Water power

Power boats hit the waves of the Mediterranean one more time, Ahmed Morsy attended the fierce Class 1 World Power Boating Championship of 2008

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Top: UAE Victory 7 won second place; UAE Victory 1 won first place by over two minutes, snatching the championship from Qatar

Over the last weekend Porto Marina attracted thousands of local and foreigner spectators to the world's most extravagant water sport competition, the second event of its kind in Egyptian waters. Porto Marina, the showpiece of Egypt's northern coast, the best kept secret of jet-setters who glide into the marina on luxury yachts, hosted round six of the Class 1 World Powerboat Championship and round two of the Class 1 Middle East Championship in the period of 23-25 October.

"We are happy to discover Egypt as a destination that is competitive to Qatar and Dubai in terms of elite audience that enjoys a distinguished lifestyle, and that is as attractive as Norway," said Said Hareb, chairman of the World Professional Power boating Association (WPPA).

Porto Marina was selected by the WPPA two years ago to host the Class 1 for the next five years due to its state-of-the-art yacht marina, luxury accommodation, the climate and its wealth of amenities. As a result, Amer Group signed an agreement with this prominent association to bring this worldwide event to Egypt in Porto Marina from 2007 to 2011.

"This landmark agreement will surely position Egypt as a go-to destination for year-round sporting events, helping to encourage regional and international investments in Alamein that will resonate across Egypt and to showcase Porto Marina as a leading destination on the Mediterranean Coast with something innovative and fun for every member of the family throughout the entire year," said Mansour Amer, chairman of Amer Group, the organiser of the event.

While the summer season was over in the northern coast almost two months ago, the event managed to attract the attention of Egyptian audience as well as foreigners. The race was widely covered and broadcast by more than 150 national and international channels and regional and international newspapers and news agencies. In addition, there were two helicopters for live broadcasting.

Ten boats competed for the coveted Class 1 World title and the prospect of a spectacular season's racing was fuelled by new driver line-ups and one of the most competitive fleets to line up for many a season. Weighing in at around five tonnes, each of the Class 1 fleet is approximately 13-14m in length and 3.5m wide. The boats are built using composite materials.

Teams came from England, Italy, Norway, Qatar, Spain and the UAE competing in eight races across Scandinavia, southern Europe and the Middle East.

Victory 1 and 7 boats represented the United Arab Emirates, Qatar 95 and 96 from Qatar, Negotiator 50 stood for England, Roscioli Hotels Roma 60 and Spirit of Spain 88. Seveneleven 18 signified Italy, Jotun 90 from Norway and Foresti & Suardi 8 denotes Italy.

Championship leaders in Victory 1 took a giant step towards retaining the team's world title after leading home a dream one-two finish in the Egyptian Grand Prix after seeing all three of their main title rivals falter, with Negotiator capping an impressive return to top-flight racing, finishing third.

The win for Mohamed Al-Marri and Nadir Bin Hendi was the team's fourth of the season, moving them 15 points clear of teammates Victory 7, and put Al-Marri within sight of his second world crown and Bin Hendi his first. More importantly it put them 35 points clear of their Qatari rivals, with just two races remaining and only 40 points on offer.

After finishing first in the Egyptian Grand Prix, Bin Hendi was ecstatic, "we have worked hard all weekend to prepare the boat to make sure we had reliability and the best set-up." Bin Hendi gave credit to his the team as well, "they did a fantastic job. They gave us two great boats and we did the rest. We had some bad luck in the last race but we made up for it."

With rough conditions anticipated, race officials decided to run a revised course and reduced the race distance to 70Nm consisting of 21 laps.

It seemed that winning is not the only goal of all competitors. Victory Team's General Manager Gianfranco Venturelli told his crew before the race to bring the boats home in one piece.

After seeing the pole-sitters Qatar 96 lead from the flag and then open up a comfortable lead, the Victory 1 crew looked to have settled for second place. "We knew Qatar 96 would be strong in these conditions and there was no need for us to push," said Al-Marri. "What was important was to look after the boat and get the points. Anything else would be a bonus." The bonus came on lap 13 when the leaders hit trouble and slowed. Victory 1 swept into the lead, going on to take a comfortable win by over two minutes.

