Powerboating: Sleepyhead who wakes up when the going gets rough

Peter Turner takes his boat Sleepyhead for a test run on Waitemata Harbour. Picture / Greg Bowker

Four-times New Zealand off-shore powerboat champion Peter Turner is hoping the tropical cyclone that has been mid-Pacific this week spins him some swell during this weekend's second round of the 2006 title race.

Turner was second to five-time champ Richard Shores in the smooth conditions on Lake Taupo in round one, but his boat Sleepyhead is more suited to choppy or rough conditions.

He reckons he's a good bet to make up the 15-second difference between himself and Shore's boat Placemakers when they meet again at Maraetai tomorrow.

Turner was flat out making propeller changes after trying a switch mid-week and then deciding the original version was faster.

Running a test, he hit a floating object and damaged one prop on the twin Mercruiser-driven catamaran.

The 8.2 litre engines pump out 525 horsepower that drives Sleepyhead at a top speed of 180km/h.

It's just under the top speed of Placemakers and on a par with others, including the Valder brothers Wayne and Grant in Jesse James.

Forty boats are entered in tomorrow's racing over 160km, the class one boats completing 12 laps of the circuit that runs in an L shape out from Maraetai towards Waiheke Island.

Turner, 48, won his titles in 1992, 94, 95 and 1996 and later retired from the sport, partly because of the ever-increasing costs.

He returned last year after Shores had equalled his and Graeme Horne's four-title record but couldn't stop the Auckland merchant banker making it five in 2005.

"Sitting on the beach didn't excite me too much," he said, while admitting to some nerves when in practice and in the pre-race build-up. "I do get the willies before a race but once it starts the adrenaline takes over.

"You worry more in practice because there isn't the same safety back-up there is during racing."

His new boat is a redesigned version of the Linder design he campaigned in the 1990s, a yacht designer helping modify it to extend the hull and tunnel, with a more up-to-date top and cockpits fitted.

His old crewmate Peter McGrath is racing on the world pro circuit with an Aussie team and Turner's co-driver is Craig Archer.

"We're hoping for some slop. There are a few boats in the same speed range," he said, nominating Wellington's Addictive Racing as another.

"Placemakers might be better in a straight line; we're better in a bit of rough."

The powerboats start at noon, preceded by jetski and thundercat racing.