Gold Coast XCAT racing a big winner!

Racing up to 200km/h, the 14 international XCAT teams — including local favourites Gold Coast Australia in boat number 11 with Tom Barry-Cotter on the wheel and Ross Willaton on throttles — took to the Gold Coast waterways from August 20-22 for the 6th international race in the World Professional Powerboating Association XCAT World Series.

What a resounding success and exciting event this proved to be, with the XCAT racing attracting tens of thousands of spectators to a superbly run and highly entertaining powerboat-racing spectacular on the Gold Coast, along The Spit, down the waterways and out the Seaway and back in again.

Congratulations to the XDubai team of Arif Al Zaffain and Nadir bin Hendi, who took first place, with the home team Gold Coast Australia in second and Six (Tomaso Polli and Matteo Nicolini) third.

The event officially opened 11am daily via XCAT Central at Doug Jennings Park, The Spit, Gold Coast, at the end of Seaworld Drive, of course. There was live streaming available on the XCAT video links page, YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/user/XCatPowerboats) channel as well as its

The live streaming worked brilliantly (catch-up on the action on the above links if you missed it) and created a truly global audience and event, while social media coverage and commentary added to the virtual experience.

Live, the XCAT racing was something else again, with two blow-overs by the same Dubai XCAT on the Saturday and Sunday. The crew of Eisa Al Ali and Salem Al Adidi certainly got a different view of the Gold Coast to most.

The most spectacular flip by Dubai was during the drag race, which was won by T-Bone Station with Giovanni Carpitella and Aussie Darren Nicholson putting the pedal to the metal as shown in the photo selection above.

Now check out the flip from the drag race in this video below...

The outboards produce about 280hp per side at 8000rpm for top speeds up to 200km/h or about 110 knots. But if you want to buy one, forget it! The engines are no longer in production and are as rare as hens' teeth. Maybe you will find an old one in the US but good luck and it will be ex-racing?

Throttleman Ross Willaton from the Gold Coast Australia XCAT team told BoatPoint and boatsales they have about seven powerheads and eight gearboxes spare but they aren't giving any away. These are same backup spares carried by most XCAT race teams, mind you.

XCATs will go to FourStroke Verado in 2016 and still allow these 2.5L two strokes for a while, so there might be mismatched racing until the transition is complete in 2017, when they can get more performance from the four strokes. They will need to modify the boats because the Verados are heavier, too. That is our understanding at this point in time.

Meantime, it was a truly great powerboat racing spectacle and showcase on the Gold Coast weekend with the wound-out 2.5L two-stroke EFIs on these lightweight carbon cats flying out the Seaway in some pretty serious swells. There was lots of air and the flips to wow powerboat fans lining the breakwalls and bobbing about in boats. Those of us interstate enjoyed the race on our small screens.

ENTERTAINMENT AND AUDIENCE
When the boats weren’t racing, the on-land action at XCAT Central (in Doug Jennings Park) was a popular attraction with a food bazaar, family entertainment,  the Showtime FMX Motocross show, Flyboard show, kids' fun zone with camel rides, belly dancing, magic show and more.

XCAT, the Dubai-based world powerboat series, was aiming to reach 400 million homes around the world via TV at the Gold Coast Grand Prix, showing substantial growth compared to the last round held in Cascais, Portugal.

"We are very pleased with the growth in XCAT TV as it is an important element in our growth strategy for the series," said HE Saif Markhan Al Ketbi, President of WPPA, the promoters of XCAT. "We plan to target growing that figure to over 500 million homes in the future.”

XCAT, which was founded in 2008, features the world’s best powerboat drivers competing at events organised in the UAE, Europe and Australia this year. The current Championship leader is team XDubai with drivers Arif Al Zaffain and Nadir bin Hendi. Racing will return to the Gold Coast next year, that is certain, with perhaps more supporting powerboat racing classes. More at the XCAT