1. BEFORE RACING

It may be surprising but this year we managed to put the boat on water whole two days before the race, on Thursday evening. The first impression of all pilots was the same - this unit has too much "unpredictability". The 150 h.p. V6 engine with enormous torque easily and quickly accelerated the boat to 60 knots - the speed more than sufficient for 24-hour race with the length of the lap under 3 kilometers. Boat dynamics, despite a little heavier propeller, was also on the level. Some concerns were caused by "sticking" of the boat with the port side chine to the surface of the water due to counter-rotation of the hull of the boat relative to the screw under load of high power, which evidently did not correspond to the weight of the boat. However, it was found fairly quickly that this sticking can be avoided by increase in the trim angle. All what remained was the hope that under racing conditions the pilot would manage to find the trade-off position of the trimmer securing a sufficient control and at the same time precluding the sticking.

Friday - the last day before the race - the boat was presented to the technical commission, the pilots - to the medical commission. Everything was OK. Through the multi-move combination we got "our" number seven. Fine.

Saturday. From 11.30 to 13.00 - the official practice run. We are familiarizing with the racetrack, determine fuel consumption, compile the schedule of pilot change and refueling. At 14.00 - parade. Aggressive armada of over 30 racing boats with the escort boats under heavy rain, scaring away ducks, "privates" and "water taxi drivers", dashingly speeds over the St. Petersburg rivers and channels and returns to the racing camp. In the camp we found out that not a single light on our boat is on - during the practice run the vibration caused disconnection of the wire strap inside the lights arch. We push the boat onto the repair pontoon (if only we could know that it is just the beginning of our troubles) and in less than 50 minutes restore the wiring. 5 minutes before the start. We drop the boat on water, Konstantin starts the engine, goes ... This time - we just made it.