Following their win on Friday and second place today Serafino Barlesi and Alessandro Barone onboard D20, currently lead the overall classification of the UIM Class 3D World Championship.

The Norwegian duo of Erik Sundblad Johansen and Jan Trygve Braaten failed to finish the race on Sunday due to a brand-new fuel bulb splitting which shut down the engine.

Another team with fraught with mechanical issues were Notschaele and Magnani. On Friday they were left with a broken one following an oil leak and then on Sunday their right-hand motor had an alternator failure, their second of the weekend.

When Francis Ciccio Notschaele spoke to PRW he said,

Well, that was my first experience in Offshore Class 3D racing in D8. A weekend full of emotions, heavy seas and too many technical issues. Both our boats D69 and D8 had problems but what is most important is the great atmosphere in our dream team. What a super feeling together with Fabio Magnani, Kristian Ghedina, and Giampaolo Montavoci.

The next round of the UIM Class 3D Offshore World Championship will be in Tvedestrand, Norway on 6 -10 July.

Images by Laura Bettinardi and Felicia Chi

Two weeks ago, though it was still very much undecided whether the event would be classified as a UIM World Championship. Jean-Marie Van Lancker, the UIM Cominoff President certainly had a fight on his hands.

Most of the teams asked in the past to do the World Championships in more events and not just in one weekend; we worked hard on it in the UIM Offshore Commission with the help of the members and some pilots and other people involved in the sport. Today it is in the rulebook. The teams asked to keep the engines as long as possible and that was accepted, we will try to do everything to keep the sport going but there is a limit.

When he discovered that some teams thought of just racing in Italy and not attend the final two events based in Norway you can imagine that he was far from pleased.

My point was that if you don’t follow the rules this year and try to sabotage the championship there will be no world title this year and no more 3D titles in the future. We have made a big effort in the last three years to help this class. Now if some teams play ‘hardball’ then everyone will lose out because of this.

Fortunately, for the World Championships it didn’t have to come to this ultimatum because now the second round taking place in Tvedestrand in early July has the required entry number from various nationalities to fulfil the conditions needed.

Van Lancker might be seen as the person who pulled the ‘rabbit out of a hat’ but he’s quick to share the responsibility for this success with his team that has been working alongside him. One which he had time to assemble during the 2020 UIM General Assembly held in the Lebanese capital Beirut.

When we weren’t in meetings it was difficult to leave the hotel. So, we used that ‘down time’ to set up a task force amongst like-minded UIM Commissioners and National Authorities delegates to work out strategies for the future of various UIM Offshore categories. Some people might not like the way we work but you need to smash a few eggs to make the perfect omelette and I certainly know I have.

Heading down to the opening round are the Norwegian team of Erik Sundblad Johansen and Jan Trygve Braaten. PRW spoke to them today after their final test session with the boat that Rashed Al Merri built and raced as Xtreme Marine.

We tested the boat when it first arrived in Norway to give us a benchmark to work from. Now we have completed re-rigging it the top speed we are now seeing is staggering.

For the opening round we understand that the provisional entry includes competitors from four different nations, but this will need to be confirmed.

2022 UIM Offshore Class 3D World Championships.

Images by Massimo Ciuchi and Malc Attrill.

Powerboatracingworld.com from our perspective we really cannot understand why teams don’t want to participate when they finally have a full-scale 3D World Championship series and events which offer travel packages financially supported by the organising clubs.

What is the motivation?

Political and financial motivation from a few is the first that struck us, which is something we heard about for a long time, but are there other motives that will not fit with a transparent ruling system?

The organiser of round one is trying hard to have boats racing in Italy, but we believe that the UIM will not fall for the cheap tricks of ” If the boats come to Rodi Garganico probably they will go to Norway. If they don’t come to Norway UIM have time to cancel Rodi”

By allowing that, the leverage is gone – who cares about a race that is cancelled afterwards – after all, the drivers have raced, and organiser has secured their financial support and his sponsor money.

It’s by not allowing this to happen that UIM can and will have to be strong.

Let’s see, you cannot force teams and drivers to participate in the World Championship, even if there are ten or more boats available.

So, maybe that’s just what the teams want. Play around just in the south but come on guys – then it’s not worth a World Championship title, that’s our opinion.

INFO BOX

For entry form : click here – > 3D Worldchampionship Tvedestrand

If u want to contact the organizer, email : Svein Henriksen