Restoration
THUNDERBOLT – the story of her Restoration
Built in 1961 by Bruce Campbell Ltd on the Hamble she was one of 4 Christina's entered for the first Daily Express International Powerboat Race in 1961...later known as the Cowes Torquay.
She was owned and raced by the son of Sir Thomas Sopwith, the Aviation Mogul and J Class yacht expert......25 year old T.E.B. (Tommy) Sopwith had given up Sports car racing at the behest of his parents following the death of his close friend Mike Hawthorn and was to make his mark in Offshore Powerboat Racing winning the C-T and C-T-C 3 times.
THUNDERBOLT was powered by 2 V8 325 hp 7.5 ltr Crusaders based on Cadillac engines and had set a speed of 44 mph on the measured miles on Southampton Water..using 2 blade Radice props, which were burnt out at the end of the speed trial and she subsequently raced with standard 3 blader's...
The 1961 race was run in changing weather conditions of up to Force 5 with extremely confused seas and she won the race from Cowes to Torquay (156 Nautical Miles ) at an average speed of 25.7mph..of the 27 boats that started 14 finished but only 9 within the time zone.
Many famous names of the future featured in that first race....Jim Wynne, Don Shead, Dick Bertram with American offshore Champion Sam Griffith and a certain Renato “Sonny “Levi...
Thunderbolt was raced again in 1962 by Pamela Campbell (wife of Bruce) with Lettis Curtis famous as one of the famous Spitfire delivery women of WW2, as crew...but failed to finish due to fuel feed problems after running 5th...
She again raced in 1963 with an all woman crew including Lettis Curtis and champion ladies downhill skier Hilary Laing...they finished 13th...
Thunderbolt was then retired from racing and became a family cruiser based in the South of France where she was discovered many years later on the dockside of a marina under writ for unpaid dues by none other than Don Shead....she was shipped back to the UK, via a short spell in a French Museum, to Don's house at Hursley then Stockbridge where she was gradually fading away, riddled with rot and destined to become bonfire fodder......until...
In 2006 whilst glancing through an old copy of Motorboat and Yachting I came across an article about Don Shead which mentioned the fact that he had her in his back garden at Stockbridge...I made arrangements with him to go and see her, after asking how much he would want for her should she be for sale he responded “you restore her, you can have her” !....
So on the 1st of April 2006 she arrived in Brockenhurst to begin her long rebirth...culminating with an appearance ( bearing in mind she was just a restored shell) at the then revived Earls Court Boat Show alongside Telstar and entrants for the planned 2008 Round Britain Race...
By 2010 she was ready, complete with 2 small block Chevrolets to appear at the Anniversary gathering at Torquay to celebrate 50 years of the COWES TORQUAY RACE....
She was then rechristened in the RYS basin at Cowes by Tommy Sopwith who remarked she looks better now than she did when I owned her...
Ongoing maintenance ensures that she will hopefully be with us a few years more, She also shows how the worlds most famous Offshore Powerboat Race has developed offshore cruising and how racing craft evolved over the years to the high speed entrants you see today which can now reach Torquay in under 90 mins a far cry from the 7 nearly 8 hours of 1961...
Mike James
CLASSIC POWERBOAT CLUB