SuperHub Joins 66 Racing: From Cowes–Torquay–Cowes to a Coniston Water Speed Record Attempt

So here's the thing about our job. Most of the time we're talking about brand strategy, content architecture, AI search visibility and meta descriptions. Important stuff. Genuinely. But occasionally something comes across the desk that reminds you why working in sport is different to working in almost anything else. This is one of those times.

SuperHub has partnered with 66 Racing — an offshore powerboat team running twin Mercury 350 outboards and a schedule that starts with one of the most brutal races in British motorsport and ends with an attempt on one of the most storied records in the history of speed. We're a sponsor. We're also producing the film that documents the whole journey. And I'll be honest with you — I cannot wait.

If you don't know the Cowes–Torquay–Cowes Offshore Powerboat Race, let me give you a quick briefing. It's been running since 1961. It covers roughly 170 nautical miles of open water — out of the Solent, down the English Channel, around Torquay and back again. In anything other than benign conditions that is a serious, serious piece of water. Offshore powerboat racing doesn't happen on circuits with run-off areas and medical cars positioned every quarter mile. It happens on the sea, which does not negotiate and does not care about your risk assessment.

The boat has already been through Wrap Capital in Exeter and is looking like it means business. It does mean business. Testing kicks off at the end of March, which at the time of writing is almost immediately. The prep work is done. The Mercury 350s are in. The only thing left is to go and race it.

For SuperHub this is genuinely exciting territory because offshore powerboat racing sits almost completely uncovered as a content category. There is almost nothing out there in terms of quality documentary content about what it actually takes to prepare for and compete in the Cowes–Torquay–Cowes. The drama is real — the conditions are unpredictable, the machinery is extraordinary, the people who do this voluntarily are a specific kind of person — and nobody has told that story properly in the modern content format. We're going to.

Beyond the Cowes–Torquay–Cowes, 66 Racing are planning something considerably more significant. A water speed record attempt on Coniston Water in the Lake District.

Let me put that in context. The current outright water speed record stands at 317.6 mph, set by Ken Warby in Australia in 1978 in his jet-powered Spirit of Australia. It has not been broken in nearly fifty years. But Coniston Water has its own record, and it carries something that no speed record anywhere else in the world carries — the weight of what happened there on 4 January 1967.

Donald Campbell died on Coniston attempting the water speed record in Bluebird K7. He'd already broken the record the previous morning, registering 297 mph on the first run. On the return run — moving too quickly, without sufficient fuel for a proper restart, pushed by the pressure of the moment — Bluebird became airborne and disintegrated. Campbell was killed instantly. His body wasn't recovered from the lake until 2001. Bluebird K7 was raised and has since been painstakingly restored, displayed now as the extraordinary piece of British engineering and human courage that it is.

Anyone who takes a boat onto Coniston Water in an attempt on that record does so in the full knowledge of that history. That's not melodrama. It's just true. And it makes for a story with a weight and resonance that is completely unlike anything else in our sport.

We'll be documenting the preparation, the attempt and everything that surrounds it. Whatever happens on that water, it's going to be worth watching.

SuperHub is creating a short film that follows 66 Racing from preparation through competition. This isn't a highlights reel. It's a proper documentary piece — the people behind the project, the engineering, the preparation, the nerves, the racing itself and what comes after.

This matters to us beyond the obvious excitement of the project because it's an exact demonstration of what we've been saying about motorsport sponsorship activation for years. The logo on the boat is not the point. The story around the boat — told properly, distributed correctly, reaching people who would never otherwise know this exists — that's where the value is. The Cowes–Torquay–Cowes and the Coniston attempt are the raw material. The film is the product that makes the sponsorship worth exponentially more than the cost of the decal.

Tonto Marine — the authorised Mercury Marine dealer on the River Dart who are also backing 66 Racing — have already published their announcement and it says it perfectly: this is a cracking line-up of local businesses flying the flag for something genuinely extraordinary. We agree. Oceanic Detailing and Below Decks complete the sponsor group and together the backing reflects exactly the kind of commercially coherent, values-aligned partnership that good sponsorship is supposed to look like.

On-water testing is underway at the end of March. We'll be following the build-up, the testing programme and the race preparation through our channels. If you want to follow the journey — the real version, not a sanitised press release version — watch this space and follow us on social.

The Cowes–Torquay–Cowes is coming. Coniston is coming. The film is being made.

It's going to be loud, fast and very, very wet. And we wouldn't have it any other way.