Top Gear Xmas Special 2013, 5 mins filmed on Match, now released

  • Thread starter Thread starter jfm
  • Start date Start date
jfm said:
Maybe oldgit has a point :). If you need help getting a S Coast UK berth for the Azzura, plenty on this forum can help you :)
Click to expand...
Naah... Cold and windy as the weather is right now, overall the temperature is still warm enough to stay onboard barefoot and with no need to turn the heating on...
Oldgit might have a point, but on second thought, maybe not.
 
petem said:
Yep, and if last Christmas was anything to go by this might be the tv highlight.
Click to expand...
Yup it sounds like the usual dreary Christmas for me. A house full of unwanted relatives who won't leave, 27 pairs of socks for presents (I'm not joking there) and nothing to look forward to on TV except Top Gear
 
On reflection, oldgit doesn't have a point. Flight was smooth, and the 1 degree C in gatwick ( can see your breath) contrasted a bit sharply with sunny T shirty Antibes. And gatwick south have installed lightening fast auto passport machines so no queues

I tried to grab a few screenshots from Top Gear when watching it on a MacBook Pro in iTunes from the hard drive but it wouldn't let me. All the command shift 3 screen grabs were grey squares. Any ideas?
 
View attachment 36938
jfm said:
On reflection, oldgit doesn't have a point. Flight was smooth, and the 1 degree C in gatwick ( can see your breath) contrasted a bit sharply with sunny T shirty Antibes. And gatwick south have installed lightening fast auto passport machines so no queues

I tried to grab a few screenshots from Top Gear when watching it on a MacBook Pro in iTunes from the hard drive but it wouldn't let me. All the command shift 3 screen grabs were grey squares. Any ideas?
Click to expand...
View attachment 36939
Works on the ipad...home key and hold button...
 
Thanks Nigel. I just googled the problem and internet commentators say it words on iPad but not macbook. Apparently if you download VLC player and use that you can grab frames. Might give that a go later
 
Thx jfm. That helo pic of Match looks good. But I reckon I could save a bit of fuel and drive at displacement speed from St Raph to St T and still get there faster than I could do it in a car - in July or August, anyway.

James' scooter would be faster than any of them. :D
 
Seem to remember a previous TG where Richard was racing James to St Tropez, Richard in a fabulous Ferrari, poor James in a rather bouncy Sunseeker! James's spine taking a beating & then being pulled by a French patrol boat…. hope Match 2 had a rather softer ride! Just downloading now, cannot wait to watch this & at see how the famous (forum) boat handles the Clarkson abuse…;) Rather your boat than mine JFM
 
benjenbav said:
Thx jfm. That helo pic of Match looks good. But I reckon I could save a bit of fuel and drive at displacement speed from St Raph to St T and still get there faster than I could do it in a car - in July or August, anyway.

James' scooter would be faster than any of them. :D
Click to expand...
Haha I know. That's what I told em when they called to discuss the program concept with me. I said I could swim from St Raph to St Trop and still beat an E/F type or Ducati :-)

But, if you look at the plotter track you'll see we did not exactly take a straight line route :-)
 
pan said:
Seem to remember a previous TG where Richard was racing James to St Tropez, Richard in a fabulous Ferrari, poor James in a rather bouncy Sunseeker! James's spine taking a beating & then being pulled by a French patrol boat…. hope Match 2 had a rather softer ride! Just downloading now, cannot wait to watch this & at see how the famous (forum) boat handles the Clarkson abuse…;) Rather your boat than mine JFM
Click to expand...

I gotta say, there was no abuse. The whole TG team was delightful, bith in the planning and on the day. We had JC, plus Brian Klein (co producer) and 2x camera and 1x sound guy on board, including Phil Churchward (Director and camera). JC has his image that he needs to keep up on camera but like all his colleagues he was very polite and respectful to us and the boat. People warned me they would all barge on and take over and I'd regret it, but it wasn't like that at all.

Most of the filmed sequences were 28kts SOG kinda thing. JC does like going fast :-) Remember the bit where they're drinking red cocktails on the flybridge? Well my stewardess prepared some real orange cocktails (they had to be non alcoholic so as to be PC) and when they were first served the drink flew out of the glasses because we were going so fast. We had to do a bit of a clean up. Then with all the spillages we'd run out of orange, so in a bit of quick thinking my stewie mixed paprika into fizzy Perrier and egg white to produce the red cocktail-looking concoctions. This explains why no-one was actually drinking them...

I'll post some stills in a minute
 
Here are some stills from the day. If anyone pictured doesn't want to be, let me know and I'll blur the images

This is Match and Wave (photoboat) moored in the south basin at St Raphael, between Cannes and St Tropez, ready for arrival of TG crew. Getting in here was a tight squeeze because the south basin doesn't let 25m boats in and 18m really is the sensible maximum. Entering was tighter than Gargalu passage and the ground lines had to be attached to midship cleats. Jeremy Clarkson sensibly didn't volunteer to drive out of the port

topgear3.jpg


topgear2.jpg


topgear1.jpg


topgear4.jpg



Below is the TG crew arriving. They did most of the on-road filming form a couple of highly equipped LR Discos. The guy in the straw hat is Olliver Winbolt, who is head of marketing at Fairline and also has a car/boat engineering background. Not to mention nice taste in music and drives an Inspector Morse jag

topgear5.jpg


topgear5a.jpg



Then we went out to sea for couple of hours. The photoboat was REALLY close!

topgear7.jpg


topgear9.jpg


Below is JC driving. And talking! Apart from a couple of relaxed moments like this when I could grab a photo I was at the lower helm with Nick Barke staring at radar and out the window, ready to seize control from JC if needed (the throttles are set up to hot swap if you know how, and I didn't tell JC how). It was very busy in the bay (August late afternoon) and there were plenty of boats to hit, and JC was going fast, and talking into camera, and the photoboat was scarily close. Loads of potential for smash up. So Nick and I were on proper concentrating lookout. Actually there was only one point where control was grabbed at the lower helm. Anyway, here is JC doing his stuff
topgear7a.jpg



The two below are taken from inside Match and the black at edges of pics is Match's window framing, to show you how close we were

topgear6.jpg


topgear8.jpg



It was a fantastic evening in St Tropez with no wind and one of the beautiful orange sunsets you get there. Below are 2 quick snaps as we were leaving. That's Nick Barke on the foredeck, for the many on here who know him. And Camilla Lallyett, who does Fairline's Events management

topgear11.jpg

topgear10.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top