Qatar’s Sheikh Hassan and Curtis steer Spirit of Qatar 96 to victory at Key West

KEY WEST, FLORIDA: Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor Al Thani and Steve Curtis rolled back the years to take part in the first of three races at the 44th Annual...

KEY WEST, FLORIDA: Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor Al-Thani and Steve Curtis rolled back the years to take part in the first of three races at the 44th Annual Offshore World Championship at Key West in Florida on Wednesday afternoon.

They made the perfect start by taking victory in the Extreme class in the Truman Waterfront Cup. After rekindling their racing partnership following a 10-year sabbatical, the pair used a redesigned and branded Spirit of Qatar 96 hull entered with support from Qatar’s Ministry of Sport and Youth.

Sheikh’s Hassan’s main competition came from the American Custom Marine entry of Jeff McCann and Mickael Knoblock. The duo managed to control the pace against their main rivals from the outset to take a decisive victory in the eight-lap race. They were comfortably quicker than the opposition on every lap to win the class by 2min 39.4sec and take a 10-point lead over their main rivals.

Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor Al-Thani and Steve Curtis celebrate on the podium.

“It was a good race today and we had a good start,” said Sheikh Hassan. “We took the lead from the start. The water was a little bit bumpy. But that was good for us. The boat is a 55-footer. We just handled it and managed it then the way we needed to.