Racings

Countdown To Sarasota: Qatar Fleet All In

ByMatt Trulio June 30, 2014March 30, 2020

If current plans hold, offshore racing fans will get their first view this year of the Spirit of Qatar’s Al-Adaa’am 96, a turbine-powered 50-foot Mystic catamaran, during next weekend’s Super Boat International Suncoast Sarasota Offshore Grand Prix. In a press release this morning, Spirit of Qatar team leader Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor Al-Thani said his group plans to field all his outfit’s boats in the upcoming offshore race on Florida’s West Coast.

A 44-foot Victory catamaran, the Spirit of Qatar 613 will complete in the Superboat Unlimited class in Sarasota.

In addition to the turbine catamaran, the Qatar team will field its Spirit of Qatar 613 catamaran in the Superboat Unlimited class with driver Nasser Saleh Al-Attiyah and throttleman Matteo Nicolini, and Spirit of Qatar 20, which competes in the Superboat class with Ali Al-Neama and American throttleman Billy Moore sharing the cockpit.

While the upcoming Sarasota Race is the third SBI event of the season, it will be the first for the Qatar team’s turbine-powered 50-footer. Sheikh Hassan plans to drive the cat with Steve Curtis handling the throttling duties.

“The turbine was not ready for Cocoa Beach (Fla.),” said Sheikh Hassan. “We had to get two new engines and the preparation to get the boat ready for the new season took so much time.

The Spirit of Qatar offshore racing team is coming to Sarasota in full force next weekend.

‘We are also planning to go to the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout races in August and, therefore, have to make sure the boat is ready for this,’ he added. “We are still missing some parts, but I just hope that we can make this race.”

Countdown To Sarasota: Qatar Fleet All In

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