17/05/2026
Saturday was the start of the 2026 UKOPRA championship with the first race being a circa 60NM course around the Isle of Wight, starting and finishing at the east Lepe buoy.
Heading out into reported flat conditions we where greeted by the exact opposite, big swells, strong winds, with 28 boats starting we took to the start run, 28 boats starting quite quickly dropped down to 15 boats finishing the entire course, one of the boats suffering a retirement was our only competition in 3b, as we completed the course we earned our first win of 2026, usually I wouldn’t really consider this a victory, one horse races and all that… but with what we faced out there… the amount of retired boats, two loosing engines, one boat missing in its entirety (crew safe and well) we are proud of what we achieved, it was a testament to the boat, which suffered no damage… we lost a compass… I lost a visor… but all very minor stuff.
Huge thank you to Adam Younger for the boat, not only did it withstand the punishment it was incredibly capable in the conditions, not once did I feel like we where out of our depth in that boat.
A thank you to our Sponsor Coryton for the fuel, what we save on race expenses we re-invest into preparation, equipment and upgrades, Saturday was a testament to the value of that.
And a huge amount of credit goes to Luke for top tier navigation when it came to keeping us on course throughout the race.
UKOPRA for an outstanding event, we felt so well looked after, great facilities, great free social event on Saturday night, absolutely top tier.
Roll on Poole bay!
