Dubai: The second of the season's four UAE Wooden Powerboat Championship races will start off in Mina Seyahi on Saturday.
The last round in Abu Dhabi was won by Delma Marine with Humaid and Ahmad Bin Dhaiban ahead of Toll Global Forwarding raced by Saeed Al Muhairi and Mohammad Al Gashiesh.
The wooden powerboat has an open cockpit and hull unlike the modern boats but follows a similar course structure and length of race, usually eight laps totaling approximately 36 nautical miles. It is a popular sport with a fleet of up to 15 boats taking to the water.
One of the first recorded organised watersport races in Dubai was a wooden powerboat race from Umm Al Qwain to Dubai in 1987.
It was run by the military and covered about 50km across a choppy sea along a very different coastline.
The race is no longer organised by the military, but is run by a panel headed by Saeed Hareb, who as a colonel in the Army in 1987 was involved in the first race. The race will start at 11am and can be watched from the DIMC breakwater. The next race will be in Mina Seyahi on February 19 followed by the final round on April 23.
