New chairman speaks out after horrific crash
Experienced powerboater Simon Wood Power has become the new Chairman of the Offshore Racing Committee at the Royal Yachting Association.
He is MD of Oval 316, a Dorset firm manufacturing marine tubular and oval stainless steel, and has been powerboat racing since the age of 15.
He has worked for the past year as a member of the committee, which is responsible for overseeing rule making within UK powerboat racing and is the controlling body on safety issues.
Simon said: “My aim is to continue with the great work that the committee has been doing over the past year. My intention is to make powerboat racing safer, closer and cheaper and to rationalize the plethora of racing classes, simplify the rules and make the entry fees more palatable for competitors. We want to deliver better value for our members and bring more people into the sport.”
He continued: “Safety is an area that I have a particular interest in. The RYA Powerboat Racing committee must continue to pursue this as our number one priority.
“The issue of setting standards for crash helmets for example is one that we are being extremely proactive on. We have now commissioned a comprehensive report, which should give us definitive guidelines as to how we can standardise on a specification, which is effective and achievable.”
For more on the incident which led to this report, see the next issue of MBY.
