‘I hate to admit it, but loss of powerboat week was my fault’

Richard Ridout was the driving force in the 1980s and 90s when the world’s finest powerboaters came to the island as part of their grand prix circuit, but fears that the island is no longer looking for the opportunity.

‘Sports tourism is the bones of future tourism. There is no doubt about it,’ he said.

‘My view is that you have got to invest in some flagship event of some sort and live off of it’.

Powerboat Week was hugely popular, generating worldwide publicity, but also increasingly controversial over the years, as North Beach was given over to a ‘village’ for two weeks in September, and States funding was under the microscope regularly.

Mr Ridout recalled how it ended in the mid-1990s.

‘I don’t like to admit it, but it was probably my fault,’ he said.

‘We [Dave Corson and I] went to a Tourist Board meeting to talk through what exposure we had the previous year and to what we were looking forward to do the next.

‘The board was generally very supportive but one deputy said it was all well and good having £200m. of publicity, but it came in magazines as far afield as Japan, America and New Zealand. “They are no good to us”, he said. I said if they are no good to you, nor is the event, and walked out.’

The Class One events – those for the biggest boats – went to Plymouth and then Dundee.

‘I just couldn’t bear someone saying you don’t want publicity,’ Mr Ridout said.

The idea of bringing powerboating to Guernsey dates back nearly four decades, and had government support from the start, he said.

‘The Tourist Board started it with £5,000 or £10,000, and could see the wisdom of increasing it. Its view was that if we can use the water that surrounds us then we are not taking up island space and bringing in tourism, indirectly, and therefore then that will bring in a lot of publicity. They wanted it for publicity and ancillary tourism.

‘My wife had to book 6,000 bed nights over two weeks in the fortnight of Powerboat Week. We have not got 6,000 beds now.’

Coverage, he said, was global.

‘We had worldwide television. In 1988 there was £204m. of press coverage, all supported by cuttings and magazines. For that, the Tourist Board, who were mostly supportive, as were all the government departments, which were all totally supportive of people coming here, they put in £250,000.’

Powerboating led to the prestigious Swan European Regatta moving from Cowes to Guernsey.

‘That didn’t cost the States a lot of money because then we were on a roll and had the publicity, we had all the coverage, the journalists and the TV companies. They came and covered it – it didn’t cost much.

‘I remember Richard Ozanne [then Tourist Board president] used to say, what we want to do is fill all the hotels, not with competitors, but with tourists or journalists.’

At its height the States gave £250,000 to Powerboat Week, most of which, Mr Ridout said, was spent on publicity. The organising committee used people who also worked the Formula One circuit.

‘He got paid nearly all the budget, but he brought all the F1 people, as we always made sure we didn’t clash with an F1 event, and we used to do our press day normally just after the British Grand Prix, so the press came. That’s how we spread the word.’

The States’ grant was cut over the years but Mr Ridout said that was not problem. Initial publicity had ensured that repeat coverage could be secured without such a big spend.

‘We led the world, every competitor wanted to come. 122 boats were here in 1988, and in 1989 for Swan Week we had 68 Swan yachts. I’d also been offered the world championships, instead of going to Nantucket.

‘People loved it. They loved the water, they loved the island, the changeable weather conditions and they loved all the people. Some of the New Zealanders still come here for a holiday.

‘We proved how you could do it. Jersey were sick as parrots when we did it and tried all sorts of ways to getting on it, but the competitors wouldn’t go there.’

Now, of course, Jersey is leading the way in the Channel Islands on sports tourism, with the Super League Triathlon and now the training camp for the British & Irish Lions, for which the States of Jersey has contributed £175,000.

‘They’ve done very well with their triathlon. Good on them, they’ve done a good job.

‘As for the rugby business, Jersey will get so much publicity, but what you have got to have is a machine to handle it. You have got to be able to use it and follow it on.’

'We should be looking at fishing'

WHAT could Guernsey’s next move be in the sports tourism market?

Richard Ridout said it was important to use the island’s natural resources, and he has an off-the-wall idea. Fishing.

‘Fishing has a huge following. You can bring so many people [along] via television.’