Hot Lemon V, a Scorpion Sports Cruiser, has trounced the under 30 foot World Record for the fastest powerboat sprint around Britain. The circumnavigation was completed in 31 hours 22 minutes and 46 seconds.

Setting out from Lymington at 3:00am on Thursday 11 August, Mike Deacon together with his son David, blasted Hot Lemon across the start line at 54 knots with 400 gallons of diesel on board. They experienced slight to moderate seas through to the first re-fuelling point at 11.48am in Bangor, Northern Ireland and seas were totally flat thro’ Kyle and up to Cape Wrath. The swell grew after Duncansby Head and with speed down to 50 kts Hot Lemon drew into Peterhead for the second refuelling stop at 20:30.

Serious difficulty started in the Duncansby Race as their main GPS plotter completely failed leaving them to rely on compass and a small GPS .
The voyage then proved even more challenging with heavy swell down the East coast and a F5 wind and beam sea across the Thames Estuary.

Dave said “The North Sea was rougher than expected but, knowing the boat could handle it, we just kept the throttle on at 50 knots”.

Disaster almost struck again at this point as the radar mast carried away together with their two radio aerials. However, Mike and Dave have a good deal of sea going experience and after temporary repairs had put them back half an hour they pressed on in extremely challenging conditions.

Mike is a seasoned Round Britain World record breaker. In 2001 in Hot Lemon 3, he set a new Outright Round Britain World record time and In 2002, in Hot Lemon IV, Mike plus Dave with Chris Strickland and Jan Falkowski set a Record in the 30ft to 50ft class. Now in 2005, Mike and Dave have set a new under 30 ft World Record in Hot Lemon V (subject to official confirmation).

It has been a record breaking year for Scorpion RIBs, who build leisure and pleasure boats from 7.5m to 10m. Just a few weeks ago another Scorpion Cruiser shattered the Round the British Isles World record.

Mike’s final comment, “The best part of arriving home is knowing that the World Record is back with Scorpion”. ‘’When breaking seas were sweeping over us in the dark, it was incredibly reassuring to personally know the calibre of the team who put Hot Lemon together, we couldn’t have done it without their skill and dedication’’ .

August 2005