Miles makes a huge splash in the word of power boating

MILES Jennings leads a double life.

By day, the Ebford resident sells a range of stoves and tiles from the city-based company he co-founded. When he's not doing that he races high-performance, big-engined, adrenalin-pumping speed boats.

He's not hiding anything — just look at his business cards, one for each role.

His Stovax Holdings card shows how successful his business has become, incorporating not only Stovax, but Gazco and tile outlet Original Style.

His racer's card has a chequered flag emblazoned across the front with a picture of him in overalls and sunglasses. The back of the card features the list of races, national and world championships he has won as well as records held.

The most recent race he took part in was the Round Britain Power Boat Race in June. The team had mixed fortunes with Miles suffering three broken ribs.

“My ribs are still hurting,” he said. “I can't sleep and I can't lie on my side. The adrenaline rush of the event has now gone.”

He said hopes for a British victory rested on his team and their 471 Silverline Original Style boat.

They were the David against the Goliaths of the Wettpunkt Austrian boat, the Italian Red FPT boat and the Greek Blue FPT boat.

After the first leg from Portsmouth to Plymouth, they were at the front of the field with a 16-minute advantage.

The second leg from Plymouth to Milford Haven was called off as the gale force-nine conditions made any potential rescue of a racer almost impossible.

Then on the third leg, from Milford Haven to Bangor, the team led for the first 20 miles in mountainous seas and it was while coming down the side of a large wave Miles injured himself.

“I landed badly on the steering wheel and broke three ribs and tore all the thoracic ligaments. We had to continue for another 180 agonising miles.”

Then while in second position, the boat broke down and they limped the last 12 miles on one engine. The team worked through the night to fix the boat and started the next leg without Miles due to his injuries.

The team eventually finished the race second in their RB2 class, despite blowing an engine on the final leg, incurring them time penalties and putting an end to any chance of winning overall.

Miles took part in the race with long-term friend Drew Langdon, whom he met at Exeter School when they were both pupils there.

Miles said: “Racing has always been in the blood. My father raced for Norton in the 1960s but unfortunately, he was killed in a motoring accident when I was three years old.”

Miles' interest in and passion for boats was supported by his mother when he was younger and more recently his partner, Roo, who he says is “extremely supportive”.

Miles began “pottering” with boats early on, his first was an N-tac when he was nine or 10. It had a three-and-a-half horsepower engine.

“I enjoyed water and water skiing. As a child, while other kids were watching football, I was reading and dreaming about power boat racing.

“I got a job at a local restaurant to save up £300 to pay for my first racing boat at age 16. I bought that boat.

“My mum drove me to race meetings, where I would get hopelessly beaten as my boat was not quick enough, but the experience set me on a course to race and each year I saved up for bigger and faster boats.”

Miles graduated through the classes to inshore racing, where he won his first British Inshore Championship in 1980. In 1981 he moved into offshore racing in a 16-foot Phantom with a 115 Mercury engine.

“I put a hole in it and it sank on my first race, which was in Brixham,” he said.

By 1984, Miles had won his third British Championship in the two-litre class. He then moved up through the four-litre and six-litre classes and up to Class 2 by 1990, when he won his first world championship.

“At this point, I was seriously into racing and had Faberge as a sponsor. During the 1980s though, power boat racing took a bit of a blow because of the recession.

“But soon afterwards, RIBS (rigid inflatables) became more popular and enabled us to take on more of a sense of adventure. It became more endurance based such as cross-channel runs.”

But it is not just the competition. Miles enjoys many of the other aspects racing brings.

“I enjoy the frivolity and camaraderie of the sport but I am a very serious racer. I want to win. There is no place for second, as second is first loser.”

Miles ranks one of his greatest achievement as winning what he considers the biggest trophy in the sport, the Harmsworth Trophy, the equivalent, he says, to the Grand National in horse racing.

“I have achieved all there is to achieve in terms of trophies but the urge to be the best carries on, as well as the urge to compete against the elements.”

And this urge to compete is apparent in his working life, too. Miles started his company Stovax with friend Guy Brook in 1981. They were importing wood-burning stoves during the time of the oil crisis and Dutch elm disease.

These proved popular in rural areas but not urban, so the firm turned to producing its own reproduction Victorian fire places.

When its original tile supplier, Candy, went into liquidation, Miles and Guy bought it up.

Original Style, now Britain's fourth largest tile manufacturer, provides tiles for all manner of uses. It also has some big-name customers including members of the Beach Boys and Abba, as well as various footballers.

Miles, 46, has four children, Ben, 21, Kelly, 19, JJ, 15 and India, 11, and is now looking to spend more time with them and Roo.

But before that happens, he is contemplating entering this year's Cowes-Torquay race as his swansong.

The last time the race was held, back in 2003, Miles won it, but his sense of competition means he won't rest until he's won it again.