There was one boat that really stood out from the crowd in this year’s “Round Britain Race” – a Targa 42! Most participating boats are built specifically for speed. But the Targa 42 was a standard production motor cruiser. At the end, team “Buro” finished in place 21 out of a total of 45 participating teams.

Team “Buro” consisted of owner Peter Vanhauter and the crew of Louis Massant, Lieven Van Hoecke and Frank Willemkens.

The Targa 42 was the only craft in the fleet that completed the full course. When racing was cancelled due to heavy seas on leg two, most boats headed straight on to the next start by road. But the Targa 42 - along with one other boat - decided to challenge the elements and carry on with the original course. For this achievement team “Buro” received “The Brand Crombie Award” for full circumnavigation.

"On the way to Land's End we had Force 7 with waves coming from all directions. It made it impossible to follow a pattern. Going round, it was very heavy. Once we were round, the waves were coming from the Atlantic, so we had to surf them sideways. It's quite frightening because you know if you make a wrong move you can go over."

The Targa's performance was impressive during the whole race. Peter says: "Our speeds remain the same, good or bad weather. The others have to throttle down. It says something about the Targa hull.”

Fuel consumption was also better than expected, with the Targa running at less than three liters per mile. The only modification to the standard Targa 42 is the props, which Peter changed from the standard G5s to G7s to allow for higher speeds over the race's long legs. They ran at 3 150 rpm to give them their average speed of 31 knots.

Botnia Marin congratulates Peter and his crew for their achievement!