Maritimo gears up for title tilt

Maritimo’s specialist race team, Maritimo Offshore Racing, is gearing up for a two-boat assault on the 34th annual Super Boat International Key West World Offshore Powerboat Championships starting on November 5 this year.

Having won the World Championships in 2012, the Maritimo Offshore Racing team’s goal is to return to Key West with two totally new boats, which comply with the new rules introduced after the 2012 win, and take out both the Superboat and Superboat Unlimited Championships.

"When we won in 2012 the Americans decided to change the rules which effectively eliminated us from being competitive the following year and being able to defend our title," said Maritimo’s ‘super skipper’ Ross (Rossco) Willaton (pictured).

"We have been quietly working away since then and we are heading back with two new boats which we believe will give us a really good crack at both the Superboat and Superboat Unlimited categories. "We want to show them that 2012 wasn’t a fluke," Willaton added.

Maritimo Offshore Racing is currently developing a Superboat with MerCruiser Number Six stern drives for the Superboat category and it is working on a supercharged, 40 foot boat with engines of 1500 to 1700 horsepower per side to launch the assault on the Superboat Unlimited category.

The Superboat with MerCruiser Number Six stern drives will be tested in the Coffs Harbour races of the Australian Offshore Powerboat Series and then it and its supercharged sibling will be loaded onto a ship and sent to the USA at the end of September.

"We will get to test the boat fitted with the Number Six drives in Coffs, but we won’t get the opportunity to test the supercharged boat for the Unlimited category before they ship to the US," said Willaton.

"However, we are confident the boat with the bigger engines will perform well and at just 40 feet, with the competition ranging from 44 to 50 feet, we think we will get superior acceleration and be better able to handle the challenging water conditions of the Key West course," he said.

"The competition will be bigger, but I think we will be faster off the mark and that will enable us to manage the water conditions better."

Ross will be teamed up with internationally renowned throttle man Gary Bullough in the Superboat Unlimited category and Peter (Muddy) McGrath and Darren Nicholson will be in the MerCruiser Number Six in the Superboat division.

Gary Bullough has been 12 times national champion in the US and has had extensive experience racing at Key West. He is also experienced in the Class One race boats that compete in the United Arab Emirates .

The Willaton/McGrath combination took out the 2012 World Championship.

Maritimo founder Bill Barry-Cotter, AM, said he wanted to go back to Key West to prove a point.

"With the new MerCruiser Number six stern drive boat and the high powered 40 footer for the Superboat Unlimited category I am confident we will give them a run for their money," he said.