26/09/2026
As I’m sure many of you are aware, the final round was cancelled, lots of controversy around this from people online and racers alike and having already been shifted to the rough weather course, we knew it was going to be a bumpy one!
Safety teams made the call to cancel the race, whilst the majority of the course was perfectly safe, some parts where up to 5m, whilst we can manage this and indeed race in it, as we have done this year… when the safety teams don’t have 100% confidence they can recover us in the event of an accident, it’s always better to air on the side of caution and pull the race.
It’s incredibly disappointing for us as competitors and frustrating given we know our limits and our boats capabilities and it was within that, however I back the decision of the safety teams, this is a fragile sport, it’s a challenging sport and accidents at sea have a completely different dynamic to accidents racing on a track, one bad accident for us as a sport and our future hangs in the balance as a series, for me UKOPRA have managed this balance well for us this year with the right amount of give and take between an organisers perspective and a racers view point, no matter what decision they make on the day they get criticised for it both publicly and privately, wether thats running a race in rough conditions or cancelling a race because of rough conditions, I see so much of it online, I put my well being in their hands when I drop down into the seat and put my helmet on, I will always respect the decisions they make surrounding safety.
A disappointing end of the racing year but the end of the year no less!
What does 2027 hold? Well… theoretically a new boat from AYD, time scales are tight, with only 7 months until we start our first race of the season… that will soon go! we remain hopeful, positive and I’m buying everything to rig it so when it arrives… so it’s paint, fit out and testing ASAP.
However, as many of you know, I always run a plan B… Just incase! So we have decided to restore, rig and test another boat in the time between now and the arrival of the new hull from Adam.
So today, after some heavy gardening, this can see daylight again and come out if it’s hole ready for it’s role as ‘plan B’.
If things go well and schedules are maintained, I’d be open to lending this out for 2027, ideally you’ll need some experience of Cats… but previous racing experience as a minimum!
