Today marks the start of the 31st Key West World Championship, the last of seven events in the 2011 Super Boat International World Championship calendar.
This championship appointment is of particular importance to local sport as it marks the first ever participation of a Maltese sportsman in powerboat racing in the United States; and furthermore racing in a Malta built boat – truly a ‘baptism of fire’!
Yes, Aaron Ciantar, twice P1 SuperSport World Champion in the Mediterranean now ventures in new waters and more existing challenges. In fact the last of these two World Championships, that of 2009, he won as part of a successful partnership he had with Ukrainian Viktor Shemchuk. In America the winning team of owner-throttle Shemchuk and driver Ciantar will be racing Maltese built 13-metre powerboat, Ukrainian Spirit, a Chaudron Canopy 41 model powered by two inboard 800hp engines.
Some seventy boats divided into 12 Classes are expected to contest the Key West Worlds’ series made up of nine races with three races daily scheduled for today, for Friday and for Sunday. Ukrainian Spirit, bearing number P1-55, will feature in the ‘Manufacturer Production 1 Class’.
Actually Shemchuk will be having a second boat on the Key West circuit – this will be Seagull, also a Chaudron Malta-built 13-metre powerboat, powered by two inboard 600hp each engines. An all Ukrainian crew made up of Oleksiy Chendekov (pilot), Andriy Lysenko (throttle) and Dmytro Gerasymenko (navigator/spare pilot) will race Seagull which will be featuring in the ‘Manufacturer Production 4 Class’. This crew, and boat, placed third in the SuperSport Class of the 2010 World and European Grand Prix of the Seas Championships.
Key West in the state of Florida, is situated on the dividing line between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, and enjoys a longstanding tradition in this 31st annual challenge, known internationally as the Indianapolis 500 of powerboat racing.
Super Boat racing in the United States has been organised by Super Boat International (SBI) since 1989.