Good Boy Vodka Wins MDL Marinas Shamrock Round the Island 2026

Race Report

Rob Lockyer and Adrian de Ferranti won Round 1 of the 2026 UKOPRA Offshore Powerboat Championship on Saturday, taking Good Boy Vodka to victory in the MDL Marinas Shamrock Round the Island. Their Outerlimits catamaran completed the 51.8-nautical-mile circumnavigation of the Isle of Wight in 49 minutes 5 seconds, an average of 72.87 mph. The winning speed reflects a 1.5-metre sea state throughout; the outright course record of 118.04 mph, set by the same boat in flat conditions in 2024, was never under threat.

The start was delayed five and a half minutes from the scheduled 12:00 BST. UKOPRA’s Steve Willis explained the hold-up at the line.

Steve Willis, UKOPRA:

Lots of spectators and lots of chop.

Lockyer described a course that proved harder than the forecast suggested.

Rob Lockyer, Good Boy Vodka:

Way, way rougher than we were expecting. Occasional twos at Ventnor and Bembridge, those were the worst sections.

Dean Stoneman and Harry Thomas drove Lightning Strikes (2-69) to the front of the fleet from the first mark and led across the south coast and up the eastern side of the island. Lockyer ran second for most of the race, tracking the Class 2 Donzi without responding to every surge. Good Boy Vodka engineer Charlie Williams confirmed after the race that Lockyer had been content to sit behind Stoneman, knowing the Class 2 boat was racing for different points.

At No Man’s Land Fort, with the finish at East Lepe inside six miles, Lockyer made his move. Good Boy Vodka reached 75.6 knots (87 mph) off Gurnard in the final sprint to the line. Stoneman pushed back, touching 71.7 knots (82.5 mph) west of Cowes, but the Class 1 Outerlimits held its lead. Good Boy Vodka crossed at 12:54:35 BST, 25 seconds clear. Stoneman’s drive to finish second overall in a Class 2 boat was one of the performances of the day.

It was the first time Lockyer had raced alongside de Ferranti.

Rob Lockyer:

Today was the first time I’ve raced with him driving and he did a fantastic job.

Dry Martini (1L-9, Tristan Ormiston / Adam Leal / Lee Smith) won Class 1L, finishing third overall at 59.12 mph. Robin Ward and Jeff Hall in Unipart (M-31) ran fourth on the water but were dropped to fourth in Class 2 after a 20-minute time penalty for passing the wrong side of the Prince Consort buoy.

Silverline (1-47, Miles Jennings on the wheel / Drew Langdon on throttles) did not make the start. Miles Jennings explained that the boat overheated during the long wait between leaving Shamrock Quay and the beginning of the race.

Miles Jennings, Silverline:

We basically cooked a motor. It was highly annoying because we always knew there’d be a slight issue. There was an hour and 15 minutes from leaving the marina to actually the start of the race, which is way, way longer than need.

The engines require speed to generate sufficient water pressure for cooling. At the displacement speeds required through the main channel, the system cannot function as designed.

Miles Jennings:

They’re only doing 30 miles an hour and we need 40 miles an hour to get on the plane and get water pressure through. By the time we got down to the muster we still had 47 minutes before the start of the race.

With the engines unable to be switched off during the wait, the problem compounded. A battery issue when they tried to restart one engine was resolved by crossing the batteries, but it was too late.

Miles Jennings:

These engines are not designed to run when you’re only getting about five to ten pounds of water pressure through. They’re designed to run at 50 pounds water pressure. So it cooked a motor, got hot, and that was it. Highly annoying.

Jennings said the team would assess the damage before deciding on their next race. “We’ll look at the calendar, reassess, and come and play another day,” he said. Smokin’ Aces (1-74, James Dodge / Chris Dodge) ran in the top three and were matching Good Boy Vodka’s pace through the south coast. Lockyer noticed them drop back approaching St Catherine’s Point before they eventually retired with engine failure off Ventnor.

Rob Lockyer:

They were right level with us coming to St Catherine’s Point and then sort of dropped back. I didn’t know if they just slowed down because it was getting rougher or if they had an issue.

Apache (2-555), the 1969 Don Shead wooden Souter hull, campaigned this season by new custodian Peter Bonham Christie with Thundercat champion Bligh Julius on the throttle, completed the course at 51.90 mph to finish second in Class 2, its first race finish under the new team. Throttleman Julius sent a message as the crew made their way back.

True Blue (2-32, Jack Lynch / Graeme Petrie / David Finlayson) sank during the race. The engine cooling pipe came off, flooding the engine bay with sea water. The crew took on water off Alum Bay with bilge pumps struggling and a support vessel was sent to assist. All three crew are safe. E-66 66 Racing (Ben Brown / Perry Murphy) lost their engine off its mountings past Hurst Castle. 2-66 66 Racing 2 and B-33 TeamworX also retired.

