It’s 15 years to the day when Hollywood legend, Paul Newman passed away aged 83. He’d appeared in 65 movies during his fifty year career, earning eight Oscar nominations, finally winning the coveted Best Actor statuette in 1987 for his role in ‘The Colour of Money’.

Alongside his illustrious actor, producer and director plaudits, Newman made time for his many other passion projects. Chief among them, his love for fast cars and boats. Whether on land or water, Newman claimed to be happiest behind the wheel of a racing car or speed boat. He was a committed philanthropist and activist and founded his charity, the Hole in the Wall Gang summer camps to help underprivileged youngsters, including one particular promotional trip to Italy.

The timing proved perfect for Polygon Marketing MD, Martin Allerton, who was coordinating the 2006 pre-season press launch of the Powerboat P1 World Championship in Ostia, near Rome at the time.

“Through a mutual friend, Mr Newman was aware of our media event and wanted to try his hand in a 2000bhp powerboat. I met him at his hotel and arranged for him to go out on Wettpunkt, a Fabio Buzzi- built boat raced by Austrian, Hannes Bohinc. Afterwards, he and his party joined us for refreshments in a local restaurant we had hired out for the afternoon. He was a real gentleman with great charisma. His love for speed is well known and he enjoyed the experience even though the seas were pretty choppy that day.

“15 years on, it’s that encounter with ‘Butch Cassidy’ that remains the overriding memory of what was a very successful press launch.”