Australia’s Maritimo Racing is preparing for a mass of events in the upcoming months across two different championship series’ that the team competes within both here and internationally.
The newly constructed Maritimo R30 is in transit from Australia to Italy for the Round 1 of the UIM XCAT World Championship in Stresa, Italy after undergoing extensive testing on Australian waters.
The team is also busy preparing the team’s R36 and R40 in readiness for Round 2 of the Australian Offshore Superboat Championship in Bowen, QLD which is scheduled on the same weekend as the opening round of the UIM XCAT World Championship, said Maritimo’s Tom Barry-Cotter.
The team is dealing with the calendar overlap by rostering a reserve team to take on the responsibilities of campaigning the two-boat team in North Queensland in the Australian series, whilst the usual team will compete in Italy.
The newly formed team to compete in Australia will undergo extensive testing on the Gold Coast in the coming weeks in order to bring themselves up to speed and familiarize themselves with Maritimo Racing’s state-of-the-art equipment.
Standing in for Maritimo Racing’s usual driver’s and crew are Chris Frier, Brendan Frier, Ian Harris, John Barbagallo, and Steve Cox.
“We are very excited to welcome some new, yet familiar faces to the team in order to continue our local championship push”, said Tom Barry Cotter. “Chris and Brendan Frier, and John Barbagallo are usually in competition with Maritimo Racing, however after a stint away from the sport their services were on offer, and their experience proves extremely valuable in maintaining a highly competitive package.”
“Whilst the aforementioned are typically racing against Maritimo, Ian Harris and Steve Cox are very familiar with the team’s equipment due to being tasked with the construction of Maritimo Racing’s boats.”
“We have managed to bring together a tremendous wealth of knowledge and experience, with what is an extremely professional group of people, and we are very confident that the team is in safe hands.”
Whilst the team is being represented on home soil, the push for taking top prize in the UIM XCAT World Championship will just be getting underway. The newly constructed Maritimo R30 has been undergoing extensive fresh water testing in Australia in preparation for the conditions in Stresa, Italy.
The team is closely guarding the design of the new XCAT until it is unveiled at the Italian GP.
“The team is very confident in the performance of the R30 from the early data we have compiled in testing, and we believe we have taken a step forward since previous seasons,” said Barry-Cotter.
Barry-Cotter said much of what Maritimo racing learned on the international and national race circuits eventually was incorporated into the company’s range of production motor yachts. “We are the only production motor yacht manufacturer with a dedicated race team and that gives us a great advantage over the competition,” he said.
“The knowledge we gain through racing gives us a distinct advantage in terms of staying at the leading edge of production motor yacht manufacturing.”
