Cowes Is Next Stop For Wild Eleven

Brarda’s team plans Monaco speed records

MONACO, 23 July 2019 — After successfully competing in the Guernsey Gold Cup in June, next stop for Windcraft Racing’s Wild Eleven will be the final UKOPRA meeting of the season at Cowes.

The event will take place on Sunday 25 August and Wild Eleven will compete in the Cowes 100.

Driver Jerome Brarda explained: “With regard to that day, we will not join in the long course, Cowes-Torquay-Cowes, which is about 200 miles. This is due to a lack of fuel capacity on board, so we will compete in the shorter race, 100 miles, and also in a different class of boat, which allows us to hope for a place on the podium.”

Wild Eleven at the quayside in Peter Port, Guernsey
Wild Eleven at the quayside in Peter Port, Guernsey

But the team has a couple of adjustments to make to bring that prospect closer.

“At the moment, I’m not satisfied with the top speed of the boat, especially in the Guernsey race,” Brarda said. “The sea was flat calm, our average speed should have been higher. I guess that the problem is coming from the propellers, so we are going to test different sets of props in order to increase our competitiveness for the Cowes race.”

Brarda said he is hoping for a podium slot especially to give some satisfaction to the team’s sponsors — the original sponsor, Windcap Holding, and the sponsors who joined for the Guernsey race on 7 June, Monaco-based companies Capital Real Estate and Arper International.

Brarda added that Windcraft Racing intends to attempt to break two speed records when the UKOPRA racing season is done.

“We will make an attempt on the Monaco to Cannes record during the Cannes Yachting Festival, which runs from 10 to 15 September, and again an attempt to break the Monaco to St Tropez record during the Monaco Yacht Show between 25 and 28 September.”

Yachts in the harbour at Monaco

Still on Monaco, Brarda expressed his team’s appreciation for support from two people in particular in the Principality.

“I want to really thank two persons from Monaco, first of all Antonio Spiezia our team principal, without whom this programme wouldn’t have been possible, and secondly but certainly not least, Gianfranco Rossi, the president of the Monaco Powerboating Federation and also a world offshore champion on many occasions. Rossi is also the only racer who have won the Cowes Classic race four times — in 1981,1982, 1983 and 1984. He gave us great support, both technical and logistical.”

Brarda recalled that Rossi also raced with Prince Albert II back in the day, well before the prince’s accession to the throne.

“The Principality of Monaco has a long history with powerboating, and has allowed racers from all over the world to develop in this beautiful and glamorous location. If my memory is good, Prince Albert won the Monaco-St Tropez offshore race in 1982 — accompanied again by Gianfranco Rossi.”

Looking forward to breaking some speed records, he added: “We will use green energy to power Wild Eleven during these record attempts. We plan to modify the engines to use bio-ethanol, conduct tests to check its efficiency, and hopefully go on to use bio-ethanol in future races.

“Everybody needs to do something to mitigate climate change, and we hope that offshore powerboating on this side of the Atlantic will move towards replacing petrol, a fossil fuel, with bio-ethanol, a form of renewable energy.”