Power Boat Racing
Hydro
dynamo
Victorian powerboat racer Grant Harrison
is set to defend one of the oldest trophies
in sport when he takes on all-comers for
the EC Griffith Cup.
N
By Chris Beattie
Photography by:
Ian Artlett/
revlimitphotographics
Chris Beattie
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ot many people reckon they can tip-toe across
the water at nearly 300km/h, but I know a
bloke who’s done it. The only trouble is, there’s not
much of a margin for error and if things go wrong,
the consequences aren’t worth thinking about.
Grand Prix hydroplanes are the ultimate
machines in the powerboat racing scene. At
speeds close to 280km/h a GP hydroplane relies
on two tiny contact points on the water roughly
the size of a 20c piece at either corner of the
sponsons at the front of the boat. A very rapidly
spinning propeller at the back is the only other
part of the boat in the water – and then only half
of it is underwater if the hull is behaving itself. It
is a very, very delicate balancing act that takes skill,
bravery and a degree of luck to maintain.
The idea is that the less time the hull spends in
contact with the water, the less friction or drag it
has to deal with and the faster the boat goes. The
flipside is that there’s a very real risk that the boat
will lose contact altogether.
Complicating the scenario is that there are
likely to be several other boats rushing around in
very close proximity, all vying for the lead. Visibility
is hampered by giant 50m high walls of water
called ‘roostertails’ and waves and wakes can
make life in the cockpit interesting, to say the least.
If things do go wrong at hydroplane
speeds, they go wrong in a hurry
If things do go wrong at hydroplane speeds,
they go wrong in a hurry. Boats can instantly turn
into planes and this is where the downside of
gravity comes into play – literally.
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A hydroplane landing is never pretty and in
the event of a ‘blowover’, in which the boat flips
in the air, it returns to the water upside down,
invariably at speed and inevitably in a shower of
very expensive shrapnel. The effects on the driver
are usually on the wrong side of severe.
Victorian businessman and multichampionship-winning GP hydroplane racer, Grant
Harrison knows better than most how bad it can
get. A few years ago he went from hydroplane
driver to pilot in a split second while on a test run
(see Sudden impact sidebar).
Previous page: GP1 at speed.
At full throttle it is capable of
over 280km/h.
Above: Grant Harrison and his
father Keith in the ‘shed’ with
two of the giant 1600hp V8
engines from GP1. The pair
share maintenance chores on
the boat between races.
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He has had a couple of other close calls
over the years, but like most racers, the urge to
compete keeps him coming back for more. And
‘more’ in his case is actually quite a lot.
ANZAC FEUD
When I visited him at his Melton Toyota
dealership on the western outskirts of Melbourne
in mid-March he was preparing his boat, GP1 for a
hectic racing program over consecutive weekends,
culminating in the EC Griffith Cup, an annual
trans-Tasman contest that could more accurately
be described as a feud between Australia and
NZ’s top hydroplane racers. It’s a contest with a
lot of history that goes way back to 1912, when
Sydney boating identity, Charles Earnest Griffith
donated the cup, beginning more than 100 years
of trans-Tasman rivalry on the water. The winning
country also has host rights and Australia has
been in possession of the cup since 2012, when
Harrington brought it back to Australia.
Grant has won the cup four times and his
father Keith, himself an accomplished powerboat
champion, has managed to snatch it from the
Kiwis once as a driver and five times as team
owner. Grant also managed two world titles, being
awarded the UIM World Grand Prix Hydroplane
Championship.
The Harrisons are actually somewhat of an
institution in the sport. Keith campaigned a series
of boats in the heydays of powerboat racing from
the mid-‘60s through to the early ‘90s, notching up
a cabinet full of trophies and championships along
up around 170mph (275km/h) you’re
really in unfamiliar territory
the way. He was inducted into the Australian
Power Boat Association Hall of Fame in 2007 and
is a Life Member of the Melbourne Runabout and
Speedboat Club.
As team owner, Keith is still very much an active
participant in the family race operation, the 73-yearold former car dealer building and maintaining the
engines for GP1, the high-tech missile that Grant has
been campaigning for the past seven years.
Despite the fact that Grant is dealer principal
of one of Australia’s most successful Toyota
dealerships, he’s very much hands-on when
it comes to preparing GP1 between races.
A qualified mechanic, the 45-year-old takes care
of various maintenance chores, working nights on
the boat between races and usually reinstalls the
engine after Keith has given it the once-over.
In recent years the Harrisons have dominated
the sport with a boat that is equal to the best in
the world.
THE SHED
A grand prix hydroplane at
speed moves a lot of water as
it thunders around the track.
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The 7.3m all-carbonfibre, twin-sponson hull
for GP1 was designed and crafted by team
member Grant Rollason at Harrison’s dealership
maintenance facility, commonly referred to as
‘the shed’, but which might more accurately be
described as the ultimate man cave for diehard
petrolheads. Inside is a treasure trove of hulls,
engines and other bric-a-brac collected over
two generations of racing. There are also stark
reminders of earlier mishaps, with shattered
sponsons and tortured bodywork all that remain
of GP101, the boat all-but destroyed in Taree.
Long-time team member Geoff Sheldrake
is drafted into the side as needed and is a
critical player in pre-race boat prep. In a lifetime
of working with engines, including alongside
legendary Australian engineer Phil Irving, Sheldrake
teamed up with Keith 40 years ago and is relied
upon to take care of the more technical aspects
of the operation. Filling in the gaps on race day
are Grant’s uncle, Geoff Harrison, cousin Glenn,
otherwise known as ‘Terra’ and Paul Morrow.
