The 2026 UKOPRA Offshore Powerboat Championship field has acquired Anton Modin, the reigning UIM Class 3A World Champion.
He has confirmed an entry in Class 3C, campaigning the Frodé monohull C-4 owned by Jason Briggs, with step-brother Jakob Bälter navigating.
The pairing is familiar from last season. Modin and Bälter won the 2025 UIM Class 3A World Championship together aboard a Frodé 18 hull.
The duo will race a 23′ version owned by Jason Briggs in UKOPRA’s Class 3C, which covers monohulls between 6.00 and 8.00 metres with a maximum of 200hp.
Anton Modin – Championship Record
A Title-Laden CV
Modin’s record in UIM offshore competition is among the most extensive in Nordic racing. He took three consecutive UIM Class 3A European Championships between 2017 and 2019, all alongside navigator Susanne Jansson.
The 2022 season produced a double that has few equivalents in the class. He won the UIM Class 3A World Championship in Larvik, Norway, stepping in as a late substitute in a boat he first sat in on the Wednesday morning of race week, with Norwegian co-driver Andrine Goderstad Hirschel Haag. Then, within weeks, he and Kristoffer Groth sealed the UIM Class 3B World Championship in Öregrund, Sweden, at the wheel of a Twister catamaran. Two world titles in a single season, in two different boat types.
The 2025 title with Bälter brought his confirmed world championship count to three.
The UKOPRA Context
Modin’s entry was referenced – without being named – in Powerboat News’s report on UKOPRA’s 45-boat 2026 entry published earlier today: “Also expected to join the championship is a new Swedish team featuring a driver that UKOPRA founder Kerry Bobin first met in Oskarshamn in 2015.” Oskarshamn hosted UIM Offshore World Championship rounds that year.
Class 3C at UKOPRA is a competitive and well-subscribed class this season. Modin and Bälter will line up against Elliott Holman in the Mannerfelt-hulled Charlie Thirty Five (C-35), Richard Dean’s Backdraft Joker (C-38), and Jason Briggs’s second entry, JB Racing (C-68), also a Mannerfelt hull.
The five-round UKOPRA season opens at Shamrock Quay, Southampton on May 15-17.
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.
