When the race fleet gathered at the Poole Quay Boat Haven on the south coast of England for the second round of the 2022 UKOPRA ‘World’ Offshore Championship the conditions looked ideal. Blue sky, slight chop, perhaps this Poole Bay Classic was set for another record-breaking duel between the Silverline hull of Drew Langdon and Miles Jennings and their Italian opponents on board Tommy One who pushed them all the way in the opening round.

The race got off to an ideal start with Langdon and Jennings hitting the front as most expected, but it wasn’t long though before the storm force winds that had hit England’s west coast the previous day began to make their presence felt.

Amongst the first to be affected was Tommy One (1-19) which was launched skywards like a rocket and landed heavily on its stern damaging one of it drives. Fortunately, they were able to limp back to the safety of Poole Harbour but any chance of collecting championship points had gone for the weekend.

Worse was to come for Gary Aldington and Tom Gardner in their FB Design hull Vintage Torque (1-88).

From running in a strong second place at the halfway point they started taking on water due to major structural damage in the bow. When their three bilge pumps couldn’t keep up with the amount of water filling the engine compartment the water pump belt started slipping which caused the temperature to climb and which then melted the rubber pipes on headers, and they lost all power.

The crew of Dry Martini stopped to offer assistance but at that time Aldington and Gardner were confident in making it back to shore after the arrival of two safety boats. Conditions had worsened by then and it looked as if Vintage Torque could have sunk had it not been for the arrival of the Team 25 Dragon Racing crew of Rob Lockyer and Scott Younger who immediately took them under tow. After two hours they both finally and safely arrived back to the Haven.

Racing takes a lot of time and commitment, even with the best efforts it doesn’t always go to plan and our weekend definitely didn’t. Without the help of our fellow competitors Team 25 Dragon racing Rob Lockyer and Scott we would have lost the boat for sure, they gave up their race and took us under tow for the long haul back to Poole, we can’t thank them enough. As a team it had been a great weekend up till then and we are picking up the pieces and pulling the positives out of the situation, we are already digging in to get things fixed up.

With conditions getting worse and with reports that off the Needles it was treacherous conditions the Officer Of the Day Fiona Pascoe, (who had been Assistant OOD before Kerry Bobin had been taken ill) took one look at the online video footage and then made the brave but decisive call to red flag the race as Silverline (1-47) approached the start-finish line off Bournemouth Pier.

Langdon and Jennings were as grateful as Lewis Hamilton was to see the chequered flag being waved, and when PRW spoke to Langdon he said,

A bit bumpy but a lovely day for a trip round the bay.

With that he and Jennings were quickly on their way to Heathrow Airport to catch a flight to the Balearic Islands where their sponsor Silverline were hosting a Gala Dinner.

That left the Dry Martini crew of Nigel Hopcroft, Mike Bontoft and Michael Peet to be the solitary team on the podium collecting their Class One runners up trophy. Team 25 Dragon Racing were official classified as third overall.

Francis Whitley and Stuart Cureton took the honours in Class Two, whilst Andrew Foster and Charles Morris (D28) came first overall in Class 3D.

Dennis Clemson and Cameron Shields (C50) produced another reliable performance to win the Class 3C battle.

The next round of the 2022 UKOPRA ‘World’ Offshore Championship will be held in August when the crews head over to the Isle of Wight for the world-famous endurance race that is the Cowes-Torquay-Cowes.

PRW would like to thank Mike Powell for the images supplied, it’s good to see him back at a race again after undergoing heart surgery, we understand that it was ‘Six Million Dollars’ well spent.

Images by Mike Powell and Malc Attrill/UKOPRA

The pairing who were driving a Mercury powered Outerlimits hull averaged 102.87 mph (165.56 Kmph), with Schepici and British co-driver Richard Bendy just .05 mph slower.

When Langdon spoke to PRW he said

Actually, the Italians are faster than us and it was extremely challenging work to maintain that small margin but great racing. The engines were only just re-installed at my facility earlier this week having been back with Bruce Baker at Express Engines in Florida for a top half rebuild. We also ran the boat with ballast to make the class weight which has made it less responsive.

Schepici was pleased with the podium finish

That was a great race, however they are two incredibly good pilots with much more experience than me. I had a new pilot on the boat so it might take a few races to get confidence, plus we made some small mistakes that costs us a few seconds, but I think Silverline would have won anyway. I’m happy with a second place, I’m happy in the UK the organisation is excellent, all the people they are affectionate every time I come to the UK, a lot of people make themselves available for us and I thank them from the heart.

Third overall were Gary Aldington and Tom Gardner in their FB Design Vintage Torque some six minutes behind the leaders. With the boat having undergone lots of work over the winter, the team were well rewarded with a visit to the podium.

Dennis Clemson and Cameron Shields won the 3C battle with just three minutes covering the entire class by the time they crossed the finish line

The entries of Team 25 Dragon and Uno Embassy were both side-lined prior to the start with engine issues they were unable to resolve.

