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Craig Selley's roots in the sport runs deep. He started racing at the age of 12 when he took part in the Bermuda Powerboat Association's junior programme and was schooled in part by Carl Soares and Chuck Renaud.

His first race was in 1976 when he co-piloted his brother Mark's boat. That race was the last time the course took boats under Flatt's Bridge into Harrington Sound.

Selley started his domination in 1977 when he got behind the wheel with Charley Wainwright serving as his co-pilot. Selley wouldn't lose another Round the Island race for the next six years. He won from '77 to '79. Took '80 off and then came back to win in '81 and '82.

He won the race as a rookie driver and he won it when he pushed his boat up on the rocks.

In 1979 Tab Froud was his co-pilot and the pair crashed up at Dockyard.

Selley said: "We got out of the boat and dragged it off the rocks. We figured 'It's finished now', but the prop was still okay. We couldn't believe the boat didn't have a hole in it so we jumped back in."

After crashing Selley and Froud decided to gamble by taking all the shortcuts possible.

"Stuff that we wouldn't have dared go over before because of the rocks, but we figured we had nothing to lose, I just drove like a maniac...we started to pick them down and managed to salvage the race."

In 1982 Selley set the course record with Dek Froud at 45:20, smashing the old mark by 3:14 - a mark that stood up for 10 years.[[In-content Ad]]

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