The power and the passion

CHRIS HILLOCK/Waikato Times

HIGH SPEED: Warwick Lupton's boat Annihilator is put through its paces yesterday at Lake Karapiro.

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There is noise and then there is the earth-shaking, eardrum-bursting noise of hydroplane racing.

Warwick Lupton has been racing the high-performance boats for 25 years but he still needs to take a step or two back when somebody cranks up the engine of his new Annihilator hydroplane.

Initially Mr Lupton only wanted a boat to use for water-skiing but he got hooked on the sport after a friend tricked him into going to a race meet.

And now hydroplane racing is a passion.

His new boat took 4500 hours to build but finally Mr Lupton and his team are ready to launch it this weekend at the Masport Cup hydroplane racing competition at Lake Karapiro.

"I have a team of 33 and we are all based out of Waverley but not one of us is paid because we can't afford it. We do it because we love it," he said.

Normally hydroplanes can reach speeds of up to 270 kilometres per hour but Mr Lupton said he was hopeful his new boat would eventually break the 320kmh mark.

"It could take two weeks, it could take a year. We have to get everything running smoothly first," he said.

Weighing just 937 kilograms, half the weight of the other boats in the same class, the hydroplane is based on the theory that because it is lighter, it needs less power to run it.

"Normally the boats can have anywhere from 1800 to 2500 horsepower. This one only has 1200 horsepower but we believe we can run this boat with less horsepower and still keep up with everyone else," he said.

Mr Lupton said the hydroplane was built as a replica of a model he had used to test the theory.

"The model just flew and so I believe that the full-scale boat will fly too. We had to build three boats just to get one but now we can make one pretty quick if it works."

Mr Lupton's dream is to take the hydroplane to Montreal where he hopes he will be able to sell the boat to other speedboat enthusiasts.

The Masport Cup racing meet kicks off today from 9am until 4pm and will continue tomorrow.

- © Fairfax NZ News