Qatar Marine Sports Federation President Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor al-Thani and Abdullah al-Sulaiti made history for Qatar yesterday when they made it to the Guinness World Records by setting a Trans-Gulf speedboat record.
In calm weather conditions, Sheikh Hassan and al-Sulaiti covered a distance of 315km between Abu Dhabi and Doha in a time of 1hr55min14sec in their twin gas-turbine engine Nor-Tech open boat named Qatar Challenger.
Race enthusiasts were able to follow Qatar Challenger’s progress across the Gulf via a vessel tracking system and a Google Earth programme that had been planned on the federation’s official website in conjunction with Alfa Telecom. This gave the live speeds of the boat and the route taken across the Gulf.
This record has been Sheikh Hassan’s dream for some time now. He had attempted it in 2008 but transmission problems forced him to quit the race then. A hectic schedule of H1 Unlimited Hydroplane and UIM F1 racing left QMSF with little time to prepare for the event last year.
“Sheikh Hassan did an excellent job in balancing the boat as it was a bit bumpy in the beginning. I’m very pleased that we achieved our target with a better timing.”
Guinness World Records adjudicator Jack Brockbank, who was monitoring the record attempt live on the GPS, handed Sheikh Hassan and al-Sulaiti the certificate of accomplishment of the feat.
On behalf of the Guinness World Records, I congratulate Sheikh Hassan and al-Sulaiti for their achievement. None, till date, had attempted such a feat and so Guinness World Records had set a realistic time of three hours to complete this 300km journey for the record. However, they have finished it well under that time and that is creditable,” said Brockbank.
