Smokin' Aces takes maiden Class 1 win at storm-shortened Poole Bay 100

Two rounds into the 2026 UKOPRA Championship, the Poole Bay 100 has already delivered the season's most dramatic afternoon. A maiden class victory, a one-engine podium finish, a 26-second finish over 69 nautical miles, and a 57-year-old wooden hull on the seabed. Racing ran on Saturday 13 June at Poole Quay Boat Haven.

The sea had not settled after the previous day's conditions, and the 9am drivers' briefing confirmed a rough weather course for all classes. A disorganised, choppy swell had built up outside the harbour and refused to calm overnight. The full course for Classes 1, 1L and 2 would have stretched to 88.6 nautical miles, but conditions forced a significant reduction. The shortened route kept competitors close inshore on every lap, which brought its own reward: the Bournemouth seafront filled with spectators treated to repeated close passes through the afternoon.

James Dodge and Chris Dodge had never won a class race before Poole. They put that right at this event. The pair drove their red Skater hull Smokin' Aces, powered by 1800hp Mercury engines, across the line to take Class 1 honours in a little over one hour, covering 68.8 nautical miles at an average of 63.56 mph. It was the team's first ever class win.

The route to it was anything but straightforward. At the opening mark on the first lap, a support boat obscured the western buoy and Smokin' Aces overshot it by around two miles. The crew tracked it down, completed the rounding, and set about working back through the field. Once clear of that early disruption the boat performed well, though the back straight proved punishing throughout: four-to-five-foot swells arriving without pattern, stretches of manageable running broken repeatedly by sharp, unpredictable hits. The only genuine respite came under Bournemouth Pier. The Dodges were also monitoring a new engine fitted ahead of Poole on every lap. It held. Smokin' Aces and both crew members were each issued two yellow cards for a COLREGS incident during the race, though the penalty had no bearing on the final result.

Drew Langdon and Miles Jennings brought Bullett Offshore Racing, the grey-and-red Outerlimits hull, home in second place despite the race unravelling almost from the moment they arrived at the start. A pre-race warm-up uncovered a displaced oil pipe on one engine. By the time the pipe had been refitted and the oil level restored, their start group had already departed. Langdon and Jennings were sent off with the second fleet, carrying a time deficit from the outset. The oil that had pooled in the bilge then worked progressively through the drivetrain: the supercharger belt failed first, followed by the oil pump and water pump belts. One engine was finished. Langdon guided Bullett Offshore Racing around on the surviving unit at 12 knots until the chop off Christchurch Ledge changed things. The sea state there provided enough lift to surf the hull up to 45 knots, and they brought the boat across the line in second place in Class 1, finishing in a little over one-and-a-half hours. Two laps, one engine, still on the podium.

Round 1 winner Good Boy Vodka did not take the start at Poole. Notareal / Team 25, the white-and-blue Cougar Catamaran crewed by Rob Lockyer and Adrian de Ferrenti, retired with what appeared to be a fuel system fault common to both engines. Lockyer attributed the problem to the original Australian-spec fuel system, which had not been updated during an otherwise comprehensive rebuild of the hull. Team 07 Racing also retired.

Alex Welham and Neil Raven steered Sixty9, the Dragon hull running Ilmor power, to first in Class 1L and second overall, completing the 51.6-nautical-mile course in a little over one hour and ten minutes at an average of 57.37 knots. Just 20 seconds back at the line came Black Ball Racing, the Formula hull crewed by Rod Hawkins, Martin McLaughlin and Barry Culver, claiming second in class and third overall. The Class 1L podium was completed by Double 2 Shirts, the white-and-yellow Planatec hull entered by the Bentley family and crewed by Dan Bentley, Shaun Bentley, Dave Flewin and Tom Yaldren, who finished fourth overall after completing two laps in 1 hour 5 minutes.

Dean Stoneman and Harry Thomas won Class 2 in Lightning Strikes, though the Donzi, running 998hp Mercury engines, arrived back in considerably worse shape than it started. The full 69-nautical-mile course was completed in just over one hour and ten minutes.

The trouble arrived on the back straight during the second lap, where the starboard propeller picked up a bend. From that point Stoneman was managing two engines operating at entirely different limits: the port unit flat out, the starboard held below the threshold where vibration became dangerous. He described reaching across with both hands to work the throttles independently, keeping the starboard under 4,500 rpm while the port engine did the heavy lifting.

