15 Gennaio 2009

NICOLINI KEEPING HIS OPTIONS OPEN

Fonte: Class 1 World Powerboat Champion

Thursday, 15 January: Qatar 95’s Matteo Nicolini is keeping his options open as to which boat he and Abdullah Al-Sulaiti will run in their 2009 Championship campaign - their current Michael Peters-designed, Victory-built hull, or the newest offering from Nicolini Offshore, the NOC1CAT, that was put through its paces in Moscow and Arendal last season - confirming that he will run a series of crucial pre-season tests, with the first in Doha in February.

After switching from V12 to Sterling V8 power-plants mid-season - finishing second on their debut outing with the V8s in Romania - Nicolini and Al-Sulaiti ended the year as the top Qatar outfit, capped by an impressive win in the last race of the year in Dubai to finish above their team-mates, Sheikh Hassan and Steve Curtis, and take third overall in the World Championship standings.  “The boat with Sterlings was very strong at the end of the season and with some additional development to the modifications we have already carried out, we can improve the performance considerably,” he said.

But Nicolini is not ruling out the possibility of running the NOC1CAT in 2009.  “We will put both boats through a series of extensive tests next month, running our current boat with the V8s to try to find an improved and stronger flat water set-up.  We will also test and develop the new boat with V12s which we ran in Moscow and Arendal and then make some adjustments and drop in the V8s and compare performance.”

Note:
Class I will hold a Press Conference to launch the 2009 season at “BOOT Düsseldorf” on Wednesday 21 January at 1400 on the Marinetek Stand, Hall 11 – A74