Team Abu Dhabi 55, Victory 33 and Raheeb 17 took part in the first of two races to decide a new Abu Dhabi Cup.

The XCAT Racing boats competed on the same course as the Class 1 competitors, but were not permitted to take the short course and had to stay on an outside line.

Alex Carella’s partnership with Faleh Al-Mansoori paid dividends with the local crew comfortably finishing ahead of last week’s Abu Dhabi XCAT Grand Prix winners, Salem Al-Adidi and Eisa Al-Ali, who had technical issues near the finish in Victory 33.

Raheeb’s Abdullatif Al-Omani and Ahmed Al-Suwaidi were third.

Faleh Al-Mansoori said,

This was a great result for us, especially when you consider we only started racing together in this boat on Wednesday.
Our laps times got quicker this morning and to beat the guys from the Victory XCAT in our first race together is special.

XCAT Racing

1. Team Abu Dhabi 55 – Alex Carella (UAE)/Faleh Al-Mansoori (UAE) – 20pts

2. Victory 33 – Salem Al-Adidi (UAE)/Eisa Al-Ali (UAE) – 15pts

3. Raheeb 17 – Abdullatif Al-Omani (KWT)/Ahmed Al-Suwaidi (UAE)  – 12pts