British Powerboat Festival 2011 

This Bank Holiday weekend, (27-29 August) 40 powerboat teams will head to Cowes, Isle of Wight, for the infamous Cowes Torquay Cowes Powerboat Race.

The historic race has been running for over 50 years now, with the 2010 race creating some of the most taxing conditions for the racers to date. In fact less than half of the 30 boats that started the race managed to complete the full course.

The 170nm race not only tests the teams racing capabilities but their navigation skills, endurance and sheer determination.

Entries

Of the 40 boats entered into the festival 20 will make the Marathon 170nm race to Torquay and back. The British entry, three times winner Cinzano,  (1984, 1985 & 2009) crewed by Marcus Hendricks, Simon Wood-Power and Eric Smillie will be looking to keep competition from the impressive fleet at bay, including the Italian team in the mighty Metamarine piloted by Marco Pennesi (who won the race in 2006) and co-driver Stefano Bonanno, winners of the UIM World Evolution Powerboat Series in 2010.

Cowes Poole Cowes

The other 20 smaller boats including the P1 SuperStock fleet will compete in the Cowes Poole Cowes race. The P1 fleet will be looking to be the first boats back, in the bid to claim the all important championship points in the penultimate event of their championship

P1 AquaX

 Throughout Saturday whilst the rest of the fleet are preparing for the arduous Sunday’s race, the P1 AquaX competitors  will battle it out in the next two rounds of their 2011 championship just off of Egypt Point and in addition spectators will be dazzled by Freestyle JetSkier Jack Moule as he twists some tricks for the crowds.

Changing Times

In the past this historic race used to start and finish right of Cowes in front of the Royal Yacht Squadron with little fuss. Unfortunately with the changing times and more and more people taking to the water each year, this is not possible. The RYA Powerboat Racing Department this year had to make the hard decision that starting these 40 high power craft in the Solent off Cowes was not a safe viable option for the competitors, spectators and safety crews.

Senior Powerboat Racing Administrator Nikki Drummond explained: “To start a fleet of boats this size with the speeds their capable of in Cowes on the August Bank Holiday weekend, takes a lot of preparation and a lot of volunteers to create an exclusion zone to give the boats a safe passage away from the start.”

She continued “We commend the Race Organisers for the effort and hard work that they put in to try and make this option feasible but when the course approvals committee looked at the plans in place we still felt that we could not take the risk. It was not an easy decision but the safety of the competitors and the general public out on the water and everyone involved had to be our number one concern. We will of course look to work with the organisers in the hope that the start can return to Cowes in 2012. ”

The fleet will instead be escorted through the Solent behind the Red Jet to an alternative starting position off of Hurst for a 10am start on Sunday 28 August. Enabling the race organisers to create the safest possible start to the race for everyone involved.

To find out more about the race visit the British Powerboat Festival Website