and then got round to the finishing touches like painting on the Zapcat logos and gluing in my back protector, with all this done it was time to make camp, easy when all you have is a army bed 30 seconds to get up, bivi bag 10 seconds to get out, sleeping bag 10 seconds to put it in the bivi bag, Blow up pillow 5 seconds, camp completed in under a minute.
Saturday
We were up bright and early, kit in the boat signed on and licence paid, drivers briefing at 1030, was interesting especially when the harbour master requested that if we did enter the water it would be best to keep your mouth closed as the water is quite clean but by the harbour wall they do suffer from a lot of RAT PISS !! a real good reason to stay on board, we were put in Division 2 as it was our first race of the season, practice was div 2 first at 1100, quite a tricky course with two “M” sections and a pit lap, Pat had never been a co-pilot before we seemed to be going quite quick on the standard lap so i thought it would be a good idea to judge just what the advantage would be by taking the pit lap, we were right on the tail of one of the other boats coming up to the entry buoy for the pit, a tight left turn and yes Pat lost his grip and was swimming ‘hopefully with his mouth closed’ he was OK the safety team had him back on the pontoon instantly, we decided to remove a little of the angle trim on the engine to try to stop us drifting to much , 
with this done we were out again testing getting in 3 laps before the end of our session, Practice over and now its down to the business, heat 1 we had a reasonable start and sat in third place until our pit lap ‘Pat holding on tight’ we turned and exited in 2nd place holding this to the end, Heat 2 great start P1 and held this to the flag. Heat 3 was 3rd place heats 4 and 5 were 4th places, this gave us P4 in the line up for the Division 2 final, the start was a fast and furious dash to the first marker we headed of on our pit lap early in search of some clean water , a good move as we came out a position up this was healed until the end a great 3rd place. More fun tomorrow