VENTURE CUP A WORLD CLASS ADVENTURE !

2,400 miles of the very toughest conditions which the ocean can muster up, forcing teams to crash mercilessly through wave after relentless wave for hours on end over 15 days. This is the Venture Cup, the world’s longest, toughest and
most prestigious powerboat race, where technical excellence, bravery and courage join forces to do battle against the elements. This is a powerboat race of epic proportions featuring multi-leg, multi-day, multi-country racing for boats capable of competing in ultra-marathon events .....an event which The Sunday Telegraph in England recently declared the “return of the ultimate glamour race”
 
The Venture Cup is specifically designed to appeal to mainstream audiences,
and in the past this would have been an impossible task. With the racing taking
place miles out to sea it’s never going to be a ‘spectator sport’ - outside of pit
areas and finishing lines - but modern technology means that it can be a
‘consumed sport’ where all of the excitement can be brought directly to fans
wherever they may be. As a sporting event in the mainstream this race isn’t
about boats, or horsepower, drives, legs and propellors ....it’s about adventure,
challenge, risk and reward, bravery and achievement.
The crews of the ultra-endurance Venture Cup will be forced to hammer across,
through and sometimes under the waves in a brutal, bone-shaking marathon
that will often last more than 5 hours a day, every day, pushing men and their
machines to the limit. Boats and crews alike will experience ankle-smashing
and hull-snapping forces in excess of 30g, with hearts beating at 150+ bpm,
hour after hour, wave after wave. The organisers will be bringing all of this
exhilarating action to consumers in a dynamic way, virtually putting them in the
boat with the crews, to experience the tension, drama, and excitement each
day brings.
In a few weeks time we’ll be hosting a major mainstream media launch in
London, and in advance of that we’re now bringing our story to the
marine-leisure sector.

Background

Recent years have seen a number of high-profile offshore powerboat races and
series cancelled for a variety of reasons, and the race-teams associated with
these events came together for a meeting at the London Boat Show in January
of this year to see if there was a better way to move the sport forward. The
outcome of that meeting has seen the establishment of an entirely new
structure which combines some of the very biggest and best names in
powerboat racing with some highly experienced international event
professionals. This new approach has already yielded some major successes
and the organisers are fully confident that the Venture Cup will fulfill its
potential of becoming not only a top-end powerboat racing name, but a major
international sports property. Racing will be conducted with the full support
and oversight of both the UK national authority (RYA) and the sport’s global
governing body (UIM).

2013: Venture Cup Prologue

On June 8th of 2013 the Venture Cup Prologue will set off from Tower Bridge in
central London to begin a 750 nautical mile, 4-day, 3-country adventure. This prologue is designed to allow us to test crews, boats, officials, processes and
technologies in advance of the big race in 2014. The main race will involve
distances and challenges that haven’t been faced by anyone in more than
forty years, so it’s appropriate that we should ensure that all elements are
battle-hardened in a prologue event.

 

2014: Venture Cup Race 1

The first full Venture Cup revisits what many consider the all-time greatest powerboat race, which was run once before in 1972 from London to Monte-Carlo. At 0900 on Saturday the 31st of May 2014, right in the heart of London at Tower Bridge, the inaugural Venture Cup will begin. The following 15 days will see the fleet race over 2,400 miles across treacherous
seas, visiting 11 cities in 5 countries.

Future Races

The main Venture Cup race will run every two years. At present the following routes are under active consideration:
- New York to Miami
- Abu Dhabi to Mumbai
- Cowes to St. Petersburg
- Tokyo to Hong Kong
- Belem to Rio de Janeiro

Race in the Venture Cup

Entries are currently being taken for both the 2013 Prologue and the full race in 2014, with many major international teams already on board. Aside from a
world-class adventure, there are considerable supports available to entrants. If you’ve a team that would like to know more about entering, or if you’re interested in finding out how to get a seat in one of the boats, please send an email to hello@ventureoffshorecup.com

Environmental Responsibility

The Venture Cup is exciting, ambitious and new - as are our environmental objectives. We will build in all the possible safeguards we can and we will also learn along the journey and get cleaner and greener as we go. To aid our learning we will set up comprehensive monitoring systems and carry out research on environmental aspects that aren’t fully understood. We will work with the best academics, environmentalists and institutes and we will share our learning. As we race across different parts of the world, we will adapt our activities to meet the local and national environmental requirements and we will always be conscious of our cumulative as well as our direct impact. We will encourage efficient use of materials in the design of boats and we will help drive new engine designs with innovative clean technology and we will give awards to the best exponents. The environmental credentials of the Venture Cup are not a green wash, afterthought or an added extra, they are at the start and heart of the adventure and we expect to be judged accordingly.

Our Ocean

We know that the oceans are the key component in the ‘earth system’ , not only do they provide 50% of the air that we breathe but they are also play a fundamental role in the carbon, nutrient, thermohaline and water cycles. The Venture Cup will invest in this asset for now and the future.