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Powerboat P1

Powerboat P1 or the Powerboat P1 World Championship is the world’s premium marine motorsport, with teams from around the globe racing at jaw-dropping speeds exceeding 200km (125mph) in supercharged mono-hull powerboats. The P1 season consists of a series of races known as the Grand Prix of the Sea. The races are held all over the world in the heart of the destination city such as the Bosphorus in Istanbul, Turkey and Gothenburg, Sweden. The event spans over a weekend with qualifying commencing on Friday, a Sprint Race on Saturday and Endurance Race on Sunday. The results of each race are combined to determine the Grand Prix of the Sea Champion. These points are then put towards the world championship standing’s.

Europe is Powerboat P1’s traditional centre, where all but one of the teams is based and where almost all the races have taken place since 2003. The sport has held events in Morocco and Tunisia in recent years and is looking to expand further its growing reputation by hosting races in Asia and the USA.

The powerboats can measure up to 13 meters long and weigh around seven tones. Boats reach speeds in excess of 200km (125mph) and generate up to 1800 hp – three times the power of a Lamborghini sports car.

Powerboat P1 Management Ltd is the sole rights holder for the world championship. Chairman and CEO of the company, Asif Rangoonwala, acquired the rights to the UIM World Championship in December 2002.

History of Powerboating

Performance boat racing, or “powerboating”, as a sport has a prestigious, long and storied past with the first races dating back over 100 years. Back then the sport was epitomized by the great ‘romantic’ races of Venice-Montecarlo, Viareggio-Bastia, Miami-Nassau and Cowes-Torquay.

In recent times, powerboat racing series have predominately catered to deep-pocketed racing drivers and featured boats which were mostly prototypes, built for maximum speed. Because these powerboats bared little resemblance to production vessels, there was little incentive for the marine industry to engage in the sport. In addition, the format based on long-distance endurance and/or speed racing offered limited attraction or opportunities for the public. Consequently, sponsorships and other investment opportunities into the sport were restricted.

P1 Story so far

Way back in May 2002, Massimo Lippi, Philippe Benhou and former Managing Director of Class One offshore racing, Nathan Knight had an idea - to create a commercially viable offshore powerboat world championship. Many had tried but no one had succeeded in developing a successful sporting powerboat championship. Formula One Powerboats came closest but that was inshore and like all good idea’s, it needed some financial backing. When TV Corp decided to sell their rights to Class One, Knight, who had been approached to take over the rights of a fresh powerboat racing platform, noticed the long tradition of powerboat racing needed purging from its long distance inshore racing, similar to point-to-point racing.

In 2002, powerboating was at a low point with The World Championship, merely raced over one weekend with only five boats competing. Six months after initial conversions with current Powerboat P1 CEO and Chief Executive Asif Rangoonwala, Knight came calling once again. Lippi, Benhou and Knight had made a visit to Genoa Boat Show in October 2002, negotiating 40 meetings with various officials and manufacturers, over eight days. The feedback was clear – the manufacturers still professed a vested interest in powerboat racing but they didn’t want to associate with anything that wasn’t a professionally run organization.

Rangoonwala, a major sports fan, especially of the American market, had seen the US model operating successfully with its franchises and sports properties making good business sense. Seizing the initiative, Rangoonwala worked on the idea of how the turnaround sports property model could work in powerboating. Then in May 2003, the Powerboat P1 World Championship was born in Nettuno, Italy. 12 boats (six from P1), 70% of which were Italian, raced in the first Grand Prix of the Sea. Unlike today’s supercharged twin-engine monhulls, most of the boats in Nettuno were 15 year-old aluminum boats, illustrating just how far the sport has developed.

Understanding the key to the future was developing a sport’s competition with a level playing field, Rangoonwala & Co continued to push the boundaries, focusing on developing a promotional platform that would not just attract manufacturers back to sport by ensuring the rules catered to production models, but creating an international sporting competition that could continue to prosper.

Powerboat P1 Today

Powerboat P1 is now the only powerboat Championship that has the active support and participation of the marine industry. Engine builders such as Ilmor, Fiat Powertrain, Isotta Fraschini, Mercury, Seatek, and Yanmar and hull manufacturers such as Fountain, Donzi, Dragon and Skater all support team entries in the Championship. In early 2007 Sunseeker announced its full ‘works team’ entry to the sport, while Cigarette – perhaps the most iconic of powerboat brands – will soon unveil a works team entry in Powerboat P1 for the 2008 season.