Four boats were unable to start on the day: C-38 Joker (Richard Dean / Michael Barnes, engine), C-76 Bubblin’ Hot (Rod Hawkins / Barry Culver, electrical), D-33 Just add Water (Murray MacGregor / Lewis Cozens), and C-68 JB Racing (Jason Briggs / Nick Newsam). Three further entries had withdrawn before race day: D-22 Rash Decision (Jon Gray), E-28 Top Banana (Joseph Vidler), and 1L-07 Team 07 Offshore (Christian Parsons-Young).

Lockyer said he still wants to race against Notareal, the Team 25 Cougar catamaran that withdrew before the start, and sees it as a genuine threat across the season. “Notareal is what I want to be racing,” he said.

Frode Racing (C-4, Anton Modin / Jakob Bälter) completed the course to win Class 3C, the only finishers in the class. The Swedish pairing, making their first UKOPRA season, came home in 1 hour 45 minutes 2 seconds at 34.05 mph. Modin is the reigning UIM Class 3A World Champion with three world titles and three European titles to his name.

Lightning Strikes

Dean Stoneman and Harry Thomas took second overall and first in Class 2 at 72.25 mph on the debut of Lightning Strikes, the Donzi they collected from Italy earlier this year, stripped back and rebuilt. Stoneman spoke to Chris Davies after the race.

The boat had been sitting since 2013 before Stoneman found it.

Dean Stoneman, Lightning Strikes:

It’s a proven boat. It’s been locked in a shed since 2013. It’s come out of retirement. A long, hard process to purchase it from the Italian chap, but we got there in the end.

The weather briefing had not prepared them for what they found on the water.

Dean Stoneman:

At the briefing this morning they were showing it wasn’t going to be that rough. When you’re out there it was big seas compared to the forecast.

Stoneman led the fleet from The Needles and ran close to Good Boy Vodka and Smokin’ Aces for most of the race.

Dean Stoneman:

The boat trim was right. We were running alongside Smokin’ Aces and Rob was 200 to 300 metres behind me the whole way. They got a lot more power. Being a Class 2 boat competing with the big boys, they managed to pull away.

The tracker showed consistent speeds through the south coast, but Stoneman found more pace in sheltered water.

Dean Stoneman:

I know the tracker showed 60 knots but there were points around the back where we were doing 70 to 75 mph in the big troughs.

On what the result proved about the boat:

Dean Stoneman:

There’s always work to do. It’s a boat. But it’s proven today that it’s good in the rough.

Apache

Apache (2-555) finished second in Class 2, completing 51.8 nautical miles in 1 hour 8 minutes 55 seconds in the 1969 Don Shead wooden Souter hull on its first competitive outing under the new team. Peter Bonham Christie and Bligh Julius spoke to Chris Davies on return.

The crew spent much of the race hunting Great White (2-800), with Bligh Julius managing the throttle conservatively while PBC urged more speed.

Peter Bonham Christie, Apache:

We got ourselves behind Great White and basically hunted them. Bligh had half throttle. I was pushing to go a little bit more but he did the right thing. We hunted them the whole way down the back of the island.

Bligh Julius confirmed the tactical plan was clear from early on.

Bligh Julius, Apache:

I knew what we needed to do. We saw a couple of boats in our class break down before The Needles. We knew we were going to get third. So we hunted it down the back of the island. We didn’t need to push that hard, even though my beloved friend Pete was telling me to push harder. We haven’t shaken the old girl down yet.

There was one difficult moment on the south coast.

Peter Bonham Christie:

We had one wave where I think we all lost a little bit of concentration and landed a bit sideways. But nothing drastic.

For Christie, the most striking moment came on the return to Shamrock Quay.

Peter Bonham Christie:

I took my phone out on the way back in and there were 105 messages, photos and videos of us the whole way around the island from the group chat. That’s quite special.

The wooden hull made an impression on everyone who raced in it. Christie and Julius both remarked on how different it feels to a modern GRP boat.

Bligh Julius:

You’ve raced GRP boats before and you just don’t feel it through the wooden boat. It feels like you’re on a sofa most of the time.

Christie paid tribute to the crew who got the boat to the start.

Peter Bonham Christie:

We had two amazing new crew on the back of the boat. Casper, who has put a phenomenal amount of work into the engines, and Dan Lee, who has put the boat straight for us. He’s the Magic Man with the woodwork.

Peter Bonham Christie:

Bligh has driven it phenomenally and put a lot of effort in. I’m just honoured to be next to him.

Bligh Julius, Apache:

Hell of a first race. We have finished. Very emotional all round.

Class 3

Class 3E

Eastlands Offshore Racing won Class 3E on their first ever race in the UFO (E-79). The E.RI.A. Marine hull had been rebuilt from the keel up over two years, with Richard Watson and Elliott Holman taking it to the start line for the first time. Watson spoke to Chris Davies after the finish.

Richard Watson, Eastlands Offshore Racing:

Really choppy. We weren’t really expecting it because the forecast was for it to be quite smooth. We just went straight hard off the start and found ourselves in front of the fleet.

They briefly lost the lead before The Needles before finding their pace on the south coast.

Richard Watson:

Oblivion and Licence to Thrill overtook us before The Needles. We found them back and then just pulled away in the rough. It got quite rough over the south coast.

The boat was not built for those conditions.

