Gold Coast based Maritimo Offshore Racing started its 2016 season on a solid footing winning major races at the first of the Australian Offshore Superboat Championships held in Bowen, but disaster hit in the second series at Mackay with one of its boats severely damaged.

The team is set to bounce back in the next round of racing later at Coffs Harbour this month when it will replace the damaged boat with the Key West Superboat vessel, last raced in the world championships. The 42 foot race boat is larger than any of its competition, but will handle rough conditions better and should provide consistency, according to the team.

“The boat that we damaged racing in round two at Mackay will be rebuilt however we are not sure when it will be completed. We need to maintain reliability to keep racking up the points,” said Maritimo’s Ross Willaton.

Photo: EMB Photographics

The team won the Australian Offshore Superboat Supercat “Extreme” category last year but after a handful of issues, did not place at the World Championships.

The first races in this year’s Australian series saw Maritimo Offshore Racing throttleman Ross Willaton and driver Travis Thompson compete in the Superboat Extreme category in Maritimo 11. Maritimo driver Andrew Willaton and throttleman Andrew Searle competed in Maritimo 12 in the Superboat 1000 category.

During the Mackay race, Maritimo 12 crashed in Race #1 and Maritimo 11 failed to finish in Race #2.

Willaton said the goal now was to remain competitive and score as many points as possible going forward with the new #12 boat and Maritimo 11. The team’s aim this year is to be on top of the podium at events from Bowen in North Queensland to Key West in the USA running three individual boats.

After Coffs Harbour there will be further races in Lake Macquarie and Hervey Bay with the Superboat World Championships in Key West Florida following on in November.

Photo: EMB Photographics

Maritimo’s founder, Bill Barry-Cotter is heavily involved in the race team and the design and construction of the race boats.

“With Bill taking part in all the decision making, we have intense discussions on how we can maximize our engine performance,” said Willaton.

The Maritimo race team manager and engine builder, Kurt Davies, designs, builds and tunes all the race engines in house.

Maritimo’s Marketing and International Sales Manager Greg Haines said the experience gained at the coal face of international offshore racing was invaluable in the design and performance of the company’s production cruisers.

“No other Australian manufacturer, and actually very few internationally, have the benefit of the learnings we gain from serious offshore racing which can be ultimately inbuilt into our production boats,” he said.

Maritimo Offshore Racing is also heavily involved in the preparation of the Gold Coast Australia XCAT boat that is competing in the World XCAT Series. This race boat is outboard powered and driven by Tom Barry-Cotter and Ross Willaton on throttles.

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