The only retirement from the race were unfortunately Unipart Lambs when one of their Chevrolet engines over heated.

Rose Lores said

It was all going so well till the water pump failed.

When Jake Swann and Ben Kendall came across the stranded Unipart Lambs, they turned back to check the crew were all ok. Although having raced as a junior, it was Swann and Kendall’s first UKOPRA offshore race and were unsure whether they should have done that. When they asked back in race control whether that was the correct procedure, the race officials complemented them on their actions. For this thoughtful act they were awarded the Spirt of the Race trophy.

This was the first race run under the new power to weight rule so perhaps it’s not going to be the last time we see such a close finish this season. Langdon and Jennings will now take their points lead to Poole, just along the south coast of England, where the second round of the UKOPRA Championship will be held in June.

Images supplied by Malc Attrill Photography

In her first year of competing, she won the UK Offshore Boating Association Class 3D Championship with Mike Standring sat alongside her in their Steve Baker designed Phantom 25 monohull Agfa Bluebird. They also collected the Royal Yachting Association Class 3 National Championship title.

Later, that year they both competed in the Everest Double Glazing sponsored Round Britain Powerboat Race. Weather conditions for the first leg were poor and of the twenty-eight starters at Portsmouth, only eighteen boats reached Falmouth. Agfa Bluebird stuffed off Anvil Point and was towed back into Poole Harbour. That wasn’t the end though because after drying out the boat they re-joined the race only for Campbell to sprain her ankle later. Even with these miss fortunes the pair still completed the ten-day endurance race which was won by the world-famous Italian racer and boat builder, Fabio Buzzi, in the equally famous White IVECO, completing the course in just over twenty-seven hours of the toughest sea conditions ever seen.

Now hoping the water conditions will be a lot calmer is the UKOPRA British Offshore Champion Drew Langdon when he tries once again to finish another endurance event, the 70th edition of the Raid Pavia Venezia racing Campbell’s Agfa Bluebird. Even by powerboat racing standards this one is an unusual event that ran for the first-time last year after a break of ten years.

When Langdon spoke to PRW he said

My dear old friend Fabio Buzzi was always talking to me about doing the race. And it’s a shame that I couldn’t do it while he was still around. Nevertheless, we gave it a go last year and to be fair the day I spent having the boat scrutineered before the race was worth going just for that because I met so many of my old friends from Italy, though it must have been ten since we last met, to me it only felt like yesterday.

For Langdon, last year’s race was a bit of a disaster. He went with a boat that he though was race ready, but it was far from it, and he didn’t get much further than the hook of the crane. Back then there were ninety entries, and he was the sole British competitor. Since then, the word has gotten out as amongst the one hundred and fifty-eight boats entered eight of them are British offshore teams.

Although the Phantom was originally rigged for a driver and navigator, Langdon will be making the trip along the Po River to Venice by himself.

I have given the race a great deal of thought and I did consider taking a mechanic along in the navigator seat in case of any mechanical issues. Yes, I want to complete the race, but at the same time I want to do well overall. Having that extra weight in the hull because the crew do not count as the dry weight of the boat makes it uncompetitive and if something did go mechanically wrong in that race then its game over because there is no time to make any repairs.

In preparation for the race Langdon spent today out testing in Torquay, England and he felt extremely comfortable having re-rigged the Phantom over the winter. Race Marine have rebuilt the two Mercury powerheads and the speed has certainly improved. He told PRW that it was an incredibly good test session, and they were able to try out three different propeller choices.

I am now able to drive the boat and not fight it the whole time, something that will be key on a journey of over four hundred kilometres. I am encouraged that there are more competitors entered from the UK as this race needs to be supported, it’s full of history, and it will be an adventure for all of us. Plus, it’s great to fly the flag on such a historical boat once more.

Testing images by Tim Tapping.

Amongst those racers keen to see what’s happening was Miles Jennings who once again will be racing on both sides of the pond.

I’m looking forward to collecting a lot of Air Miles this year. I’m starting off the season by racing around the Isle of Wight, just off the south coast of England with Drew Langdon in Silverline Bullet at the opening round of the UKOPRA series. Then two weeks later I’m in Cocoa Beach, Florida with P1 Offshore and Zabo Racing.

Jennings went onto say.

We had a pre-season meeting with a lot of the UK racers earlier this week and I’m really excited to see that we are going to have the largest amount of UKOPRA Class 1 competitors ever seen. It’s going to look like the great days of UK offshore racing from back in the 1990’s.

UKOPRA 2022 World ‘Offshore’ Powerboat Championships.

30 April/01 May – Round the Island / Southampton

10/11/12 June – Poole Bay 100 / Poole Quay

14/18 July – Guernsey Gold Cup / Guernsey

27/28 August – Cowes Torquay Cowes / Cowes Poole Cowes / Isle of Wight

30 September/01 October – Falmouth / Cornwall