ABU DHABI TO QATAR – TRANS GULF RECORD BID
November 13th-15th, 2008
For immediate release
Thursday, November 6th, 2008
SHEIKH HASSAN GIVES NEW QATAR
CHALLENGER FIRST SHAKEDOWN
·Abdullah Al-Sulaiti nominated as driver of Qatar Challenger
·Trans Gulf record bid on track for middle of November
DOHA (Qatar): His Excellency Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor Al-Thani took to the waters of the Arabian Gulf today (Thursday) to shakedown the new Qatar Challenger, the twin gas-turbine engined Nor-Tech boat that he will attempt to create a speed record with later this month on the Gulf crossing between Abu Dhabi and Doha.
The President of the Qatar Marine Sports Federation (QMSF) has also confirmed that his Class 1 World Powerboat Championship team mate Abdullah Al-Sulaiti will partner him as a driver on the Trans Gulf record bid, which the team hopes to tackle between November 13th-15th, depending on weather conditions. The challenge is being tackled under the full governance of the UIM.
The new Qatar Challenger is sponsored by Performance Marine, the local Nor-Tech dealer in association with NBJ Group. Edox will handle the timing for the bid and invaluable support has also been sourced from Extreme Marine Dubai and Mercury Racing.
"It was important that we gave the boat a shakedown just to check that everything is in full working order and we leave nothing to chance when we attempt the record bid," admitted Sheikh Hassan, who is relishing the challenge of crossing the Gulf between the Abu Dhabi Corniche and a finish in Doha – a distance of around 315 km and a race time of approximately two hours.
The Qatar Challenger is based on the streamlined Nor-Tech 50 supercat boat and is powered by a pair of powerful Lycoming T-53 L-13 BA gas turbine engines, which both deliver in the region of 1630hp apiece.
Ends
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