Lightning Strikes At Curtailed MDL Marinas Mercury Offshore Grand Prix

UKOPRA Round 4, the MDL Marinas Mercury Offshore Grand Prix, was curtailed at the Needles Fairway buoy on Saturday after a large fleet of yachts filled the western Solent and made the run west unsafe. Lightning Strikes, the Class 2 Donzi of Dean Stoneman and Harry Thomas, was first to the mark and quickest overall on a shortened course that still counted for full championship points.

The race was cut to a Start Run and Lap A, 58.2 nautical miles, ending at mark 8 off the Needles rather than running the second Solent loop. Boats rounded the Needles Fairway and returned east to Race Control at Mercury Yacht Harbour, Hamble.

The course had been clear on schedule; race control understood the yacht fleet had started around two hours later than planned, putting it across the western Solent as the powerboats came through.

Conditions were not a factor. The forecast had been benign at the 12:28:30 start for Classes 1, 1L and 2, freshening only later in the afternoon at the western end of the Island. This was a traffic decision, not a weather one.

Lightning Strikes Leads a Three-Boat Charge

Stoneman got Lightning Strikes away after a scrappy start and worked through to the front, going down the inside of Anton Modin’s Double Trouble at the first turn before settling into a rhythm around 4,500rpm. Behind him, Alex Welham and Neil Raven’s Dragon, Sixty9, and Richard Truscott’s Oceanus Racing VT closed up, and the three ran the back of the Island together, rarely more than 50 metres apart.

At mark 8 there was almost nothing in it. Lightning Strikes rounded at 13:01:13 for an elapsed time of 32 minutes 43 seconds, with Sixty9 just 32 seconds back and Oceanus VT a further 80 seconds adrift. Stoneman was honest about how the full course might have played out.

Dean Stoneman, Lightning Strikes

As we went round the back of the island it was a nice run between the three of us. We were all within probably 50 metres. But in the end I’m not in their class, so basically today was about bringing it home and getting the points.

He also gave voice to the frustration shared across the fleet.

Dean Stoneman, Lightning Strikes

Hopefully we don’t have all these problems with these sailing boats and yachts. It’s a bit frustrating today that we didn’t get to do the whole race.

Welham and Raven Seal the Class 1L Title

The story of the round belongs to Sixty9. Alex Welham and Neil Raven took the Class 1L win at Hamble, their third victory in a row after a runner-up finish to open the season, and with it the 2026 UKOPRA Class 1L Championship with a round still to run. It is a title claimed in only their second season of racing, and their first full campaign, having managed a single UKOPRA round in a Sunseeker the year before.

The pair switched to a Dragon hull with Ilmor power for 2026 and built the season on consistency, never off the podium. Getting the boat to Hamble at all was the hard part, after a broken gimbal housing at the previous round, the Ocean Village Cup, left them fighting to make the start.

Neil Raven, Sixty9 Offshore Racing

This is what me and Alex were both saying, this race was an important one. We were trying so hard to get the boat here, we had a lot of hurdles. We had a broken gimbal housing. It felt like everything was against us to try and race.

They got it done with help from East Cowes based engineer Tristan Ormiston, driver of the Dry Martini Class 1L boat, and a quick test on the way to the venue. Raven was clear about what the win meant, even on a shortened course.

Neil Raven, Sixty9 Offshore Racing

In a way I was disappointed it was curtailed, because we knew when it flattened out we’d have been able to have a lot more speed. But we got to race at least. At least we had a race.

Raven put the title down to steady progress with the boat, and pointed to the Dragon’s reputation for safety as part of the appeal of the switch. Sixty9 turn their attention to the season finale at Gunwharf, Portsmouth, with the championship already secured.

Double Trouble Retire, Class 1 Left Empty

Class 1 had a single entry at Hamble, Double Trouble, the Fountain of Anton Modin and Gary Aldington. Making his first race in the boat, reigning UIM Class 3A World Champion Modin got no further than the north-east corner of the Island before the boat stopped on the run past Nettlestone and Seaview.

Aldington confirmed to Powerboat News that the starboard engine lost power. The crew brought the boat home to Hamble under its own power on the remaining engine, and Class 1 recorded no finisher for the round.

Modin was upbeat despite the early exit, having led before the engine went, and came away impressed with both the boat and his throttleman.

Anton Modin, Double Trouble

It’s racing, but we had a really fun 10 minutes out there today. We took it a little easy at the start, then started to push and took the lead, and then we lost the starboard engine. It’s a shame, but the boat is amazing. The handling was superb, it felt really good, and it has the potential to do very good.

The pair have a bigger target already in their sights, the Cowes-Torquay classic in a month, and Modin has full faith in the man alongside him.

Anton Modin, Double Trouble

Gary was talking to me the whole time, in my ears telling me what to do. I trust him with my life now. So in one month, they will need to watch out.

