Royal Lymington Yacht Club’s William Hancock (12) made light work of torrid conditions on 15 September to be crowned 2013 Honda RYA Youth RIB Champion at the PSP Southampton Boat Show. William is the son of Versadock Chairman, Phillip Hancock.
Competing in front of a packed crowd, 28 young power boating finalists from across the country showed great skill and speed at the throttle of the two Honda powered Ribcraft 4.8m RIBs, tackling the difficult championship course in blustery winds and at times heavy rain. In the 8-12 age group William Hancock from blasted his way to championship glory with a winning time of 01:02:28.
This time was the second fastest in the country in all age groups – an amazing achievement.
William skilfully manoeuvred around the tricky and testing course, which included a slalom run, a 360 degree reverse around a buoy and a stop exercise. William wins a fantastic Honwave T40 RIB with a Honda BF20 engine for the Club. Presenting the prizes were Steve Morris, Head of Power Equipment at Honda, Charlie Chan from Ribcraft and RYA CEO, Sarah Treseder.
A delighted William commented: “It feels great to be a champion today; I’m very pleased with the result. I’ve been training quite a lot at our club but I didn’t expect to win, I was hoping to get into the top three maybe so I’m really pleased. My club have been really supportive so I think they will be really happy when they find out I’ve won the RIB!”
Chris Wilson
Managing Director
chris@versadock.com
