IN WHAT is her diamond anniversary year, classic Isle of Wight-based H400 powerboat Thunderstreak secured her second consecutive UK National Class 3E Championship.

The win came at the end-of-season Southampton Boat Show offshore powerboat race on Saturday. 

Running often neck-and-neck over the six-race calendar against faster, younger Class 3E competitors, Cowes-based Team:Royal Yacht Squadron was declared 2023 UK National Class Champions at the UK Offshore Powerboat Association (UKOPRA), at the boat show's prizegiving and annual awards. 

The UKOPRA 2023 season’s final race — held over two circuits of a 60-80 miles course in the Western Solent and around Christchurch Bay — attracted 20 of the sport’s top competitors. 

H400 Thundersteak was comfortably the oldest boat racing in the series by decades, in the day's single biggest class. 

Thundersteak was fourth across the finish-line to secure second in her class — accumulating sufficient points to achieve a second consecutive UK championship. 

“We were leading on points as the start flag dropped — but this wasn’t going to be a walk-over,” said Hugo Peel, Thundersteak’s owner-driver. 

“While the Class 1 and 2 race boats disappeared westward to Hurst Castle at well over 100mph, Team:Royal Yacht Squadron strained every sinew to stay with our quicker and more youthful Class 3E fleet.” 

Sea conditions allowed Thundersteak — with Adrian de Ferranti (throttles/trim) and Richard Jessel (navigator) making up the crew — to clock more than 65mph on The Solent. 

However, things changed dramatically at Shingles Elbow, the course’s most westerly turn mark, opposite The Needles. 

The buoy marks the notorious Shingles Bank, which protects the western approaches to The Solent. 

“Here, the longer, gradually-building Channel swell intermingled with the short, perilous Shingles’ tidal overfalls and shallow waters. It was aquatic chaos,” Peel said. 

Racing in steep waves as high as 2.5m was a problem for smaller vessels, and the strengthening wind exacerbated the already dangerous sea conditions. 

Thundersteak was launched skyward on several occasions, landing with bone-shaking force which threatened to split her hull. 

But her 1950s American design legend, Ray Hunt, had drawn hull lines with flared bows and heavy hull laminates precisely to cope with such conditions.