During Sunday 12.2 on the International boat fair in Helsinki Finland a race with R/C sailing boats and some interviews was arranged for rising Finnish powerboat stars and Olympic sailors.

The powerboat team consisted of F1 “Rookie of the year” Alec Weckström, future F2 driver Alexander Lindholm and Racewknd! organizer Nuppu Böhmig. Both sport categories were first interviewed on stage regarding how they have been able to get to where they are today. When the interviews were finished there was a race between the two different sport categories.

The powerboat racers knew that they didn´t stand a chance against the sailors on their “home turf”, which was a 5-lap race with small radio-controlled sailing boats in a big pool with electric fans on one side of the course. However, the powerboat racers did have an ace up their sleeves. Since boat racers are not used to be depending on the wind to move forward but instead by engines, the plan was to use a battery powered blower tool to gain some advantage.

Before the race began Alec hid the blower tool behind his back and as soon as the race was started, he started blowing with full power! For the first few laps when Alexander controlled the boat the powerboaters was in the lead against professional sailors!! When the sailors were coming with the wind Alec used the blower to blow towards them and make it more difficult and when Alexander was going with his boat against the wind Alec blew from behind to help Alexander gain some speed.

Some of the sailors was trying to protest against us but luckily it was ignored by the judges. Nuppu let the young racers control the boat as she was in charge of filming the event and uploading it to the Racewknd! Instagram-page. A driver swap was mandatory, so Alec and Alexander changed roles, and that´s when it started to go sideways. The sailors caught up, and after a while the decision was taken to once again let Alexander control the boat and Alec controlled the blower. Sadly, the sailors were to far ahead and it was impossible to catch up during the remaining 2 laps.

This was by no means a fair race as the Alec, Alexander and Nuppu did cheat (a bit). The sailors crossed the finish line first, but it was neck and neck between the two teams!! They probably deserved the victory more than the powerboaters. It was a great event and perhaps next time the powerboaters could get revenge in some other kind of race with engines instead of sails. It´s great to combine two different sport categories in a joint event!