Merseyside River Festival & Power Boat Races 2011
Photographs by Patrick Trollope.

LIVERPOOL held a celebration of all things nautical as the river Mersey will be the stage for one of Liverpool's most exciting events of 2011. Despite the problems at the beginning of the year with cancelled Liverpool Boat Show, Liverpool City Council and Mersey Partnership's alternative programme was a fantastic success. Sadly it was going to be bigger, but the weather meant the cancelation of some of the alternative program, but what a show with the remaining items. This was the first time since 2005 that the Merseyside River Festival has taken place and all who attended are hoping it returns next year! The festivities started with the visit of Queen Elizabeth and a firework display and grew over the weekend into a very big event. On the Mersey, the brave came out in the gales to watch the amazing power boat races and Jet ski racing, on both the Saturday, 10 September and the Sunday, 11 September, thanks to the P1 SuperStock and the P1 AquaX. Billed as the 'Grand Prix of the Sea', the two classes of the P1 SuperStock where even more exciting than F1 what was on the TV that same weekend! On the Saturday, the weather change so fast many of the teams found then selves flying thanks to the choppy conditions. The conditions meant one boat capsized and the 250 Title race had to be halted. Other boats in that class had to be helped back to port, after loosing motors. But the smaller boats in the 150 Title race did not suffer as bad. The following day only the 150 Title could compete, but the action was still amazing! The final race gave Team Purple the win. The decider for the P1 Panther Class, 250 Title, was taken from the results on the Saturday, but 3 of the P1 Panther Class did go onto the river to do a few laps, to show the sea racing enthusiasts what the boats could do, on the Sunday. The over all series winner of the P1 Panther Class was the Pertemps, with Driver John Wilson and Navigator Neil Scarborogh, who both come from landlocked West Midlands. Oddly it was John Wilson who took us out to show us what the Panther Class could do and the video will be up very soon on our video archive site Southport.TV! The only group who looked unaffected by the conditions on the river was the P1 AquaX who took to the water on both Saturday and Sunday, entertaining the crowds as they race full throttle in the 2011 deciders of their Jet Ski competition. But it was not just the action on the ground and in the water that was on offer. For sea going enthusiasts a slight change was on offer as in the skies above as an aerial display was given on both days by the Russian Yakovlevs  who are a UK based aerobatic display team that has earned a reputation for excellence over the last 12 years. If that was not enough, well the Albert Dock plaid host to many activities like the Merseyfire Rescue Service Exercise, Historic Diving Exercise, Jet Ski Display, Watersports Activities, Wakeboarding, Tall Ships that where open to public, Liverpool Food & Drink Festival’s Bistro Village, Street Theatre, Smooth Radio Concert featuring Beverly Knight, not forgetting other live music from CJs Jazz Quintet, River Niger, The Sixteen Tonnes & Abelwell Foundation, The Mono LPs, Callum McMorran & Science of the Lamps, Liverpool Community Choir, The Shanty Kings & Made in Liverpool, to name a just a few.... Here’s look at just some of the many thing that happened over the weekend. We would like to thank every one who helped over the event and we hope to see Powerboat P1 Management Ltd. back again next year, as to this fantastic festival! Do not forget to take a look at out Queen Elizabeth photographs, click here to see them if you have not already taken a look.

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