Rouen: Team Abu Dhabi 6 overcame several niggling technical issues, a costly eight-lap penalty for turn buoy violations and a late scare over fuel levels to finish second overall in the prestigious 24 Hours of Rouen endurance race on the River Seine in Northern France on Tuesday.
With the weather improving somewhat for the second session of a race that started seven hours late on Monday because of appalling conditions, Thani Al Qamzi and Rashed Al Qamzi, Rashid Al Tayer and American Shaun Torrente completed a topsy-turvy endurance race, where they held second for a couple of hours at the start and then fought back from seventh place to eventually finish behind the winning Team Nollet by New Star 20 DAC, crewed by the all-Russian team of Roman and Dmitry Vandyshev and Andrey Paniushkin. Fuel level issues for Team Abu Dhabi and a late scare for the eventual winners ensured a thrilling conclusion to the shortened 17-hour race.
Team Abu Dhabi’s challenge suffered lap penalties during the first session for turn buoy violations and debris wrapped around the propeller in fading light and then two prop shaft failures and a broken compressor in the last few hours of the second session on the 3.8km course. But the team working out of the Abu Dhabi International Marine Sports Club (ADIMSC) fought back resolutely and reached the chequered flag 20 laps behind the winners, despite running dangerously low on fuel in the final minutes of the race. The Touax Pegase Racing Team (8) rounded off the podium positions in a Moore hull, and Team Marine Inshore — Loutz (28) were fourth.
“Everyone worked hard in a very difficult race in demanding conditions,” said Salem Al Rumaithi, general manager of ADIMSC. “We obviously wanted to finish first, but this is a race of endurance and we overcame several obstacles to finish second.”
Torrente added: “Second place confirmed, maybe with one litre of fuel left in the boat at the finish. Rashid did a great job in the final stint in managing the fuel and just going fast enough to stay in front of the No. 8 boat. We only had one penalty all race. We are really happy with the race. Now we will go to Poland and try and win the World Championship in July.”
