T
he chances are that unless you’re a powerboat
racer, a military adviser or a raving boat nut,
you may never have heard of Ice Marine or the
Bladerunner boats it builds. On the other hand,
I can pretty much guarantee you will have seen
one before.
Cast your mind back to the opening ceremony
of the 2012 Olympics and you may remember
the iconic television footage of David Beckham powering down
the Thames at night on a fancy-looking boat with the Olympic
torch burning brightly in the bow on the fi nal leg of its journey
to the stadium. That boat was a Bladerunner RIB 35, and
crouching under the centre console ready to take over the
helm for the very public docking manoeuvre was Ice Marine’s
founder and managing director Jeremy Watts.
I have another more personal reason to remember them by,
involving a very close shave with a channel marker buoy. At 70
knots. In the dark. I was reporting on the Bradstone Challenger
team’s preparation for an attempt on the Round Britain speed
record in a Bladerunner 51 and was one of the few people not
wearing night vision goggles at the time. They managed to restart
my heart and went on to break the record with hours to spare.
BRIT PACK
The glass sunroof and
deck hatches let plenty
of light into the interior