Ripping up the English Channel - from Tom Weaver

Tom Weaver commented on our article we posted last night featuring his Eastport 32 powerboat design. It turns out Tom was at the helm of Playstation when the following video was taken…

“I clicked on the Playstation link and I had never seen that video before, but I remember when it was shot. We were in the English Channel in December of 2000 and heading to Barcelona for the start of “The Race”. We had just finished putting the new bows on the boat to stop her pitchpoling in big waves. This lengthened the boat from 105 to 125ft long and kept our beam to 60 feet. That video sequence is going UPWIND in about 45kts of breeze at 19 knots of boat speed. (Later that day our downwind boat speeds averaged around 35kts). I was driving the boat at the time and you can see I had one hand on the wheel and one arm hanging on to the boat to stop getting tossed out. Big Cats are QUITE a ride upwind honestly they are WAY more fun offwind.”

Below are some photos Tom shared with gCaptain while sailing Steve Fossett’s giant cat. The aerial shots were taken by Giles Martin Raget….