The 2026 UKOPRA Offshore Powerboat Championship got off to a spectacular start at Shamrock Quay in Southampton on Saturday, 16 May, with 27 boats across seven classes tackling a 51.8-nautical-mile course around the Isle of Wight in testing conditions.
Rolling starts were made from East Lepe at 12:05 and 12:17, with two-metre-plus seas in the Solent and English Channel ensuring that finishing the course was an achievement in itself. The fastest boats were through in under 50 minutes. Others were still out there nearly two hours later.
Class 1: Good Boy Vodka fires the first shot
Rob Lockyer and Adrian de Ferranti swept to Class 1 victory in Good Boy Vodka, the Outerlimits hull fresh from winning the prestigious Cowes-Torquay-Cowes race last August. Completing the island in 49 minutes and 5 seconds at an average of 72.87mph, the pair claimed maximum championship points and signalled their intent for the season ahead.
The field was thinner than expected. Team 25 withdrew their Cougar Catamaran Notareal on the eve of the race due to engine issues, while Smokin’ Aces and Bullet Offshore Racing both retired before the finish. It meant Good Boy Vodka‘s 400 points is uncontested at the top of the Class 1 standings, but with last season’s champion Double Trouble yet to appear on this year’s entry list, the title picture remains open.
Class 1L: Dry Martini’s iconic hull claims top honours
Class 1L went to Dry Martini, one of the most storied boats in the UKOPRA fleet. The Cigarette hull, driven by Tristan Ormiston and Adam Leal, has a history reaching back to race wins in the United States and podium finishes at Cowes-Torquay-Cowes, and it showed none of its age on Saturday, crossing the line in 1 hour, 00 minutes and 30 seconds.
Sixty9 Offshore Racing finished second with Alex Welham and Neil Raven, while Dan Bentley brought Double 2 Shirts home third despite a 20-minute penalty for passing the wrong side of Prince Consort buoy. The same infringement caught out Unipart in Class 2 later in the results.
Class 2: Stoneman powers to victory
The standout drive of the combined leaderboard may well have been Dean Stoneman’s. The highly accomplished British racing driver and marine entrepreneur steered Lightning Strikes to a Class 2 win in 49 minutes and 30 seconds, a time bettered only by Good Boy Vodka across the entire fleet.
Apache, crewed by Peter Bonham Christie and Bligh Julius, took second in class, with Great White third. Unipart completed the finishers in fourth after their penalty, while True Blue and 66 Racing 2 both retired.
Class 3E: Eastlands Offshore Racing’s debut delivers
Class 3E produced some of the most compelling racing of the day. Richard Watson and Elliott Holman were racing UFO, the Eastlands Offshore Racing entry, for the very first time, and the pair delivered a commanding performance to win the class in 1 hour, 7 minutes and 59 seconds.
Licence to Thrill took second, with Rush Racing UK third. Thunderstreak, running the H-400 Bertram hull, crossed fourth, while Oblivion finished fifth. Mermaid/Wight Offshore Racing completed the class finishers in sixth. 66 Racing retired.
Class 3D, 3C, 3B: Endurance and grit in the open Channel
Carpe Diem was the sole starter in Class 3D, James Winkworth and Harry Winkworth taking maximum points in 1 hour, 14 minutes and 53 seconds.
In Class 3C, Class 3C World Champion Anton Modin won convincingly for Frode Racing, completing the course in 1 hour, 45 minutes and 2 seconds. The experience clearly left an impression. “This was something else,” Modin said afterwards. “I have never understood the meaning of offshore racing because this is nothing like in the Nordic countries. This was for real.”
The longest ride of the day belonged to John Bunyan and Luke Cloudsdale in Team JB-R, who took Class 3B honours in their 21-foot Adam Younger-designed hull after 1 hour, 48 minutes and 31 seconds in two-metre seas.
UKOPRA paid tribute after the race, describing it as a bone-crushing effort in conditions that genuinely deserved the offshore label.
Championship standings after Round 1
Good Boy Vodka leads Class 1 with 400 points. Dry Martini heads Class 1L from Sixty9 (300) and Double 2 Shirts (225). Lightning Strikes tops Class 2, Apache second and Great White third. UFO/Eastlands leads Class 3E, Licence to Thrill second, Rush Racing third. Carpe Diem leads Class 3D, Frode Racing Class 3C, and Team JB-R Class 3B.
Round 2, the Poole Bay 100, takes place at Poole Quay on Saturday, 13 June.
