Wild Conditions for powerboat opening

Three- and four-metre swells certainly provided an eye-opening start to the Offshore Powerboat Championship off Newcastle last weekend with several of the biggest boats coming to grief in the wild conditions.

Boats venturing out for the pole shootout on Saturday were greeted with three-metre swells and for the main races on Sunday the ocean swells had built up to a challenging four metres.

Race favourite and current champion, Mustang, pitted early on Sunday to replace a power steering hose on the boat and returned shortly after to try to make up time on team rivals Maritimo. Not long after, Mustang hit a freak wave which saw the boat dive under the water, blast the engine hatch off and fill the cockpit with water.

Both Tom Barry-Cotter and Pal Virik Nilsen returned to the pits a very wet but happily without any injuries.

Jaeger Group boat experienced problems early on in the race, which forced Simon Isherwood and Colin Craven to retire after just two laps. The Simrad Maritimo boat looked sleek in the water and carried on to perform consistently throughout the race giving Luke Durman and Ross Willaton their first win of the season and placing them on top of the leaderboard for the Aus 1 Championship.

In the Supercat 1000 class, 2010 victors Global Racing broke both drive units on Saturday -- a most uncommon happening. With the absence of Global Racing, it was the battle of the North Queensland Teams, The Good Guys and Mazlin Electrical.

The Good Guys got a great start and a jump on the entire competing field towards the four-metre swells that awaited them out of the Newcastle heads. While Mazlin Electrical gave the Frier boys a drag race up the straight half-way through the race, Chris and Brendan stuck to their race plan and performed consistently to clock up their first win for the season. The Good Guys team are currently sitting second on the Aus 1 Championship leaderboard.

In the Supercat 600 class SUV Dodge Ram had just taken the lead from Saracen in a fantastic battle when, shortly after taking the lead, Brett Luhrmann and Cameron Davis experienced a blown fuel pump in their port engine, which unfortunately meant they had to retire.

Berwicks looked to be travelling very well throughout the race, but unfortunately retired 30 minutes into the hour-long race. Kwozzy performed well throughout the race with Jim Harris and Paul Fowlds crossing the line in second place, however, it was Saracen who dominated the race and took out first place in the 600 class.

The Supercat 400s did well to brave the seas and it was certainly a tightly contested race, with less than a minute between first and second place. Number 8 Racing experienced issues early on in the race, which put them out of contention for Round 1. The new-look FGI boat and the Hogs Breath boat battled it out in the rough seas and put on a fantastic display for the more than 15,000 spectators lining the foreshore of Newcastle Harbour. However, it was FGI who managed to cross the line and take out first place in the 400 class.

Teams will now prepare their boats and head north to Mackay, Queensland for Round 2 on June 25 and 26.