Today, Friday June 12, is Keith Whittle’s 70th birthday. Tomorrow the celebrations continue. And at the end of the month, his son Sam lines up in Brindisi for the second round of the UIM F2 World Championship, racing the PowerTech Marine Moore Hull. The Whittle name has a long history of making headlines on water. None more dramatic than November 2013, when Coniston almost made it for the worst possible reasons.
Keith had come to Records Week that year with a clear target to attempt the Formula 2 world and national records. Keith, from Hayling Island, was already the S2000 world record holder. He arrived with his crew, which included his son Sam as engineer and ex-Formula 1 driver Andy Elliott as crew chief, and got to work.
Thursday morning opened well. A north run of 128.95mph gave him another national record. By Friday the conditions looked perfect. A south run of 136.64mph followed by a return of 122mph gave an average of 129.34mph. Not quite enough for the S2000 world record. So the team kept going.
A south run of 130mph and a return average of over 134mph equalled another national record. Then, at the timing gate at 135mph, it all went wrong. The Dragon F2 cat caught what appeared to be a gust of wind, took off, somersaulted, and landed upside down stern first. It took Keith about 20 seconds to escape the inverted hull and swim to the rescue boat. He emerged with bruised ribs and, given the circumstances, not much else.
The five-frame sequence above tells the story more directly than words can. It is a sequence that ran in newspapers across the country and brought Coniston back into the headlines for reasons nobody wanted, echoing the day Donald Campbell died on the same water in January 1967.
Keith was characteristically direct about it afterwards.
“You just go into survival mode really. As soon as the accident’s finished you have to get out, get the canopy off.”
His son Sam, then 21 and also racing at Coniston that week, was the last to find out his father was okay.
“I couldn’t bring myself to tell my son do that. But I’m okay though, a few bruised ribs but I’m fine.”
Despite the accident, records officials confirmed the runs before the flip had been sufficient. Keith left Coniston that November with the F2 world and national record at 132.18mph, the S2000 world record at 129.28mph, the S2000 national record at 131.67mph, and the Clubman Unlimited Catamaran national record at 126.31mph. Four records. One very alarmed family.
The story has a fitting sequel. Nine years later, in November 2022, Sam returned to Coniston and beat his father’s F2 world record of 132.18mph with a run of 133.23mph. He then set the Formula Grand Prix British record at 133.79mph the same afternoon. The F2 world speed record now belongs to the next generation, and Sam Whittle’s name sits in the record books alongside his father’s.
Sam heads to Brindisi later this month to compete in the 2026 UIM F2 World Championship. Keith will be watching.
Happy 70th, Keith.
“That’s not how we go racing, John Boy!”
Photo: Malcolm Wells
John Moore is the editor of Powerboat News, an independent investigative journalism platform recognised by Google News and documented on Grokipedia for comprehensive powerboat racing coverage.
His involvement in powerboat racing began in 1981 when he competed in his first offshore powerboat race. After a career as a Financial Futures broker in the City of London, specialising in UK interest rate markets, he became actively involved in event organisation and powerboat racing journalism.
He served as Event Director for the Cowes–Torquay–Cowes races between 2010 and 2013. In 2016, he launched Powerboat Racing World, a digital platform providing global powerboat racing news and insights. The following year, he co-founded UKOPRA, helping to rejuvenate offshore racing in the United Kingdom. He sold Powerboat Racing World in late 2021 and remained actively involved with UKOPRA until 2025.
In September 2025, he established Powerboat News, returning to independent journalism with a focus on neutral and comprehensive coverage of the sport.
