Dubai: New, more reliable four-stroke engines will be adopted in the XCAT World Powerboat Series from next season.
Organisers, the World Professional Powerboat Association (WPPA), have set out a timeline that will see teams adopt the new engines in 2016 or face the prospect of missing out.
The WPPA has tied up with Mercury to build the engines, specifically with XCAT boats in mind. Testing will continue until April, when a detailed technical report will be submitted to world governing body, the UIM, in time for its mid-term meeting in Amsterdam at the end of that month.
The engines were tested in competion for the first time at the end of last season, when Victory Team’s Fazza crew of Aref Al Zafein and Nader Bin Hindi forfeited their points in the final round in order to see how the equipment fared in competition.
So far at least 16 tests have been carried out and everyone concerned has been thrilled by the level of reliability the new machines have shown.
The four-stroke engines are heavier than their predecessors, so the boats will have to be modified to achieve the stability needed at high speeds. The new boats will have a maximum length of 10.05 metres, compared to the existing 9.5 metres.
The WPPA will receive its first pre-production engines in July and they will be tested and homologated so all teams can take possession of them by the middle of November at the latest.
“These engines have been tested in different conditions and that shows us we are ready to start using them as per the schedule we have laid down,” Sid Bin Saleh, WPPA General Secretary, told Gulf News.
“Teams will have more than two months to carry out tests and start using these from next season.”