Robin Ward and Jeff Hall in Unipart, the Cougar running Chevrolet power, pushed Lightning Strikes hard all the way to the flag, completing the full course in 1 hour 12 minutes 9 seconds and closing the gap to 26 seconds at the line. When the margin began to shrink, Stoneman took the decision to briefly exceed the safe limit on the final run, accepted the vibration, and held on. Twenty-six seconds after 69 nautical miles, with a damaged prop and a throttle in each hand.

Great White, the white Sunseeker crewed by Ian McCulloch, Ben Metcalfe and Chris Doran, and 66 Racing 2, the white Berserk entry with TP Spink, Malc Dopson, Louis Spink and Robert Hingston, each completed one lap for third and fourth in Class 2. Apache retired mid-race, for reasons that would only become clear later in the afternoon.

Gary Godden and Abigail Godden put in the fastest Class 3 time of the afternoon by some margin, winning Class 3E and the overall Class 3 result in Rush Racing, the purple-and-white Mannerfelt hull running 350hp Volvo power, covering 50.2 nautical miles in a touch under 49 minutes at an average of 61.66 knots.

Lee Ornsby and Ross Macgregor finished second in Class 3E and second overall in the class in Licence to Thrill, the Spectre running 600hp Yamaha power, four minutes adrift of the winners. Third overall and Class 3D honours went to Carpe Diem, crewed by James Winkworth and Harry Winkworth in their Pascoe hull, finishing in a little over 55 minutes at 54.21 knots. Winkworth described the course as a race of two distinct halves: flat inshore running along the beaches where speeds built freely, then a couple of feet of chop out to the Magnum mark. Richard Dean and Michael Barnes in Joker won Class 3C for fourth overall.

66 Racing with Ben Brown and Perry Murphy in the yellow-and-black Misscat, and Just Add Water with Murray MacGregor and James Dodds in the Phantom, each completed one lap for fifth and sixth. Mermaid / Wight Offshore Racing was disqualified after missing a mark three times, and the crew of Richard Jackson and Baylan Blanks also received a yellow card under UKOPRA rule 7.3 for transferring fuel in the wet pits. Thunderstreak, Eastlands Offshore Racing UFO, JB Racing, Team Interceptor and Team JB-R all retired.

Of everything that happened at the Poole Bay 100, the story of Apache 555 is the one people will keep telling. She is among the oldest hulls still competing in UK offshore racing. Don Shead designed her in 1969, and Souter's of Cowes built her in cold-moulded cedar and mahogany. She won the London to Monte Carlo race in 1972 and the World Class II Championship in Venice seven years later, then spent the better part of three decades in a museum. Nick Wilkinson restored her and brought her back to the racecourse. Peter Bonham Christie took over as custodian in February 2026 and entered her for the full UKOPRA season.

Saturday did not go to plan. Apache 555, running 600hp Perkins engines and crewed by Christie, Bligh Julius, Dan Lee and Dan Howe, was well offshore and reportedly making up ground on the Class 2 field when the boat's behaviour changed. Power dropped. When the hatches came open, water was already aboard and coming in faster than the crew could respond. An electrician had fitted a float switch and dashboard warning light before the season, and both worked exactly as intended. The ingress was simply too fast to contain.

UKOPRA safety boats got a line on Apache 555 quickly and towed her towards shallow water off Sandbanks, where she was grounded rather than allowed to sink in deeper water. The coastguard lifeboat stood by and was later stood down. Neighbouring race boats brought fenders.

Recovery was handled by the Jenkins Marine workbarge Stour, which lifted Apache 555 by crane. Once the hull was visible, the damage pointed clearly to a strike: a puncture through the planking wide enough to fit a hand. The working theory is a submerged log, hit at race speed. Dan Lee, who had spent months analysing and rebuilding the wooden planing surface, described the damage as repairable and confirmed the team's intention to return for the remaining rounds.

The wooden construction almost certainly helped. A fibreglass hull taking the same strike might not have stayed afloat long enough for the tow. Once ashore at Port of Poole, the Perkins engines were flushed with diesel to protect against salt water corrosion. The crew made the after-party.

Two rounds in, Class 1 has a deadlock at the top: Smokin' Aces and Good Boy Vodka sit level on points, with Bullett Offshore Racing behind them. In Class 1L, Sixty9 holds a comfortable lead on 700 points, ahead of Double 2 Shirts in second and Dry Martini in third. Lightning Strikes holds a perfect 800-point maximum in Class 2. Rush Racing has moved into the Class 3E lead with Licence to Thrill second, and Carpe Diem maintains a commanding hold on Class 3D. Joker leads Class 3C.

Round 3 takes place on 4 July 2026 at Ocean Village, Southampton, for the MDL Marinas Ocean Village Cup.