Some things to be aware of:

• All the photos are reduced in size for speed of access. The originals are 5472 x 3648 (20mp). For the most part, all these are 800 x 600
• None of the photos have been checked for quality or content. That means there may be some that are completely out of focus, too light or too dark, have an odd colour cast, have half the boat in the picture or some other quality issue
• If the photo(s) you are interested in are in focus but have some other quality issue, then it is probably possible to fix them to an acceptable level in photoshop – The blue colour cast on photos taking in early morning for example is easily fixed, as are overly dark or light images for the most part
• It is also easy to crop the images. For example if the boat is too small relative to the frame. The original image is much larger in size than the ones in these galleries, so you can cut a small section out without too much quality loss
• To request a hi-res version (Maximum 5 per person), please email webmaster@mpba.org.uk. You must quote the date(s) and image numbers. You can find these by clicking the “i” (info) icon in google photos. If you send a message saying “The blue boat in heat 5” or some other vague description, I cannot help you.

Here’s a couple of examples (click to enlarge):

Gallery image:

Photoshop image:

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Galleries

Sunday 29th July
Monday 30th July
Tuesday 31st July
Wednesday 1st August
Thursday 2nd August
Friday 3rd August
Saturday 4th August H & O Finals
Saturday 4th August H & O Finals pt2
Monday 6th August
Tuesday 7th August
Wednesday 8th August
Thursday 9th August
Thursday 9th August pt2
Friday 10th August
Saturday 11th August Endurance Finals
Saturday 11th August Endurance Finals pt2

Junior Luke Burgess kicked off with a Bronze in the 3.5cc Offshore, just narrowly missing out on a Silver in his first year of racing. Great job Luke!

This was followed by a Silver for MPBA Life Member Ian Folkson in the 3.5cc Senior Offshore class. Ian was just edged out by 22 time Gold Medal winner Kjell Noddeland from Norway, who is almost an unstoppable force in Hydro and Offshore.

Finally, a superb Gold / Silver double for Martin Fields and Keith Burgess in the Senior 3.5cc Hydro class.

In Endurance, Zack Humphries claimed a fantastic Gold medal in 3.5cc Endurance, confirming his status as the best in the World in 3.5cc

Congratulations to all the Endurance qualifiers for the 2018 iMBRA World Championships:

Three team members had already claimed their place through great results at iMBRA Internationals during the season: Zack Humphries (3.5cc) with a fantastic double win in the European Championships in Hungary and the overall iMBRA Western League. Martin Fields (7.5cc) with great results including wins in Oudenaarde and the GB International qualifies through the iMBRA League, as does Ian Folkson (27cc) with a string of consistent podium finishes in Gonzaga, Oudenaarde and the GB International.

3.5cc – had the highest number of entrants and almost certainly the largest group of quality boats/drivers with the potential to qualify. GB Drivers Champion Mark Wraight set what proved to be an unbeatable score in the 1st round. Despite a mishap in round 1, Leon Morgan showed his big race experience by putting in a great 2nd round score, even making an unplanned fuel stop! Dave Marles drove a superb 2nd round to put all this seasons reliability issues behind him and help make up for missing iMBRA 2016. A few eyebrows were raised by the top class driving from Martin Hillstead to grab the other spot, leaving more than a few experienced international racers rueing what went wrong.

7.5cc – Dave Marles drove a perfect race with his best boat. Probably only Martin Fields can challenge Dave’s 7.5 when everything is working properly and many expected this was the class he was certain to qualify in. 2 out of 2 and Dave was on a roll. Geoff Parmenter continued his good form from the NDC races with a solid drive to qualify and make up for the disappointment in the 3.5. Experienced international racer Robert Daniel has had a lot of success with his 7.5 boat and he drove a measured race to ensure qualification. Julian Waumsley’s Pegasus was fast and reliable as usual giving Julian a fairly comfortable qualifying run. No real surprises in the 7.5cc class and many would have predicted these guys to make the team.

15cc – A walk in the park for Phill Fields. First in the water in both rounds and top scorer in both. 2 Perfect runs to complement his win at the GB International last month. That man Dave Marles makes it 3 out of 3 by reigning in the power when necessary and keeping out of trouble. Zack Humphries tiptoed his Boudicca through the race after a stop in round 1 to make sure of qualification. Zack can go a lot faster but he’s not 100% happy with the handling of his current boat and we expect we’ll see a new one for 2018. Sam Lincoln drove a faultless race to edge out Mikey Hillstead and maybe put a small smile on his dad’s face despite Mark not making it in 15cc this time.

27cc – No surprises here. James Taylor wins with a different boat in each round also setting the highest laps of the day. Mick Pain drove a steady race as usual to grab the second place. And would you believe it? It’s 4 out of 4 for Dave Marles who has qualified with every boat he entered! Dave was obviously as humble as ever taking the plaudits! Steve Baxter qualifies easily with his speed.