World Champion Modin Steps Up to Class 1 With Aldington for Cowes

Anton Modin, the reigning UIM Class 3A World Champion, will step up to Class 1 to race alongside Gary Aldington, the 2025 reigning UKOPRA Class 1 champion, in Double Trouble for a UKOPRA round and the Cowes-Torquay-Cowes. The agreement has been made and the funds are in place. Aldington is getting the Fountain ready.

It is a significant step up from the Frode Racing Class 3C hull the Swede raced at a UKOPRA event this season, and a pairing that traces its origins to a 51.8-nautical-mile battle around the Isle of Wight in a one-metre sea state.

The Race That Started It

At the MDL Marinas Shamrock Round the Island in May, Modin and Aldington spent most of the race trading positions in Class 3C, rarely separated by more than a few boat lengths. Aldington was fractionally ahead approaching No Man’s Land Fort on the return leg when a ship’s wash neither crew had seen launched Kohaku airborne. The engine tore from its mountings. The boat landed, and Aldington put his foot down. No power. No engine.

Modin, directly behind, watched all of it happen. Then Aldington took off his helmet and asked if the Swede had a rope he could use to tie the engine back in.

Anton Modin, Frode Racing:

I have seen everything today.

Modin went on to win Class 3C, the only finisher in the class, and gave what was perhaps the most unambiguous verdict on the UKOPRA season from any competitor in 2026.

Anton Modin, Frode Racing:

This is the best competition I have been to for years. The organisation, how everything works, the people, the course, everything is very nice.

The Record

Modin’s UIM record is among the most decorated in Nordic offshore racing. He took three consecutive Class 3A European Championships between 2017 and 2019, then in 2022 produced a double that has few equivalents in the class: the Class 3A World Championship in Larvik, Norway, stepping in as a late substitute in a boat he first sat in on the Wednesday of race week, and then the Class 3B World Championship at Oregrund, Sweden, in a Twister catamaran, all within weeks. Two world titles, two different boat types, one season. The 2025 Class 3A title with step-brother Jakob Balter brought the confirmed total to three world titles and three European titles.

Aldington arrives with his own credentials. He is the 2025 reigning UKOPRA Class 1 champion, and Double Trouble has been a consistent front-runner in the class throughout his UKOPRA campaigns.

Double Trouble

Double Trouble is a Fountain 42 Lightning that won the Round the Island in 2025. The step from a 23-foot Class 3C monohull to a 42-foot Class 1 catamaran with around 1,720hp is considerable. The conditions at Cowes tend to make it more so.

Cowes

The Cowes-Torquay-Cowes has run, in various forms, since 1961. The course covers roughly 200 nautical miles in two legs across the western English Channel, with start and finish at Cowes on the Isle of Wight. It is the longest and most demanding race in the UKOPRA calendar.

Aldington finished second in the 2025 edition, running as Airos Developments GoGPS alongside Tom Gardner, behind Rob Lockyer’s Good Boy Vodka. That result has been on his mind since.

Gary Aldington, Eastwood Racing:

Rob beat us at Cowes so we need to make it better. We don’t want him making a habit of that.

His new co-pilot has a history of stepping into unfamiliar boats at short notice and winning in them. The Fountain, for its part, has plenty of canopy height adjustment. Modin will be keeping his head on.

First Race Together

Modin and Aldington will pair up for the first time in Double Trouble at UKOPRA Round 4, Hamble, on July 25, 2026, ahead of the Cowes-Torquay-Cowes.