The Shootout and the Sheikh
Can Qatar’s turbine-powered cat top a liquid-mile speed record?
July 27, 2014
To understand why the Spirit of Qatar team installed twin 3,000-hp T-55 turbine engines in its Al Adaa’am 96 50-foot Mystic offshore racing catamaran, you have to go back a couple of years—to July 2012, in fact, and to the test session when Miss GEICO burned to the waterline during the Super Boat International Suncoast Sarasota Offshore Grand Prix.
Outfitted with twin 3,000-hp T-55 turbine engines, Al Adaa’am 96 is gunning for a Lake of the Ozarks Shootout speed record in late August. Photo by Andy Newman.
While neither the catamaran’s throttleman Scott Begovich nor its driver Marc Granet was injured, the 50-foot cat—also a turbine-powered Mystic cat—was a total loss. That put the GEICO team out of the turbine offshore racing game and left the then-in-construction Al Adaa’am 96 raceboat without anything resembling consistent competition.
Miss GEICO had not just been a good target for the Qatar team in the Super Boat International Turbine class—it had been their only real target. What few Turbine-class teams existed rarely showed up to races. Qatar team leader Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor Al-Thani, who planned to drive his turbine boat with famed British throttleman Steve Curtis, had developed a healthy rivalry with the Miss GEICO team the year before when he ran one of Qatar’s piston-powered Union Internationale Motonautique Class 1 cats against Miss GEICO and got spanked. The good-natured war of words between Sheikh Hassan and Granet had been escalating ever since. In a struggling motorsport that desperately needs it, a good drama was shaping up.
Until Miss GEICO burned.
Still, there was time for Sheikh Hassan to install big piston power in his team’s new 50-footer. But he chose to go with two sets—1,800-hp T-53s and 3,000-hp T-55s—of interchangeable turbine engines for the cat. The less powerful T-53 engines were initially installed in the boat for offshore racing. They would be swapped for the more powerful engines for special events such as the Lake of Ozarks Shootout and perhaps, down the road a bit, an attempt to break the propeller-driven water-speed record in Qatar.
Sheikh Hassan (third from left) and his throttleman Steve Curtis (second from left) are dedicated to bringing the team’s turbine cat to glory this season.
Finishing the Al Adaa’am 96 project took longer than anyone expected. The boat debuted weakly at the 2013 SBI race in New York. A few months later at the SBI World Championships in Key West, Fla., the cat struggled with mechanical problems—it actually caught fire during the final race on Sunday. Despite the setback, Sheikh Hassan and his team were undaunted.
"I am never discouraged or disappointed," he said shortly after the races. "I will still carry on the momentum to move forward, and hopefully see the sport even healthier. We are 100-percent serious and committed to work to see it live up to its reputation and create interest for the fans to come and watch offshore racing again.”
Good to his word, Sheikh Hassan is back—and with two 3,000-hp turbine engines in his boat. While the team brought the 50-footer but didn’t run in Sarasota Grand Prix this summer, Sheikh Hassan said he is headed for the Lake of the Ozarks Shootout at the end of August and may even keep the 3,000-hp monster engine in the cat for the SBI Key West Worlds in November.
The debut season for Al Adaa’am 96 ended with a fire at the 2013 SBI World Championships in Key West. Photo by Pete Boden.
“The Lake of the Ozarks Shootout is something that I have been wanting to enter for some time, and it falls at a time in the calendar when we will miss a round of SBI competition,” Hassan said. “However, we have been working hard to ensure that the turbine boat is ready, and this will be a great chance for us to see what it is truly capable of.”
Set last year by Canadian Bill Tomlinson in My Way, another 50-foot turbine-powered Mystic cat, the current Lake of the Ozarks Record is 224 mph. Tomlinson does not plan to defend his title. He also doubts that his record will fall.
“If the Sheikh and his team are ready to run, I can’t wait to see what they can do,” said Tomlinson. “It’s one thing to run 200 mph in the boat—210 mph is another thing and every couple of mph after that [changes things] dramatically.
“I’m not sure if 230 mph is attainable or not in the Shootout distance,” he continued. “I mean, as far as the power and everything else goes, in a good run you could potentially maybe pick up another five mph or so in that distance, but you’re going to have to see how the boat responds to it. It’s pretty dicey; we’re already close to the edge.”
Now powered by 1,650-hp piston engines from Mercury Racing, the 44-foot Miss GEICO won’t be at the Shootout to fuel Sheikh Hassan’s competitive fire, but the two boats, though technically in different classes, will do battle come November in Key West.
Breaking the Shootout record will be, as Tomlinson pointed out, a tall order, especially for a team completely new to the event. Regardless, the performance-boat competition stage is set for some great drama for the rest of the season.
