ABU DHABI TO QATAR – TRANS GULF RECORD BID
November 14th, 2008
For immediate release
Friday, November 14th, 2008
TRANSMISSION FAILURE THWARTS SHEIKH
HASSAN’S EXCITING TRANS GULF RECORD BID
·Qatar team duo vow to return with a vengeance in 2009
DOHA (Qatar): His Excellency Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor Al-Thani and Qatar team mate Abdullah Al-Sulaiti were unable to complete their ambitious Trans Gulf Record bid from Abu Dhabi to Doha aboard the awesome Qatar Challenger on Friday morning.
The President of the Qatar Marine Sports Federation (QMSF) was attempting to enter the record books for crossing the Arabian Gulf between the two GCC countries in record time, but the starboard transmission failed on Qatar Challenger around 10 miles into the record attempt and Sheikh Hassan was forced to return to the port in Abu Dhabi.
"We couldn’t have picked better weather conditions," reflected a disappointed Sheikh Hassan. "We set out around five minutes behind our planned timetable but the sea was fine. Everything seemed to be going well, but we clipped a couple of breakers and the starboard transmission let us down. There was nothing we could do other than return to the port.
"We are obviously disappointed. I couldn’t really burden our team with more workload before the last two important Class 1 races of the season in the UAE at the start of December. So we will take our time to repair Challenger and have another go at a record early next year."
Sheikh Hassan was in control of the throttles on Qatar Challenger, with his Class 1 team mate from Qatar 95 handling the steering. "The boat was set-up in a similar configuration to a Class 1 racer," added Sheikh Hassan.
Qatar Challenger delivers in the region of 3200 hp from a pair of powerful Lycoming T-53 L-13 BA gas turbine engines.
Support for the record attempt came from Performance Marine, the local Nor-Tech dealer in association with NBJ Group. Edox, the official timing company of Class 1 World Powerboat racing, handled the timing and invaluable support was also sourced from Extreme Marine Dubai and Mercury Racing.
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