Richard Watson:

The designer said it was a flat water boat, so we weren’t expecting much. But it seemed to handle it OK.

Watson was characteristically modest about what the win might mean going forward.

Richard Watson:

Rebuilt it from the keel up. This is the first time out. We haven’t worked out how to go fast yet.

Licence to Thrill (E-32, Lee Ornsby / Ross Macgregor) finished second in class at 50.12 mph, with Rush Racing (E-16, Gary Gooden / Abigail Gooden) third at 48.31 mph.

Fourth place went to Thunderstreak (H-400), the 1963 Dick Bertram hull that won three consecutive UK National Class 3E championships under Team:Royal Yacht Squadron before being acquired by Peter Hall of Bembridge ahead of the 2026 season. Hall, crewed by Brian Pelham and Trevor Squibb, brought the boat home at 48.16 mph on its first outing under new ownership.

Oblivion (E-2, Marcus Dodds / Sean Girdler) finished fifth at 47.26 mph. Mermaid/Wight Offshore (E-12, Baylan Blanks / Bertie Cripps) completed the Class 3E finishers in sixth at 37.07 mph.

James and Harry Winkworth were the sole Class 3D finishers in Carpe Diem (D-50), coming home 10th overall at 47.76 mph. Harry Winkworth spoke to Chris Davies on return.

Harry Winkworth, Carpe Diem:

It was pretty rough. We took a couple to begin with, pushing around The Needles way. That’s how we got there. We started to fly a bit and caught up with a few people.

The conditions were consistently challenging throughout.

Harry Winkworth:

Pretty much twos and threes around the island.

On navigation, he was generous about his co-driver.

Harry Winkworth:

Wix thought he knew the marks. They wouldn’t listen to me. But we got around.

Harry Winkworth:

This is a bonus. Points now.

John Bunyan won Class 3B in Team JB-R (B-26), the sole finisher in the class after B-33 TeamworX retired. Bunyan completed the course in 1 hour 48 minutes 31 seconds, finishing 17th overall in the by-time ranking.

Gary Aldington and James Matthews in Kohaku (C-88) had been racing Frode Racing door-to-door for most of the circuit before a dramatic retirement near No Man’s Land Fort. Aldington spoke to Chris Davies after the race.

Gary Aldington, Kohaku:

We’d been neck and neck with the Swedes all the way around. We just got ahead of them a little bit coming in towards No Man’s Land Fort.

Then a ship’s wash the crew had not seen coming ended their race.

Gary Aldington:

A massive ship’s wash. We didn’t see a ship anywhere. We just sent it towards the moon.

Gary Aldington:

I had time in the air to apologise to James.

They landed it, but the damage was done.

Gary Aldington:

We landed it. I put my foot down. No power. No engine.

The engine came off its mountings on impact but remained attached to the boat by ropes and is being recovered to Gosport. It was James Matthews’ first race.

Gary Aldington:

His first race was an eventful one.

Aldington also races a larger boat, Double Trouble, which won the Round the Island in 2025. He had a message for Good Boy Vodka’s Rob Lockyer.

Gary Aldington:

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

Anton Modin saw the whole thing from directly behind. He gave his account of the race and of watching Kohaku go airborne to Chris Davies.

Anton Modin, Frode Racing:

This was something else. I have never understood the meaning of offshore racing because this is nothing like in the Nordic countries. This was for real.

The conditions had been beyond anything he anticipated.

Anton Modin:

I was expecting rough but not this rough. It was really rough for a 23-foot boat.

The Swedes and Kohaku had traded positions throughout the race. Frode Racing briefly lost their kill switch, costing them time, before getting back into the fight.

Anton Modin:

Gary Aldington gave me a hell of a workout because he had a fast boat today. It was very fun to race. We fought all the way.

Modin had a ringside view of Kohaku’s retirement.

Anton Modin:

He was just in front of me and he was flying. So high. And then he landed and the engine was just hanging in the cables.

What happened next left an impression.

Anton Modin:

He took his helmet off and said, “Anton, do you have a rope? Maybe I can tie my engine into my trunk.”

Anton Modin:

I have seen everything today.

Asked whether the experience had put him off racing in the UK, Modin had no hesitation.

Anton Modin:

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

He spoke to Jason Briggs, who owns the Frode hull, back home after the race.

Anton Modin:

He said, now you understand what this means, and now we need to keep going. He already has plans for the boat, how we can make it better and better for each race. I think we will come back.

The Course

The race starts and finishes at East Lepe, on the Solent north of the Isle of Wight near Calshot. The course runs anti-clockwise, passing ten race marks and two virtual waypoints. Sconce, off Yarmouth, is the first physical mark at 7.9 nautical miles. The fleet then rounds Bridge near The Needles before tracking east along the south coast. St Catherine’s Point and Ventnor are virtual waypoints, positions the fleet must keep to port without a physical buoy, before West Princessa at 36.8nm marks the turn north up the eastern side of the island. Bembridge Ledge, No Man’s Land Fort, North Sturbridge, South Ryde Middle, and Prince Consort bring the fleet back to the finish.

Official Results