Fujairah, XCAT 2016 First Event

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Fourteen boats confirmed to open 2016 season in first week of April

Dubai: With less than a month to go, the city of Fujairah is gearing up to host a blistering first round of the 2016 UIM XCAT World Series.

At the official launch of the event in Fujairah earlier this week were World Professional Powerboating Association (WPPA) board member Essa Bin Kharbash, Sid Bensalah, WPPA Secretary General and UIM XCAT World Series Chief Officer - as well as Mohammad Saeed Al Danhani, Fujairah International Marine Club (FIMC) Vice Chairman and General Director of Amiri Court of Fujairah and Ahmad Ebrahim, Managing Director, FIMC.

As many as 14 teams from across the globe will converge on the Gulf of Oman for the opening race of what promises to be a sensational season, with new, powerful, greener engines, new venues and plenty of excitement on the cards.

Keen to put in a good show at the event on April 7 and 8 will be the Fujairah Team of Serafino Barlesi and Alessandro Barone. The boat may be driven by Italians, but they are very much considered the home team after FIMC announced their sponsorship of the boat.

“Fujairah wants to see us on the podium and winning, so do we of course... we wish,” said Barlesi, who is looking forward to the prospect of switching to the new four-stroke Mercury engines.

“The boats will be faster and more difficult to run. For the Fujairah race, we will count on my experience and also the communication and connection with Alex (Barone). We have lengthened the boat by two feet, from 30 to 32 feet and will just have two days to test before the race,” he added.

Challenging the Fujairah Team for top honours will no doubt be the two teams who battled it out for the overall Series title in 2015 – Victory Team’s XDubai-sponsored boat (with Arif Al Zafein and Nader Bin Hindi aboard) and Team Abu Dhabi (with Rashid Al Tayer and Faleh Al Mansouri).

In the opening race last year, which provided plenty of drama with the toughest conditions of 2015, the Victory Team’s race was cut short when an engine caught fire. Plenty of teams dropped out of contention and it was the Abu Dhabi duo who prevailed to take the win.

But the Victory Team came back strong, and by the end of the year, had climbed their way up to the familiar top spot. Also looking to make their mark in the opening race of the season will be the likes of Six (Tomaso Polli and Matteo Nicolini, who were third overall last season), Swecat (Erik Stark and Mikael Bengtsson), Videx (Alfredo Amato and Joakim Kumlin, winners in Dubai at the end of last year) and relative newcomers Gold Coast Australia (Tom Barry-Cotter and Ross Willaton), while T-Bone Station (Giovanni Carpitella and Luca Fendi) will be hoping to redeem themselves after a season plagued by mechanical problems and unfortunate premature finishes to their races.

After the opening race in Fujairah, the action will move to Dubai the following weekend, after which the boats will head to Switzerland for the first time, where the Lugano GP takes place from June 4-5.

http://gulfnews.com/sport/boat-racin...ents-1.1697460

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Teams ready for Fujairah test in new XCAT season

Keen to put in a good showing at the event on April 7 and 8 will be the Fujairah Team of Serafino Barlesi and Alessandro Barone.

With less than a month to go, the city of Fujairah is gearing up to host a blistering first round of the 2016 UIM XCAT World Series.

At the official launch of the event in Fujairah on Tuesday were Essa bin Kharbash, World Professional Powerboating Association (WPPA) board member; Sid Bensalah, WPPA secretary general and UIM XCAT World Series chief officer; Mohammed Saeed Al Danhani, Fujairah International Marine Club (FIMC) vice chairman and general director of Amiri Court of Fujairah; and Ahmed Ebrahim, managing director of FIMC.

Fourteen teams from across the globe will converge on the Gulf of Oman for the opening race of what promises to be a sensational season with new, powerful, greener engines, new venues and plenty of excitement on the cards.

Keen to put in a good showing at the event on April 7 and 8 will be the Fujairah Team of Serafino Barlesi and Alessandro Barone. The boat may be driven by Italians, but they're very much considered the home team after the Fujairah Marine Club, hosts of round one of the Series, announced their sponsorship of the boat.

Challenging the Fujairah Team for top honours will no doubt be the two teams who battled it out for the overall Series title in 2015 - Victory Team's XDubai-sponsored boat (Arif al Zaffain and Nadir bin Hendi) and Team Abu Dhabi (Rashed Al Tayer and Faleh Al Mansoori). In the opening race last year, which provided plenty of drama with the toughest conditions of 2015, the Victory Team's race was cut short when an engine caught fire.

Plenty of teams dropped out of contention and it was the Abu Dhabi duo who prevailed. But the Victory Team came back strong, and by the end of the year had climbed their way up to the familiar top spot.