Rush Racing Fastest in the Class 3 Race

Class 3 started ten minutes behind the bigger boats and ran the same 58.2 nautical mile curtailed course. Gary and Abigail Godden’s Rush Racing was quickest of the group and took the Class 3E win, crossing at mark 8 in 38 minutes 35 seconds.

The win came against the odds. The Goddens tore a wing off the boat in the rough Ocean Village round, spent weeks on fibreglass repairs, then lost the engine’s ECU, finishing the rebuild only on the Thursday night before the race. They ran the whole course down on power, around five miles an hour short, and picked off more powerful boats in the chop, one of which struck engine trouble in the closing stages.

Gary Godden, Rush Racing

We were down on power, about five mile an hour short, but just kept our foot down and kept going. It’s our first year racing, so it’s very rewarding. There were a couple more powerful boats out there and we thought we’d be lucky to come in third.

The drama was not done. Rush Racing crossed the line and the boat cut out on the spot, leaving the Marshalls to tow the winners back to harbour. Had the shortened course run any further, the Goddens reckon they would have retired themselves.

Gary and Abi Godden, Rush Racing

We literally crossed the line and broke down, so what a way to do it. If the race had gone further we were about to retire. It was just meant to be.

Behind them the Class 3E order settled a title fight that now runs to the final round. Peter Hall’s Thunderstreak took second in class ahead of Jason Field and Tom Trotman’s Wight Knuckle, with just four seconds between them at the mark. Lee Ornsby, who led Class 3E into the weekend in Licence to Thrill, suffered the cruellest luck of the day.

Lee Ornsby, Licence to Thrill

About a mile from the finish line, the oil pump decided it didn’t want to play ball anymore. The port motor let go, we lost all power on it and we were down to about 30 mile an hour. We then hit some big seas and the boat came off the plane and we were down to six knots, with the finish line in sight.

The Revenger and Thunderstreak went past him inside the final 200 metres, dropping Licence to Thrill to fourth in class and blowing the 3E title race wide open for Portsmouth. Murray MacGregor and James Dodds took the Class 3D win in Just Add Water, Elliott Holman and Jon Gray won Class 3C in Charlie Thirty Five, and John Bunyan and Luke Cloudsdale took Class 3B in Team JB-R, all three the sole classified finishers in their classes.

Charlie Thirty Five had the most eventful run of the smaller boats. Elliott Holman and Jon Gray took Class 3C on the boat’s first race, though not without drama. After a clean, flat start the boat took a pounding on the choppy run from St Catherine’s to the Needles, and a check engine alarm sounded as they crossed the line at mark 8.

Elliott Holman, Charlie Thirty Five

It started off great, it was really flat, it was smooth. We had a good start and we were going strong. Then the run from St Catherine’s to Needles Fairway got a little bit choppy out there, so the boat took a pounding. As soon as we crossed the line we had a check engine alarm.

The fault was traced to the engine not feeding oil up to its reserve tank. The crew were towed back to Yarmouth, topped it up and had it running again. It was a second class win of the season for Holman in different machinery, having taken the Round the Island opener alongside Richard Watson in the Eastlands UFO.

Provisional Results

Results are provisional, subject to official confirmation by UKOPRA. Curtailed course, Start Run plus Lap A, 58.2 nautical miles. Elapsed times measured to the Needles Fairway buoy, mark 8.

Retired: Double Trouble (1-88), Joker (C-38, engine flooded after taking a heavy wave), 66 Racing (E-11), Mermaid (E-12) and Top Banana (E-28).

Championship Picture Into the Finale

Round 4 was the penultimate round of the five-round 2026 UKOPRA Championship, with the season finishing at Gunwharf, Portsmouth. Sixty9 have the Class 1L title wrapped up, but two other classes go to the wire. In Class 2, Lightning Strikes lead Unipart by 31 points, and in Class 3E the retirements at Hamble have bunched the leading boats with everything to play for in the final round.

Robin Ward and Jeff Hall brought Unipart home second in Class 2, holding station with the quicker boats at a steady 80mph around Bembridge until the rollers at the back of the Island slowed the wooden Cougar down. Ward keeps the boat off the bigger jumps, the wooden hull being prone to cracking. He was honest about the title run-in.

Robin Ward, Unipart

We’ve obviously got a chance, but only with mechanical failure, to be honest. We lost so many points with a mess-up on the first race. We can only come second to Dean, and that’s a much newer, faster boat.

Unipart will be at Gunwharf for the finale, and Ward reckons he can give Lightning Strikes a run in smooth water, though he expects the newer catamaran to have the edge if it turns choppy.

Rich Truscott, back on the Class 1L podium in Oceanus Racing VT after a long spell away from racing, summed up the mood of a fleet that got its race in despite the traffic.

Richard Truscott, Oceanus Racing VT

It’s been a long time out of racing, and it wasn’t an easy one. But great to be back. It was nice to be part of it.