Drew Langdon and Miles Jennings in ‘Silverline’ were narrowly beaten by ‘Team 25 Good Boy Vodka’, driven by Rob Lockyer and Scott Younger, to take the victory in the UKOPRA ‘Round the Island’ powerboat race.
The 2nd round of this year’s UKOPRA Offshore Championship saw 26 teams start from a line off Gurnard last weekend.
In a close-fought race, in which only 4 seconds separated the big 2, crews completed the course in just under 42 minutes at a respectable 87mph average speed. Although the first leg to the Needles the lead teams peaked around 120mph because of the flat water, which changed to a moderate swell heading down to St Catherine’s Lighthouse.
Class 1 had the biggest fleet of boats seen in British Powerboat Championship racing since the 1960s with 9 teams which produced a combined power output of 16,000 hp. The fleet included a team from Sweden participating in a 40ft canopied catamaran which unfortunately retired off Freshwater.
Class 2 saw the return of the 1998 Cowes Beaverbrook Trophy winner ‘Assagai’ who took lines honours for their Class in just under 55 minutes.
14 teams competed in Class 3 from Historic, Class E to the smallest class P750. Wins for Renegade 2, TeamworX, Mid-Life and Team Pickle across the Class 3 catagories.
There was a strong local Island interest across all Offshore Classes including a new teams ‘AT Offshore Racing’, ‘Brut’ and KMO Racing. It was in Class 3E which saw a 1, 2, 3 from Isle of Wight teams.
Colin Gibson and Richard Jackson with E28 ‘Top Banana’ won in 63 minutes at an average speed of 56 mph. 2nd place went to lovingly restored 1963 Bertram Hull of H400 ‘Thunderstreak’ racing under the Royal Yacht Squadron flag with Hugo Peel, Adrian de Ferranti and Richard Jessel aboard. 3rd place went to another Classic race hull formerly owned by Lady Arran E8′ Mango Crazy’ which is now driven by Bembridge resident Peter Hall and Terry Parsons.
The next round will be held in 5 weeks as teams race out of Lymington Harbour on 8th July. Then, later on, the August Bank Holiday weekend will see powerboats return to the Solent for the annual Cowes Classic.
More details and pictures can be found at the UKOPRA website www.ukopra.co.uk or their Facebook page.
Didn’t even know it was on….