Also looking to make their mark in the opening race of the season will be the likes of Six (Tomaso Polli and Matteo Nicolini, who were third overall last season), Swecat (Erik Stark and Mikael Bengtsson), Videx (Alfredo Amato and Joakim Kumlin, winners in Dubai at the end of last year) and relative newcomers Gold Coast Australia (Tom Barry-Cotter and Ross Willaton) while T-Bone Station (Giovanni Carpitella and Luca Fendi) will be hoping to redeem themselves after a season plagued by mechanical problems and unfortunate premature finishes to their races.

http://khaleejtimes.com/sport/motor/...ew-xcat-season

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• Al Tayer set for Fujairah test: The XCAT World Powerboating Series gets underway with the opening round in Fujairah on April 7 and 8. The championship series has drawn 14 teams with the Abu Dhabi pair Rashed Al Tayer and Faleh Al Mansoori, the winners of last year’s opening race, confident of a repeat. “We did a great job here last year," Al Tayer said. “We are optimistic the we will do something special in Fujairah and finish first – the same as before."

http://www.thenational.ae/sport/uae/...dubai-and-more

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A couple of short videos from Swecat testing with their new 400 ROS's for the upcoming race.


Serious Offshore Facebook

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The boat sits low in the water with the additional weight of the 400 ROS's. The ROS weigh 648 pounds each. Whereas the 2.5L EFI only weighed 401 pounds each. As you can see, where the rigging tuber enter the boat, they were so worried that it would sit even lower they put extended, raised, tubes around those holes.

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Congrats to Swecat for their podium finish!!

Victory Team sail away with Fujairah GP win in UIM XCAT World Powerboating Series

The Victory Team lived up to their name and reputation by taking the first title of the 2016 UIM XCAT World Powerboating Series with a win at the Fujairah GP on Friday.

Victory Team drivers and defending champions Arif Al Zaffain and Nadir bin Hendi stormed led from start to finish to top the podium and UIM XCAT World Powerboating Series after round 1.

It was not a race without drama, however, as Team Australia and Abu Dhabi Team 5 collided at the first turn and the Australians flipped their boat.

With both drivers safely back on land, the race was restarted with Victory Team once again storming to the front on the first lap.

That they certainly were and once at the front the duo executed their race plan to perfection.

Meanwhile, further back Gold Coast.Australia were steadily making their way up the field.

After a dismal start in eighth position, Tom Barry-Cotter and Ross Willaton made the decision to take their long laps early and the strategy paid off.

The pair had worked their way up to fourth spot when the Fujairah Team experienced problems and lost speed, meaning the Australians moved up into the podium places. Swecat who were then in second still had one more long lap to complete however – and when they tackled that, the Gold Coast boast made their move up into second, where they stayed until the finish.

Swecat eventually finished third with the Dubai combination of Salem Al Adidi and Eisa Al Ali grateful they weren’t the ones flipping their boat again – and finishing in fourth place.

Attention now moves to Dubai where the second round of the XCAT World Series will be contested from April 15-16.

http://sport360.com/article/other/wa...oating-series/

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Fujairah CP crowns winners of Fujairah Grand Prix WAM Saturday 9th April, 2016 FUJAIRAH, 8th April, 2016 (WAM) -

The Victory Team lived up to their name and reputation by taking the first title of the 2016 UIM XCAT World Powerboating Series with a win at the Fujairah Grand Prix on Friday. Gold Coast Australia worked its way up to second spot while Swecat Racing finished third. H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Mohammed Al Sharqi, Crown Prince of Fujairah, crowned and congratulated the winners.

The Fujairah round of the XCAT World Series was successful by all measures,'' Sheikh Mohammed affirmed. The Fujairah Grand Prix - the first round of the UIM XCAT World Series 2016 where 14 boats are competing. XCAT, short for extreme catamaran, is one of the most challenging and extreme forms of powerboat racing in the world.

Sheikh Saif bin Hamad Al Sharqi, Chairman of Fujairah International Marine Club, a number of Sheikhs and senior local officials, sports and cultural figures and representative from the International Power Boat Association (IPBA) attended the event.

See more at: http://www.australiannews.net/index.....HOI5xomT.dpuf

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Podium Finishers


The Fujairah GrandPrix podium boats.
1. Victory Team
2. Gold Coast.Australia
3. Swecat Racing

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Victory Team triumph

The defending Series champions, Arif Al Zaffain and Nadir bin Hendi, stormed to the front in typical fashion and led from start to finish to top the podium and the Series after round 1.

The pair had worked their way up to fourth spot when the Fujairah Team (Serafino Barlesi and Alessandro Barone) experienced problems and lost speed, meaning the Australians moved up into the podium places. Swecat Racing (Mikael Bentsson and Erik Stark) who were then in second still had one more long lap to complete however - and when they tackled that, the Gold Coast boast made their move up into second, where they stayed until the finish.

"We had a really bad qualifying session so we were starting from eighth on the grid," explained Gold Coast's Barry-Cotter.

"We had a lot of technical issues but we knew all weekend that the boat had a lot of pace. It was just the technical issues holding us back.

"We got a really bad start so from there we were literally one of the last boats to come around the second corner so we made the call to take both the long laps straight away and we managed to have clear water."

http://khaleejtimes.com/sport/local/...y-team-triumph

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