Maritimo builds new racer
Qld company hopes to dominate offshore race sceneNot content with the boat that won the offshore powerboat world championship late last year, Gold Coast manufacturer Maritimo is putting the finishing touches to a new $1 million boat that it hopes will take the national and international offshopre racing scene by storm.
Maritimo Offshore Racing spokesperson Kurt Davies said the new boat was like a Formula One race car on the water and featured refinements and design changes that the team hopes will give them the edge.
"Obviously we don’t want to divulge too much and alert the competition, but this boat is shorter that our world championships winning boat and we are confident will be capable of speeds of almost 150 miles per hour (240km/h)," he said.
"We have also created a trim system that uses accumulators which store energy in canisters and can deliver pressures of around 3500 psi enabling us to go from minimum to maximum trim and back in one second.
"This should mean we can take the corners around the drums on any circuit at full speed and cut valuable seconds of our times.
"We have come up with some other refinements also that are extremely exciting, but we won’t be giving too much away at this stage."
He said its first race would be in the supercat series in Hervey Bay in November this year running a pair of Mercury 525hp engines.
In 2014 or 2015 the boat will compete internationally running UIM engines rated at 850hp.
"The boat has been designed by Michael Peters and overseen by Bill Barry-Cotter and the fine tuning and adjustments that have been made to increase its performance have come from Bill and until his recent passing Phil Frazer," he said.
When racing, Maritimo skipper Ross Willaton will control the throttles and Davies will be responsible for steering.
Maritimo sales and marketing manager, Greg Haines, said the expertise gained through the race team ultimately transferred over to the production boats.
"Steering systems in our production cruisers have already benefit from race team experience and engine positioning to lower the centre of gravity and minimise shaft angles also stems from the race shop," he said.
"The lessons learnt with this new race boat will ultimately benefit our customers when they purchase a family cruiser."
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