In five short years, P1 has succeeded in building a credible sport, with a growing international fan base. In addition, P1 has dramatically changed the racing format to a spectator-friendly, close-to-shore one, which has attracted larger live audiences and support funds from major harbour cities’ tourism organisations. The number of competing teams has more than tripled in the last four years and the large majority of the boats have been built in the last two-to-three years. This change reflects a total rejuvenation of the fleet and a new powerful platform for the industry. During the last four seasons, P1 has staged some 23 Grand Prix events and 46. The ‘Grand Prix of The Sea’ name encapsulates P1 unique offering as the ultimate water sports entertainment and performance platform. The P1 proposition not only serves the marine industry, but also powerboat enthusiasts and the broad public through TV, web, and other media products. Signature venues provide the public with high quality entertainment, as well as an unforgettable corporate hospitality proposition.

The UIM

The Union Internationale Motonautique (UIM) is the international governing body of powerboating, based in the Principality of Monaco. It was founded in 1922, in Belgium, as the Union Internationale du Yachting Automobile. It has a membership of more than fifty national authorities.

Classes

The Powerboat P1 World Championship consists of two race classes: Evolution and SuperSport, with powerboats from each class competing in two separate rounds – Sprint and Endurance - over the course of a race weekend. All Powerboat P1’s boats are twin-engine monohulls, fuelled either by powerful petrol or diesel engines. Boats in the Evolution and SuperSport class are required to have a minimum crew of two – a pilot and a throttleperson – with some teams even adding an extra-navigator to do some of the work. To keep competition close, all boats must comply with power-to-weight ratio regulations.

Evolution Class

This is essentially a prototype class designed for boats with a minimum length of 36ft and maximum of 43ft. The boats require either a full or partial canopy and the pilots must be seated and use safety harnesses. They make use of inboard motors (petrol and diesel) and have a minimum post-race weight of 4,000 kg. These high-powered prototypes can reach speeds well in excess of 100mph (equivalent of more than 200mph on land), the rules demand a power to weight ratio of 1hp to 3.5kg with no speed limit. The class acts as a high-technology shop window for hull and engine makers and the rules encourage reliability and true Endurance characteristics, with close, high-speed racing the order of the day.

SuperSport Class

This is the production-based class for open-top boats with standard production model hulls and engines. Each craft must be a minimum length of 33ft and 42ft maximum. The hull must be a standard model from a production mould, fitted with standard production model engines with typical pleasure navigation characteristics. A maximum power to weight ratio of 1hp to 4.5kg applies and the category is open to both petrol and diesel engines. In the interests of competitor safety, a maximum top speed of 85mph applies. The class acts as an excellent marketing platform for boat and engine manufacturers and also offers teams a cost-effective entry into world-class racing.

Grand Prix of the Sea race formats

Each Grand Prix of the Sea event consists of at least two official practice sessions, a ‘PowerPole’ session and two separate races. This applies for each class (Evolution and SuperSport), who compete over a race weekend for the Grand Prix of the Sea Championship. On occasions, given the restrictions of the race course, both classes have been known to race together, such as in Malta during 2009. Grand Prix and championship points are awarded for both races but not for the PowerPole.

PowerPole

PowerPole consists of a time-trial on the day (usually a Friday) before the first scheduled race of the Grand Prix of the Sea. Each competitor will be required to complete one or more laps of the PowerPole course. The team with the fastest time will thus have first choice for the starter position for Saturday and Sunday’s races. The second-fastest will have second choice and so on…

Saturday Sprint Race

The sprint race will consist of a minimum race distance of 40 nautical miles for the Evolution class, but may be less for the SuperSport class.

Sunday Endurance Race

The endurance race will consist of a minimum distance of 70 nautical miles for the Evolution class, but may be less for the SuperSport class.

Key changes to the P1 regulations in 2009

Shorter courses for the Sprint and Endurance races – 40 nautical miles for the Sprint and 70nm for the Endurance race, compared with 50nm and 80nm in 2008. Various systems for awarding championship points have been used since 2002. In 2009 a change to the overall championship points breakdown has took place.

Teams will now be awarded the following points (subject to completing 70 per cent of the race distance): 1st place (100 points), 2nd (90), 3rd (81), 4th (73), 5th (66), 6th (60), 7th (55), 8th (51), 9th (48), 10th (46), 11th (45), 12th (40)

Television

Powerboat P1 can be seen live or tape delayed in 185 territories around the world. It is broadcast over 30 millions homes with an average 7 million viewers per event. Powerboat P1 has a host of dedicated broadcasters, such as Eurosport, Sky Sports, American Powerboat TV and Fox Sport. They also enjoy extensive international coverage in three leading motorsport shows distributed globally, Motorsport Mundial, Planet Speed and Max Power. These three magazines reach over 400 million homes.