Falmouth will host the final round of the 2022 UKOPRA Offshore Powerboat Race Championship over the course of this weekend.

The event, ‘Spirit of the Sea’, is organised and managed by the Eastwood Racing team alongside Falmouth Harbour Commissioners.

Eastwood is a local racing team, owned and piloted by Gary Aldington from Eastwood Garage in Penryn. Its boat, Vintage Torque, is a class-1 boat which can exceed 100mph on a good day.

As an ambassador of the sport, Gary, in discussions with Falmouth Harbour Commissioners, was able to gain agreement for a pre-cursor event, ahead of a big festival to be held next year.

The race will be run under World Powerboat Events, sanctioned by UKOPRA, both of which are racer owned.

Spectators will be able to watch the start of the race in Falmouth as they speed through Carrick Roads between Black Rock and Pendennis Point and watch them go offshore.

There will also be Zapcat/Thundercat racing on the Saturday, which will be closer to shore.

EVENT TIMIMGS

Friday, September 30

All the boats will be launching across Falmouth over the course of this afternoon and docking at Port Pendennis Marina, opposite Events Square, where the public can view them.

Saturday, October 1 – Race Day

9.30am - the first Thunder Cat race is scheduled to start off the right side of the point (Castle Beach side)

11am – larger boats will start to leave Port Pendennis to muster just off from the Falmouth docks

11.30am - class 1-2-3 races will start off Pendennis Point. The boats will run out towards the centre of the bay and then offshore heading up to the Eddystone Light house off Plymouth and back to Falmouth (weather dependent, a shorter course may be run if the sea state is deemed too severe). This is the closest start line to the shore in the whole offshore race calendar. Organisers have promised that V8 noise, speed and rooster tails of spray are guaranteed!

All being well the boats should be finishing in the bay approximately 60 to 90 minutes later. The best place to view this will be from the Pendennis Point car park.

Offshore race map – boats will head up the Cornish coast before turning back at ‘Offshore L4 North’ near Plymouth.

During the afternoon the boats will head back into the marina after their respective races, where they can be viewed again from Events Square.

A free app called TackTracker is available on AppStore and Google play store, which can track the offshore race as it happens.

4.30pm – There will be a prizegiving and awards ceremony held at Events Square, where racers will be awarded trophies for first, second and third in their respective classes.

Should the weather be too bad on Saturday for the racing to take place, it will instead be held on Sunday.