Wanda offshore was formed in 1997, a small team with a determined young lady aged 17 years, wanting to compete in the male dominated sport of powerboat racing.

Wanda offshore is a small team and consists of Tom Crump, father of Vicky, Clive Jones, the team mechanic, Jerry Pocknell Paramedic, with Mark Rousell as Navigator, and Vicky Crump (now Cadman) as the team driver. The team travel to every event with their own safety team and boat.

1997, the first year, was great. Wanda Offshore entered the world of OCR (offshore circuit racing), the boat was a Phantom 16 with a 90hp Yamaha engine, races were hard and sometimes very rough, but never too much for the young star who took the National Championship in her first year at the tender age of 18.

1998, the second year, the team decided to move class but remain in OCR this year. The boat was a Phantom 19 with 140hp Yamaha.

This year was an all-girl team as Mark had family commitments. The new girl on the block was Sue Catchpole from Dorset, who teamed with Vicky to a great year, winning races but not quite with the luck of 1997.

The team suffered many problems but did, however, lead the championship until the last race when it was snatched from them. The team did get a creditable 2nd place in the National Championship.

1999, the third year, again the team decided to remain in OCR. This time Mark was back as Navigator and the boat had been worked on through the winter, with Vicky out testing most weekends. The first race arrived, the team were flying, and won the first race of 1999. The team then continued to have success, with Vicky and Mark taking the National championship, and then the endurance record on Lake Windermere.

2000 saw the team move to offshore racing with an Oke Manerfelt bat boat which was the only one of its kind to have a canopy. This took several months to prepare and lots of testing and change of props to find the correct set up.

The first race was at Cleethorpes, a mirror flat day, the boat was set up and on the start line, the flag went down and Wanda was in first place along with the World Champions. What was unknown was the swell which, being in the lead, Vicky and Mark were the first to hit. The boat took off vertically and slammed down, spinning the boat 180 degrees, causing them to have to stop and re-start the engine. They did manage to make up a lot of the ground and finished a creditable 5th place out of 15 boats. The season had mixed fortune but they managed to finish 4th overall and 3rd in the Gibraltar Championship.

In 2001, the team remained in offshore, with the boat from 2000. Again Mark was unable to compete due to commitments and new navigators were being tested. The year saw lots of problems with the boat, and many different set ups being tried, but the boat was not on form all year. However, not all was lost, and Vicky decided to have a go at the National Ladies Outright record on Lake Windermere. This would not be an easy task as Vicky was to drive the F1 boat of the World record holder Ted Walsh (a well known F1 Racer). Through the summer months Vicky travelled to Windermere to practice for her attempt. October came and Vicky was to try for the record which stood at 93mph. The weather was bad and the beginning of the week was looking very doubtful but, luckily, on Thursday 18th October there was a weather window and Vicky was able to commence her runs.

She averaged 107mph over two runs, smashing the current record, and earning a K7 gold star. This ended the year on a real high and the decision for 2002 was to purchase an F1 boat to compete in.

2002 saw the delivery of the F1 boat and F2 XR2 engine and Vicky travelled once again up to Windermere to practice in the new boat. Time was taken out as Vicky married in 2002 but she was again at Lake Windermere in October to compete in the speed record week. The week had many mishaps and started off badly with attempts only being made in the 90s, which was making the team very concerned. The week went on, on a downward slope, with Vicky trying harder and harder to reach the speeds needed to break the standing record. Ater nearly losing the boat on one of the runs it was decided to leave the attempts for 2002 and concentrate on getting the boat ready for a serious record in 2003. The highest speed of the week was 105mph which, the team later found out, was the fastest time an F1 Burgess with an F2 engine had ever done.

The team kept the all-English Burgess for 2003 and purchased an EFI engine which should give the boat some more speed on the runs. The year's testing was disturbed as Vicky found out she was pregnant so all practicing was being planned for 6 weeks after the baby's due date. Justin (Vicky's husband) had taken on the job of trying to change the weight of the boat to make it better to drive and spent a lot of time getting it perfect so Vicky could test. The baby arrived on 25th June, a healthy little girl, and by July Vicky was back up in Windermere testing the new engine and the new set up that husband Justin had been working hard at. The testing went well and all was looking good for the attempt in October. By this time Vicky had completed the novice licence and been upgraded to a full National circuit licence.

October arrived and the team travelled to Windermere. The weather was good for the first few days but the attempts were, again, not what they had hoped for. Vicky was having trouble with the boat's handling and was finding it very difficult to hold on to the steering.

However, by mid week, Vicky managed a speed of 111.9mph and again beat the record, increasing her own record by 4mph. The team were happy but they all feel the boat is capable of more and are now looking forward to the 2004 record week.

The whole team since 2000 have been set on the idea of setting up kids' racing, so a lot of time has gone into that, and Vicky's front line racing has taken a back seat... but there is still lots more to come.


October 2004 - new personal best of 115.9mph

October 2004 saw an eventful week on Lake Windemere for Vicky when, whilst attempting to break the 116mph record, the gear box blew up on the home run. Vicky had to settle for 115.9mph but again the record was increased so she was happy. A ban on record attempts on Windermere is due to be enforced in March so next year's record week will be held on Lake Coniston... watch this space!