United Kingdom Offshore Racing Action On Tap Next Weekend

ByMatt Trulio

Organized by 2017 Moto and sanctioned by the United Kingdom Offshore Powerboat Racing Association, the Fortitudo Property Poole Bay 100 Offshore Powerboat Race—the opening round of the 2018 World Offshore Championship and the 2018 British Offshore Racing series—is set for Sunday, June 10. The event will be based out of based out of Salterns Marina in Poole, England, according to a press release from the sanctioning body.

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The Marathon-class Fortitudo team of Richard Carr and Steve Curtis is among the favorites in next weekend’s Poole Bay 100 Offshore Powerboat Race.

According to the release, four offshore racing categories—Marathon, Class 3, Class X and Class N—will run in the event. There are eight teams registered in the Marathon class, which has multiple sub-classes, and 10 teams registered in Class 3. In Class X and Class, there are three teams per category signed up to compete.

Running in the World Offshore series, the Marathon-class teams will vie for the prestigious Harmsworth Trophy. The Class 3 teams will compete in the “British Offshore counting round” in which they start accumulating points (based on finishing order) for the season.

The top two seeds in the Marathon Class A category are the 38-foot Outerlimits Silverline boat, crewed by the experienced Exeter-based duo of Andrew Langdon and Miles Jennings, and the 46-foot Fortitudo Cougar manned by Poole-based businessman and event sponsor Richard Carr. He’ll be joined by Steve Curtis, a multi-time offshore racing world champion currently throttling the Miss GEICO offshore racing team catamaran with driver and fellow Brit James Sheppard—both fresh from victory in the Offshore Powerboat Associaton Lake Race last weekend—this season in the United States.

Multiple teams in several classes are signed up to compete in the event.

“It will be great to be racing in British waters again,” said Curtis in the release. “This will be my only appearance this year, as I am contracted to race in the United States.

“Richard and I won the 2016 Cowes-Torquay-Cowes race in this boat,” he continued. “After testing over the course a few weeks ago, we are quietly confident.”

Editor’s Note: Look for a follow-up story with results on the Fortitudo Property Poole Bay 100 Offshore Powerboat Race on speedonthewater.com.