Maritimo’s international race team has beaten the world’s best to be crowned UIM XCAT World Champions and XCAT Pole Position World Champions in Dubai at the weekend.
Maritimo Racing was the first team in XCAT history to win both titles and also the first non UAE team to win a world championship. Maritimo was also the first non Victory Team hull/boat to win a world championship.
Maritimo’s lead designer and race team member Tom Barry-Cotter said the feeling of the win ‘was unreal’. The win came after a year of high and lows and was a long way from the serious accident that saw the team’s boat destroyed in an accident in April 2018.
“We competed in a brand new boat designed and built by Maritimo on the Gold Coast and first raced in Italy in Round 1 where it secured pole position and second place in Race 1 in its first outing,” said Barry-Cotter. “We developed the boat all year, improving handling and speed.”
“We took two wins at the Shanghai GP last month to set up the championship showdown with Dubai Police#3 and Abu Dhabi#4. Conditions were challenging here in Dubai, but they suited the boat’s design. We took Pole Position and secured the Pole Position Championship on Friday.”
Race 1 in Dubai was incredibly challenging with the team having a technical issue for the opening laps that saw them dropping back to fifth position. The technical issue cleared and Maritimo fought back to secure second place in an incredible race with many overtakes, thus setting up for the championship decider with one race to go.
“Who ever won the race out of top three championship boats would be crowned champion,” said Barry-Cotter.
“We got a great start in race two and were fighting in second position from the opening lap. We felt we had the pace and were applying constant pressure to Abu Dhabi #4 in front. That pressure became too much for #4 and they hooked the boat in a turn missing a turn mark, thus releasing us, into clean water with no boats in front. We continued to pull away from the field and boat got faster and faster.”
“However, It didn’t all go our way, as we lost all comms in the boat and from boat to shore, so the race strategy was all done from hand signals in the cockpit and from shore. We are incredibly proud and excited to bring the championship back to Australia for the first time and share with our 300 staff at Maritimo.”
Maritimo is the only production motor yacht manufacturer with a dedicated race team competing on the international stage and the learnings from such high pressure racing flow through to improvements and innovation in the production yacht range.
