WA powerboat title held by Leschenault woman

Owen-Tucker currently holds the state title for 25 horsepower powerboat racing and is the oldest woman in WA to achieve the position at the age of 49.

The other impressive part to Owen-Tucker's story is she only got involved in the sport three years ago.

"I'm from Melbourne and the biggest thing I did was archery, so I had no idea of adrenaline sport," she said.

Owen-Tucker's partner Tim Godfrey has been involved in the sport since the 80s and was keen to show her the ropes.

"I'm the sort of person that needs to give something a go before I say I don't like it," Owen-Tucker said.

Her first ride in the boat was enough for her to say 'yeh I will try this'.

From there Owen-tucker's world opened up to all things powerboat related.

"I didn't know how to read the ocean or being in a speed boat - I was very green," she said.

"Once I pushed through I fell in love with it.

"I learnt how to sand, fibre glass, matting, paint and I had never done anything like that, had to learn about the engine.

"Suddenly I'm taking things a part and learning about a whole different vocab and I really enjoyed it."

Owen-Tucker started competing in the 25 horsepower division in the 2019/2020 season.

The races are handicapped and done on a clock start with three minutes.

So Owen-Tucker would start first and with each race got better.

"My competitiveness started to kick in and my confidence and it just grew from there," she said.

"Something clicked with me and I was able to drive through the rough water."

The season runs from October to May but with COVID cutting the 2019/20 season short, it was finished in October 2020 instead.

This didn't matter for Owen-Tucker who in her first season finished second.

She was able to get started on her second season straight away and her competitive nature really kicked in.

"I started saying to myself 'your not going to beat me, I'm not coming last'," she said.

And that's exactly what happened as Owen-Tucker started winning enough races to take out the points for the state title.

"If you and told me this three years ago I would think you were crazy," she said.

Owen-Tucker said the boats in the 25 horsepower division can go up to 80km/per hour on the straight of a course.

One of the hardest things she had to learn was to overtake.

"I used to overtake on the outside because I wasn't confident enough but now I go both inside and outside to overtake," she said.

The powerboat races don't separate divisions by gender, so Owen-Tucker was competing against both men and women.

She said while it was a predominantly male dominated sport, more and more women were getting involved and doing really well at it.

"Its important for women to know that I started a brand new sport and age of 48 and have achieved so much in such little time," she said.

"Don't give up, you can do what you want if you put your mind to it.

"Would love to see more people get involved in the Bunbury Powerboat Club again."

Owen-Tucker and Godfrey will be travelling over East later in the year to compete in the 25 horsepower races before they start the new season in a new division.

Owen-Tucker said they would be going up to 110km per hour with 550 CC engines.