START YOUR ENGINES! KING TO START COWES’ POWERBOAT RACE THIS BANK HOLIDAY

One of the Isle of Wight’s most famous and successful residents will be setting the Cowes-Torquay-Cowes fleet on its way this weekend for the 63rd running of the historic and prestigious race. Mark King, frontman and bassist with Level 42, will make the short journey from his home to Cowes on Saturday morning (24th August), where he will board the start boat in the Yacht Haven to head into the Solent. When he raises the green flag, almost 20 boats will begin their challenging 210-mile journey along the South Coast to Torquay and back. The racing fleet will assemble at Cowes Yacht Haven for scrutineering and safety inspection the day before (Friday 23rd August). The Cowes-Torquay-Cowes race will start at 09:30 on the Saturday followed immediately afterwards by the Cowes-Poole-Cowes race at 10:00. Both races will start off the Squadron Line, Egypt Point. Sunday will see the start of the Round the Island powerboat race at 10:00, a unique event that the founders of the BPRC started in 1968 for all sizes of both race and leisure boats, old and new. Mark’s story, which spans more than 4 decades in the music business that has seen him rise to fame with his unique bass guitar style and dynamic performances, begins in Cowes where he was born and raised. The sea has been a big part of Mark’s life, as he explains:

“I spent most of my early summers playing on the shore at Gurnard just a couple of miles from Cowes, and one of the highlights was watching the powerboats thunder down the Solent. “I’ve watched the Cowes Torquay Cowes race many times since then, and around 1989 I blagged a ride in one of the Drakar Noir boats and roared around Southampton Water. I was hooked and bought a Princess 38, then a Grandbanks 42. “My friends Martin and Laura Levi at the British Powerboat Racing Club have enabled me to get my ‘fast boat fixes’ and it’s always a delight to wander through their home at The Prospect in Cowes and soak in the history of powerboating and their families huge part in it. So you can imagine my reaction when they invited me to start the big race this weekend. Hand me that green flag!”

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