Britain's powerboat driver William Nocker, 47, was killed when his boat flipped on the water after hitting two waves at about 193 km/h, during the Gabon Grand Prix, second round of the 2012 UIM (Union Internationale Motonautique) World Offshore Championship - Class 1.
It happened on Friday, 13 July 2012, William Nocker who was driving the Welmax boat #9, representing the Welmax Offshore Racing Team, was on 4th lap of the first race of the event, held on the estuary of the Gabon River, at Libreville, Republic of Gabon, in west Africa. The accident did not involve any other boats. He and his co-pilot, Kurt Olsen of Norway, were taken by ambulance to the intensive care unit of the Omar Bongo Ondimba Military Hospital in Libreville. Sadly, Nocker succumbed to his injuries shortly after admission. Olsen was reported to be in critical condition, after suffering multiple fractures of the ribs and scapula in the accident.
After the accident the race was immediately stopped and the organisers decided to cancel the rest of the event activities of the following days as a mark of respect. On Saturday morning all the other teams entered in the Gabon Grand Prix staged a tribute to their fallen comrade. All the boats carried Nocker's race number 9, as they motored slowly to the crash site for a minute's silence. Competitors and team members scattered flowers, Gabon's Prime Minister Raymond Ndong Sima joined them and laid a wreath on the water.
An experienced racer, nicknamed by friends as "Fat Boy", William Nocker was born in Tiverton, Devon, and resided in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. He had just returned to the sport after a five-year ban for tampering with a rival’s fuel supply during the Liverpool Grand Prix in 2006, while acting as navigator to powerboat ace Rob Lister. Nocker and Lister were found guilty of pouring water into the petrol tank of another competitor's craft.
R.I.P