Yet for the Qatar team their day went from bad to worse. With Sheikh Hassan and Steve Curtis limping around the course to salvage valuable points, teammates Abdullah Al-Sulaiti and Matteo Nicolini in Qatar 95, who were running comfortably in third place, suddenly stopped a lap later, handing second place to Victory 7. "If there is any luck anywhere in the world we need it," said Sheikh Hassan. "We made a great start and had built up a big lead and then hit trouble. There was a problem with the water pick-up which flooded the engine bay. But to lose two boats in two laps is unbelievable. I think it's time to close the chapter on the 2008 title. But we will go to Dubai to fight for second place."

Negotiator held off a race-long challenge from Foresti & Suardi to take third place, which marked an impressive return to racing for Chris Parsonage, who sat out the last four races, and capped an impressive Class 1 debut for throttleman Billy Moore. "This is a great result for us. I am ecstatic," said Moore. "We were a little short on top end speed but the boat ran real well all weekend and to get on the podium in our first race together is a really good feeling."

Giampaolo Montavoci and Kolbjorn Selmer maintained their impressive record for reliability, producing their best result of the season bringing Foresti & Suardi home in fourth place. "We had one or two problems with the steering but I am happy to finish fourth," said Montavoci. "Our boat is still too heavy but the most important thing today was not to damage the boat and get to Dubai in one piece. There we will have new engines and new propellers."

While there was disappointment for the Spirit of Spain crew, retiring on lap 12, Class 1 newcomer Mohamed Abdel-Kader Ahmed, marked his Class 1 debut with four points in eighth place in Roscioli Hotels Roma with Ahmed Al-Suwaidi. There was also disappointment for Seveneleven who retired on lap five and Jotun's hopes of a hat-trick ended on lap three.

Class 1 now heads to Dubai for the final two races on 4-6 and 11-13 December, with Al-Marri and Bin Hendi on target to win the World, Middle East and the Edox Pole Position Championships. The previous five rounds were in Doha in March 2008, Montenegro in May, Russia in July, Norway in July and Romania in August.

Over the years, safety has become a key concern and today's Class 1 boats are without doubt the safest they have ever been. The quest for speed has produced boats, engines and transmission systems which are inevitably more sophisticated and the use of Fibre Reinforced Polymer (FRP) with advanced composites using kevlar and carbon fibre has made them safer.

While several boat manufacturers (Tencara, MTI, CUV and Cougar) provide the fleet, the Dubai Victory Team is the only one on the circuit producing its own boats, not only for themselves but for other teams. Most boats run petrol engines with the Italian Lamborghini 8.2 litre, V12 the preferred power plant of many of the teams. The Victory Team run their own Victory V12 (based on the Lamborghini V12 but with a few tweaks here and there).

In the cockpit, a satellite GPS system, trim indicators, engine data dashboards and instrument panels and warning lights keep the crew aware of the boat's progress during a race, while in some boats an escape hatch in the floor is an added safety feature in the event of an accident. The cockpit is also structured to withstand enormous impacts that may occur if a boat crashes at speeds in excess of 270km/h.

To make sure all goes on the right track, strong coordination with government officials was needed, to assure that everything goes on the right track because this kind of championships reaps significant, economic, social, tourism and cultural benefits. The minister of defence, interior, tourism and transport blended in support of the event.

In Amer's opinion, it is not only a competition, "it truly highlights the high level of confidence in Egypt as a premier destination for first class events and reflects the modern and sophisticated lifestyle Egypt is becoming known for around the world." The plan is to expand the tourism season from summer to the whole year.

Despite the effort put into the competition from the Egyptian group and the government, Egypt does not actually have a team of its own in the first place.

The man who was behind the organisation had an answer, yet not an encouraging one. Amer explained that setting up an Egyptian team is very expensive, needing $5 million initially and $1 million yearly. "However, by brilliantly promoting the sport inside Egypt and after successfully organising the event, the hope of creating an Egyptian team will exist since the positive effects of the sport will spread," added Amer.

Al-Marri, world champion of the Victory team sees the presence of the Arab teams as an asset still. "We are so proud because there are three Arab countries hosting the World Powerboat Championship side by side with foreign countries."

He hopes in the near future that Arab countries expand such an exciting sport in the Arab world. "We would love to have an Egyptian team to compete with the other Arabs."