Modin on Double Trouble: “Cowes-Torquay Is the Biggest Thing You Can Win”

Anton Modin races in Class 1 for the first time on Saturday, sharing Double Trouble with Gary Aldington at UKOPRA Round 4, the MDL Marinas Mercury Offshore Grand Prix at Mercury Yacht Harbour, Hamble.

The reigning UIM Class 3A World Champion has never raced anything larger than a 23-foot monohull. Double Trouble is a 42-foot Fountain running Express power, around 1,720hp. The two men have met once, at the MDL Marinas Shamrock Round the Island in May, where they raced within a few boat lengths of each other in Class 3C until Aldington’s engine tore free of its mountings off No Man’s Land Fort.

The Class 1 pairing was confirmed in June, aimed at the Cowes-Torquay-Cowes. Round 4 is the shakedown. Modin spoke to Chris Davies on the pontoon at Hamble on Friday.

How the Deal Came About

Chris Davies: Anton, good to see you again. So how did this come about? Were you with Double Trouble?

Anton Modin:

We went to the first race around the island and I had never met Gary before. John told me beforehand, you are going to race Gary, you two maniacs together, this is going to be crazy. So I went there, and he came with his Phantom with the XR2, and I said, the rig looks very good. We talked a little and had fun, and then we went racing. We were five boat lengths from each other the whole race. It was unbelievable. We had a super, super fun fight all the way until he lost his engine.

After the race we talked and had fun, we went out eating, we had a very good time. Then after a week he wrote to me, we need to go to the next round also in the 3C class, because he thought it was so much fun racing the small boats and we had such a good fight. I said I cannot go to the next race, unfortunately, because I had some things at home to do.

Then I said, round three maybe? He said, no, I need to work on the big boat. And then he said, I am going to race the big boat in round four. I said, okay, then I need to buy a Class 1 boat to race with you. He said, no, you are going to come and race with me. I said, what do you mean? He said, I need someone at the helm. And I was like, okay.

The Team

Anton Modin:

We only met one time, but he is such a good guy and so good to have with you. All the crew are very nice and helpful. They do everything themselves, the mechanical stuff, the boat fixing, the engines. There is so much heart in the team. It is not only money, it is just hard work. He said, it costs a lot, but we split everything, we are going to do this.

This weekend we are going to try to get to know each other a little bit. The biggest boat I have raced is the 23 footer. Now we go twice the size and ten times the horsepower.

Behind a Windscreen

Chris Davies: Even though you own a Twister Cat, yes?

Anton Modin:

I own a 3C Twister Cat, but I have never raced it and never tested it. We are waiting for the four stroke engine.

Chris Davies: But that is the only offshore boat you have actually had with a canopy. The rest of the time you have been exposed to the elements, so to speak. Is looking through a windscreen going to be a completely different concept to you?

Anton Modin:

I have been riding in the back just for testing, in a 3C cat and everything. The thing is, it takes away a lot of the feeling from the wind. In an open boat it can feel very fast. But we will see. I need to figure it out a little bit in the race tomorrow, try to get everything together and talk a lot to Gary. Gary is very helpful, he talks, he is calm. Even though we are two maniacs who always go full gas, I think it will be good.

Cowes-Torquay-Cowes

Chris Davies: So this is effectively a dress rehearsal for Cowes-Torquay?

Anton Modin:

Exactly. This is a little bit of a shakedown, because Cowes-Torquay is the big, big goal. It will be a lot of fun to perform there. And hopefully it will be a lot of wind.

Chris Davies: How much persuasion did it take? Is this on your bucket list, Cowes-Torquay?

Anton Modin:

This is the biggest thing you can do. In Sweden we have the Roslagsloppet, which is very big. But this Cowes-Torquay race, Mikael Frode talked to me a lot about how big it is. He wants to win Cowes-Torquay so much, because it is such a big event. It is big names who have won it, and you need to have the perfect day to win it. Everything needs to be right.

I talked to Gary also, he really wants to win this. For me, as an offshore racer, Cowes-Torquay is the biggest thing you can win in offshore racing.

Modin and Aldington run number 1-88 in Class 1 at Round 4. Classes 1, 1L and 2 start at 12:30 BST on Saturday off the South East Ryde Middle buoy, over a 90.3 nautical mile course out through the eastern Solent, around the Isle of Wight via the Needles and back to the finish off Hamstead Ledge.