Four years organising Cowes-Torquay-Cowes taught me why IHRA’s numerous Facebook responses all said the same thing: Key West. Some venues are sacred ground.
When the IHRA asked its Facebook followers where they wanted the 2026 Offshore World Championship held, numerous responses flooded in.
Most said the same thing: Key West.
The organisation appears surprised. They shouldn’t be. They’ve stumbled into what I’ll call the sacred ground problem, and it’s a lesson I learned organising Cowes-Torquay-Cowes for four years.
The United States has Key West. The United Kingdom has Cowes.
These aren’t interchangeable racing venues. They’re pilgrimage sites.
Speed on the Water editor Matt Trulio describes Key West as “ungodly expensive, hard to reach and too small for the massive crowd it attracts every year.” Then he adds the critical observation: it’s also “maybe even mystical in the offshore racing world.”
He’s exactly right. Cowes is the same.
The Southampton Queue
Watch the marinas in Southampton before the August bank holiday weekend. Teams arrive from across Europe, from America, from wherever powerboat racing exists. They queue for the Red Funnel ferry, watching costs mount, more than flights to Australia as boats and trailers roll aboard for the short crossing to the Isle of Wight.
Expensive doesn’t cover it.
On the island, they hunt for accommodation that disappeared months ago. Hotels quadruple their rates. B&Bs fill with race crews sleeping four to a room.
They deal with it.
They’ve been dealing with it since 1961.
Because to win the Beaverbrook Trophy is everything.
Manufacturing Credentials
That’s the sacred ground problem. You cannot manufacture this credential.
New venues can host excellent races. They can offer bigger purses, better facilities, easier access. Other places have hosted offshore world championships. Miami could certainly manage it.
But they’re not Key West.
The IHRA is discovering what Race World Offshore and the American Power Boat Association already know. When racers dream about winning a world championship, they picture themselves at the bottom of the US, in Key West. That particular light. That particular crowd. That particular feeling when you cross the finish line and know you’ve won where it matters.
Just as British offshore racers dream of holding the Beaverbrook Trophy on an island south of the UK mainland, with the Solent stretching behind them and history weighing heavy in their hands.
Where Stories Last Careers
Key West is an annual pilgrimage where teams race hard and party harder. Cowes-Torquay-Cowes demands everything from competitors across nearly 200 nautical miles where the race shows no mercy and the weather changes by the hour.
Both events carry weight that transcends the actual racing. Both create stories that last careers.
Ask any offshore racing veteran what it means to be a Cowes winner versus winning elsewhere. Watch their face. Listen to how the answer comes. History matters. Tradition matters. The winner’s list matters.
The IHRA’s public question suggests they hoped for flexibility. Perhaps they thought racers would happily accept an alternative if the purse was right.
Instead, they’ve received a masterclass: some harbours are simply special. Some places exist in powerboat racing’s collective memory as something beyond venues. They’re where legends are made, where reputations are built, where winning means something that cannot be replicated anywhere else.
No Easy Answers
Trulio observes there is “no answer at the moment.”
He’s correct. The IHRA cannot buy the APBA or UIM because neither is for sale. They cannot force Race World Offshore to relinquish Key West. They cannot manufacture instant history.
They can create a championship anywhere.
They cannot create another Key West.
I spent four years organising Cowes as Race Director. I know precisely how difficult these events are. The logistics nightmares. The impossible demands. The weather that won’t cooperate.
I also know why teams keep coming back. Why the racing matters more there than anywhere else. Why grown men and women spend absurd money for a chance to win where it counts.
Some venues are sacred ground. They’ve earned it through decades of history, iconic moments, legendary winners. Through the stories passed down in bars and pubs. Through the photographs on workshop walls showing winners with specific harbours behind them.
The many responses saying “Key West” weren’t suggestions.
They were telling the IHRA where champions are made.
John Moore is the editor of Powerboat News, an independent investigative journalism platform recognised by Google News and documented on Grokipedia for comprehensive powerboat racing coverage.
His involvement in powerboat racing began in 1981 when he competed in his first offshore powerboat race. After a career as a Financial Futures broker in the City of London, specialising in UK interest rate markets, he became actively involved in event organisation and powerboat racing journalism.
He served as Event Director for the Cowes–Torquay–Cowes races between 2010 and 2013. In 2016, he launched Powerboat Racing World, a digital platform providing global powerboat racing news and insights. The following year, he co-founded UKOPRA, helping to rejuvenate offshore racing in the United Kingdom. He sold Powerboat Racing World in late 2021 and remained actively involved with UKOPRA until 2025.
In September 2025, he established Powerboat News, returning to independent journalism with a focus on neutral and comprehensive coverage of the sport.
