One of the most prestigious Powerboat Racing awards, the Needles Trophy, will be competed for at Poole this Saturday.

The Poole Bay 100, will mark the opening of the 2019 British Offshore racing season and 33 boats have entered in 5 classes.

The UKOPRA Offshore 1 & 2 classes will race over a 121 nautical mile course for the Needles Trophy that was first presented in 1967 to the Hon Edward Greenall and has also been won by HRH Prince Michael of Kent, Stirling Moss, Eduardo Poli, Andreas Ugland and Marco Capoferri to name just a few.

The big Offshore classes have a strong international line-up with Italy’s Maurizio Schepici and Federico Montanari, Jean-Piërre Neels, Thomas Vandamme and Marijke D’hondt from Belgium and Jerome Brarda, Eric Adam and Gordon Compton running under the Monaco flag in Offshore 1.

Class 3 is well supported in each of its 3 sub-categories, with 11 boats racing in the Mercury 115 dominated A / B class.

The race’s sanctioning body is UKOPRA, and their Chairman, Kerry Bobin commented on the news:

I’d like to thank the RMYC (Royal Motor Yacht Club), for allowing us to award this historic trophy at the Poole race this weekend.

We have one of the biggest line-ups of Offshore Racing boats outside of the US and the Needles Trophy is sure to have another worthy winner from our fleet.

Offshore 1 & 2 will start the race from Bournemouth Pier at 12:00 on Saturday, with the Class 3 fleet starting 15 minutes later.

The Commodore of the RMYC, Jamie Pride, will be presenting the Needles Tropy at the Podium and Prize Giving celebrations at 15:30, on the Main Stage of the Poole Boat Show at Poole Quay.

For all timings and entrants – Event Website