(MENAFN- Gulf Times) His Excellency Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor Al-Thani and Steve Curtis MBE earned a clean sweep of race victories in storm to an emphatic victory in the Extreme class at the 44th Annual Offshore World Championship in Florida on Sunday afternoon.
After dominating Wednesday's Truman Waterfront Cup and cruising to victory in Friday's Southernmost Continental Championship, they added a win in the Conch Republic Championship finale to the list to win the Extreme class by 43 points.
The duo had taken a 22-point lead over the American Custom Marine duo of Jeff McCann and Mickael Knoblock into the finale, where double points were on offer and the pressure of making a mistake and undoing all the hard work intensified.
With support from Qatar's Ministry of Sport and Youth, Sheikh Hassan and Curtis pushed the Mercury-engined Spirit of Qatar 96 MTi catamaran hard in calm conditions in the final race and then had to ease slightly on lap five with a minor overheating issue. The duo managed their pace over the remaining four laps to win the third race in a time of 22min 53.1sec with a winning margin of 3min 14.8sec.
“Three out of three,” enthused Sheikh Hassan.“First position in all the races. Weather conditions were excellent. It was very calm today and we had a good one. We had a slight overheat on lap five and had to slow down a little and then push back again. Overall, we are happy and the crew are happy with the results. After 11 years of not participating, we come in and do a clean sweep...
“At the same time, I would like to thank the Ministry of Youth and Sport for being the official sponsor, Simrad Navigation and to Mercury Racing for all their support on the engine back-up and set-up. Also, thanks to Extreme Marine from Dubai for supplying us the needed spare parts on site.”
EndsSteve Curtis MBE clean sweep race

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