Anyone who has ever heard and ‘felt’ a GP
hydro run knows it takes a big motor to reach the
enormous speeds they are capable of. In the case
of GP1, a massive 510 cubic inch (8.3lt) Chevroletbased, supercharged big block V8 resides just
to the rear of the cockpit. It is crammed full of
special racing hardware and is force-fed a diet
of methanol race fuel that helps it achieve in the
vicinity of 1600hp.
The engine drives through a compact
gearbox to a shaft that is fitted with special racing
propellers that can cost upwards of $5000 – but
even at that price they have been known to fail,
sometimes catastrophically. One let go on GP1
in a very early race, costing Grant a certain EC
Griffith Cup and causing serious damage to the
rear of the boat.
At most meetings the team takes a spare
engine as races can be punishing on mechanical
components. An engine swap takes around 20
minutes.
INCOMING …
controls how the boat sits at speed. If Grant feels
it’s getting a bit ‘loose’ he can adjust it during the
race to lower the hull.
In the floor is a large red lever that activates an
escape hatch in case the boat is upside down. So
far on GP1 at least, it has not been used in anger.
At the rear is a large stainless steel rudder,
mounted to the hull with industrial-strength
brackets and hardware to withstand the
enormous forces encountered at race speeds.
On GP1 there is a second fixed ‘rudder’ or fin
mounted to the left side of the hull next to the
driver’s compartment. Its function is to aid turning
and take some of the strain off the driver as he
struggles to turn the wheel at speed.
In principle, hydroplane racing is similar to
NASCAR (turn left, go fast, repeat), with boats
racing anticlockwise around a course up to 1800m
in length, with buoys marking the turns at either
end.
But while it sounds relatively simple, there is
more than enough to keep the driver occupied,
particularly as speeds climb.
ON THE EDGE
“At lower speeds the boat is pretty stable, but
around 160mph (260km/h) it really livens up,”
explains Grant. “And up around 170mph (275km/h)
The Harrison crew celebrates
another win. Left to right:
Grant’s mother Joan Harrison,
Grant, father Keith, hull
specialist Grant Rollason,
Glenn Harrison, Paul Morrow
and (front) Geoff Sheldrake.
When it comes time to race, Grant is strapped
into what is referred to as the ‘capsule’, a fullysealed cockpit designed to protect the driver in
the event of a crash. Danger can come from any
direction as collisions with other boats are not
uncommon. Grant has had a spinning propeller
carve holes in the deck and knock off the mirror
of his canopy only centimetres from his head
when Spellbound, an earlier Harrison team GP
hydro, was hit by another boat in 2001.
A multi-point harness holds him in place and
he wears a military-spec Top Gun-style helmet
with a separate air supply and radio comms builtin. There are two pedals at the front; the right one
for the throttle and the left to control the angle of
the front ‘canard’ or wing as it’s sometimes known.
This is a critical element of the boat’s handling and
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you’re really in unfamiliar territory. The slightest
ripple in the water can unsettle the boat and at
these speeds you really know you’re on the edge.
“The faster you go, the more the boat lifts and
at 160 or so it feels a lot lighter. It might only lift
another inch, but it means there’s a lot less boat
in the water and you’re really just floating on air.
That’s when the blow-overs can happen.
“I’m really still learning every time I take the
boat out and, without blowing my own trumpet,
I’m one of the most experienced GP hydro
drivers around.”
Anyone wanting to see Grant and the various
other racers in the multiple Australian Power Boat
Association classes in action should head to Lake
Eppalock in central Victoria on April 24 to 26,
when GP1 will defend the EC Griffith Cup on a
weekend packed full of high-speed racing action.
For more information, go to: vsbc.org.au. ¿
Right: They call it the ‘office’
because some very serious
business takes place in the
cockpit. Note the orange
panel in the floor is the escape
hatch should the boat be
upside-down.
Below: GP101 before it was
destroyed in a ‘blowover’ at
Taree, NSW in 2005. The
crash almost cost Harrison
his life.
Sudden impact
“I was giving the boat one last high-speed run to
check it out in a early morning test session before
pulling in,” says Grant Harrison of the incident that
very nearly cost him his life in Taree, NSW in 2005.
At the time, we were watching amateur video
footage of the crash that destroyed GP101, the
predecessor to GP1 and almost ended his career.
“I don’t actually remember the crash or being
upside down, but we reckon I was doing around
155mph (250km/h) at the time and the boat just
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took off and cart-wheeled through the air. It came
down upside down into the water. It turned out
the rudder had come off the boat when it hit
some debris. From there I had no control.
“It absolutely smashed the canopy and ripped
my helmet off with the impact. I was lucky that
one of the rescuers on the course had watched
earlier in the day when we’d shown them how the
steering wheel comes off, because they wouldn’t
have been able to pull me out otherwise.
“They dragged me out from the escape hatch
in the floor. I was unconscious and my lungs were
full of water, but they worked on me all the way
back to shore and I was flown to Sydney and put
in an induced coma.”
The next thing he remembers is waking up
in hospital in Sydney four days later, bruised,
confused and very, very grateful to be alive.
“I broke my C1 vertebrae at the base of my
skull and a specialist said I came within a millimetre
of being paralysed from the neck down.”
Within two weeks Harrington was back at
work with no memory of the crash that almost
took his life. An enforced two-year break from
racing followed as GP1 was built for a renewed
campaign.
“I’m probably a little more aware now when
the boat gets loose, but because I’ve got no
memory of the crash it hasn’t really affected my
racing.”