Thousands of Spectators lined the South Coast for the 62nd Cowes-Torquay-Cowes powerboat race at the weekend, which was closely followed by the popular Cowes-Poole-Cowes race.
There was plenty of action on the Solent on Sunday as the 29 powerboats took part in Round 5 of the 2023 UKOPRA Championship.
The 180 nautical mile Cowes Torquay Cowes race was won by ‘Silverline’ for the fifth year in a row – crewed by Drew Langdon and Miles Jennings – in a time of three hours, two minutes and 22 seconds. Their average speed of 68mph showed that there were some challenging seas over 180 mile course.
‘Silverline’ crossed the finish line a whole one hour 12 minutes ahead of second-placed Dorian Griffith, Dave Flewin and David De Kretser in the stunning Cougar Hull ‘Blastoff Racing’. They were the only two teams to finish as early leader ‘Team 25 Good Boy Vodka’ broke down across Lyme Bay and then eventually retired at Christchurch Bay.
Just two Class 1 boats finished the race, with ten retirements. However it was the biggest fleet of that Class to line up for a UK Championship race for many decades.
In the smaller but very popular 65 nautical mile Cowes-Poole-Cowes race, the 17 strong fleet saw line honours go to Class 3D favourites of Andy Foster and Charles Morris in ‘Renegade 2’, Second place went to a new Class 3C team ‘Kohaku’, crewed by Gary Aldington and Tom Gardener who would normally be racing in Class 1. Third place went to Class 2 boat ‘True Blue’ who travelled all the way from Scotland.
A total of nine boats finished with eight retiring over a very bumpy Poole Bay.
Separately, ‘Renegade 2’ (Class 3D) and ‘TeamworX’ (Class3B) become UKOPRA Champions for their Class of 2023.
Locally to the Island ‘Thunderstreak’ and ‘Mango Crazy’ came respectively first and second in Class 3E leaving only 250 points between them going into the last race of the Championship at Southampton with 400 points available. It will be all to play for both team principals Hugo Peel and Peter Hall on who will become UKOPRA 2023 Championship Class Champions around the Western Solent on 23rd September.
East Cowes based Class 1 team ‘AT Racing’ with Andy Twemlow and Tristan Ormistan racing in the stunning Dragon Boat which broke down near Yarmouth.
Another Cowes team ‘Atlas Mr Noisy’ with the unstoppable Alan Goodwin onboard broke down in Christchurch Bay with Colin Gibson and Richard Jackson in ‘Top Banana’ also retired early into the race.
News shared by Steve, in his own words. Ed
