(Wounded Marines bounce back)
 
It was the third race of the day, Fletch and I were in fifth, middle of the pack, on a rolling start; the flag came down all nine of the Zapcats stated charging towards the first buoy, we pulled up close to a strong competitor, "The Matrix" on our left, it was dodgems at fifty miles an hour as we each tried to cut the other off.  Just as we seemed to have the edge, from the right another boat cut across our bow, we took off, airborne, beginning to roll through the air.

"Hmm…" I thought as we landed on the right tube, the left tube sitting on top of the Matrix, "we’re going in the oggin" (sea). Before my mind had time to understand how bad a situation we were in, we were back level in the water, I smashed full throttle on, we had slipped back to eighth, no matter, the fierce determination to win came back and we fought our way to a respectable third - only to be disqualified for our earlier scrap!
 
So how does a Royal Marines Reservist come to be driving an £8,000, 340bhp per ton racing boat at 7 Grand Prix weekends in places like Bournemouth and Newquay?
 
It all started at the abrupt end of my Afghanistan tour, 5 weeks in with Charlie Coy at Kajaki I caught up a couple of "Speed Holes" (bullets) from the Taliban after they popped up within our defensive perimeter on a patrol out through no mans land. Two days later I was in Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham getting operated on. Two weeks later a seriously injured Mne Fletcher another Marine from RMR Bristol turned up at Selly Oak after he had picked a fight with a RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenade).  Then two weeks after that during a visit from our Commanding Officer, he mentioned that if I could sort out a Zapcat Boat and Team he would support us.
 
As it turned out we were in luck; a couple of phone calls revealed that the Corps had a Zapcat boat, which had become available at the last minute. The Royal Marines officer, who started the Royal Marines Zapcat Team gave us all the advice we needed, as well as the boat, trailer, spare propeller and a lot of patience.  We got a couple of lads on board, "Jimmy" Johnson, and "Naz" Nazarin who had managed a full Afghan tour, to try and get some more war stories in to the team (Fletch and I only had one each).  We had our first Grand Prix Race at Stokes Bay, Portsmouth on the 17/18th of May.  It was carnage, the event described above set the pattern for the day - in another race, nine Zapcats started, three finished (including us), with five capsized and one disqualified.
 
There are six racing weekends left, all of which promise to be excellent fun as we scrap it out with the other competitors.  The team will be rotated next year, so that other members of RMR Bristol will have the opportunity to experience the thrills.