Technical Safety

In the last few years passive safety has increased to such a extent that it is almost total. As a rule, the cockpits are to be built in carbon fibre and Kevlar (this applies also to those crafts whose hulls are wooden) and to be coated with shockproof material to protect the driver's head, arms and knees. The interiors must not have sharp angles or overhangs, which could be dangerous on impact.

The drivers are free to choose if they want the cockpit roof open or closed. The cockpit must, anyhow, feature a windscreen built in the same material as that of the American F14 fighters (Lexan), which is bullet-proof. Very few drivers now decide upon an open capsule, since most of them keep it closed - having avoided the mist-up of the windscreen by means of air inlets. The dome of the cockpit is nudged or slided (easy to open) and the driver sits on F1 car-type seats, secured with quick-snap safety belts. Every boat has to have reserve buoyancy which, in addition, allows the rescue of the driver in case of a capsize if he is unconscious.

Moreover, the tips of the hulls must be built in deformable material, usually plastic foam, which brings down to zero the penetration force in case of launch collision.

Helmet and lifejacket are, of course, compulsory. Nevertheless, every driver has to pass the so called "turtle test" (because of the name of the device used, which is similar to a large turtle), which is carried out in a swimming pool. They have to demonstrate to be able to exit the sunken cockpit. Those who partake in an F1 powerboat race have to hold a super license issued by their national federation and recognised by the URM. It is valid for one year. The maximum age is 59 years.


Since the dunk test became part of the driver licensing requirements, rescue teams have become personally familiar with the test and what it involves.

Osprey Rescue Team
This name really suits this team.
The team is British, from Stafford. The "boys" are all physically and mentally young regardless of their dates of birth. They are unfailing, invaluable, irreplaceable. More, they are insoluble, stainless when they have to jump into the water to rescue a driver who has suffered a tip over (capsize in the nautical jargon). They are, in a word, inalienable. Without them, today, no-one in modern powerboating could exist.

The essential equipment of the team consists of two pneumatic dinghies, powered by 135 HP. Mercury outboard motors.

The whole Blue Circus owes the Osprey Team very much.Every single diver will, soon or later, be pulled out of a sunken canopy or (if he has been so swift, and lucky as tocome out of the capsule by himself) dragged out of the water by their strong and skillful hands. The team will provide them with first aid. Sometimes it is just psychological help, when the driver is unharmed. At other times they take some focused and decisive course of 'action, when the accident is more serious.Actions whose timing has to be within a few endless, vital seconds. The quicker the team rid the racing course of damaged launches and the related scraps the sooner the race can start again. The new start will of course follow the regular break. We have seen the Osprey "boys" in action dozens of times. They never hesitated. Their actions had always been long-studied and practised. Synchronised like the gears of a mechanism which must not have any hitch, any blunder. The toll would be a human life. We have even seen them put out a burning launch and rescue the driver before he himself could realise what was going on.

They are substantially volunteers: they get paid expenses and an attendance fee. They very keenly get to venue, be it Saint Petersburg or Porto Cervo, in a big truck as black as coal (out of respect for the Mercury logo: "The Black Corsair") functioning as service station and as primes stove. It is an Iveco lorry and, moreover, from it they unload a ton of good humour so as to counterbalance and reduce the usual tension of a world championship. Their names? No, it would be unfair: they are a team, they are interchangeable. While being English, they have adopted the motto: "All for one ...".