It was anything but plain sailing for a Plymouth Evening Herald reporter when he took to the waters of the Plymouth Sound at 70mph in a high-speed powerboat.

Tristan Nichols was invited to take a spin with racing driver David Baker before the start of the Honda Formula-4Stroke Offshore Powerboat Championships.

It was the ride of a lifetime for Tristan, who discovered that 70mph on the water felt more like 700.

Having lived to tell the tale, Tristan informed readers of the Evening Herald: “From the word ‘go’ the 57-year-old veteran racer – with more than 22 years of experience – put pedal to the metal and we flew across the Sound like a bullet from a gun.

“On the outward journey he assured me that it wouldn’t seem so fast ‘once we had the wind behind us’.

“Laughing nervously, I thought back to the calm waters of Queen Anne’s Battery before we even set off – and then decided to shrug off the fear and enjoy myself.

“Twenty minutes later, teeth gritted and, remarkably, still smiling, I thought the end was in sight.”

But thanks to his colleague, Herald photographer Lucy Blake, it was just the beginning of Tristan’s extreme experience.

Lucy – watching from the safety of rigid inflatable boat in the Sound – asked David over the radio to “do some tight turns”.

David replied saying: “That’s all very well, my dear, but these boats are not designed for tight turns. They often result in the boat rolling over – oh what the heck”.

Tristan said: “Thinking back, one can only imagine the adrenaline rush of emotions that must fill the small cockpits of not only the Honda drivers and their navigators, but also the monster Class 1 powerboats which travel at speeds of up to 150 miles per hour.”

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