Tailor Made to Perfection

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Victory Team’s winning formula on the water is what other teams are looking to replicate. Now they have their chance, boat wise at least.

With six Class One World Offshore Championship titles to their name, Dubai ’s Victory Team have established themselves as the best in terms of mph. But now the team are also well on their way to commercial success and early indications show that their skills in boat building will also lead to top honors, not only for them but also for the competition.

The official signing and sending off of the first Victory Team built boat to a fellow Class One competitor, Reverie, was carried out between Khalfan Harib, Managing Director of Victory Team and Jim Dyke, Manager and throttleman for KR Racing, the racing team owned by Kjell Rokke, multimillionaire and Norway’s most successful businessmen.

Bidding adieu to the first of the two commissioned boats to leave their new purpose built state of the art headquarters, the gleaming 42 foot ivory white catamaran will act as a testament to the teams skill in boat building and the anticipation for next years race series is all the more to see how they will perform in the 2003 championship race series.    

In Dubai to complete the final formalities and arrange for the boats transportation to the United Sates, Jim Dyke from KR Racing and throttleman for Class One team Reverie, commented on why the Victory Team boats are a must have for any serious contender for a title. “I think that it’s a combination of two things- Victory Team and Michael Peters. With the Michael Peters design you are getting the very best design that is available for Class One and with Victory Team you are getting the very best builders in the world. We are also looking at the fact that Victory Team also offer the best support that you can get for Class One racing with their years of experience and success. When you factor all those together, we felt extremely comfortable in moving ahead with the new Victory Team boat.”

The boat will be taken back to the states where KR racing is based in Ohio to be rigged out as their new Class One “Reverie” boat before a winter of rigorous testing in Florida . Although there are no plans of racing the boat before the start of the UIM Class One season (Mid May), the boat will see a lot of sea time before it joins the rest of the Class One Fleet in Europe .

High praise came from Dyke for Victory Team in their forward thinking, not only in terms of building themselves as a commercial success, but also for the good of the sport of offshore. “It is important that we understand that unlike car racing there is not a huge amount of sponsorship in Class One and that the infrastructure does not always allow for the teams to be on the same level performance wise due to budget restrictions. Victory Team have over the years sold off their used boats to fellow competitors, a move that has allowed some teams to become more competitive in that they are able to utilize the teams years of experience and expertise.”

“By having more equally competitive boats out there in the future, we are placing offshore in the proper direction. We are going to see a lot more competition due to the fact that the boats will be very similar in terms of competitiveness.” said Khalfan Harib. “Part of Victory Team’s success comes from that we are able to customize and build our boats to the very specific demands of offshore. Something that we are now proud to be able to pass on to our fellow competitors.”

With such similarities, the differences are going to be very subtle between the top competition next year and races can be expected to be a lot more challenging. One area that will give an edge will come down to the individual engine package and the rigging. “The rigging for instance, affects the center of gravity of the boat and this is one area where the difference will come into play. Although every body has their own thing that they want to try, for the most part it is the cockpit design and that will be mainly down to the comfort and individual preference of the pilots.” said Dyke.

Main competitors Spirit of Norway will also be racing next year with a Victory Team boat, and asked on feelings if KR Racing (Reverie) or Spirit of Norway went on to win the 2003 Championship title whilst in the cockpit of a Victory Team built boat, Harib said. “As a boat builder I must admit that we would be very proud, but as a competitor - we still wouldn’t want that to happen.” said a laughing Khalfan Harib. 

KR Racing aim for a similar package for Reverie to the one currently used by Victory Team. “We will use the Lamborghini engines with the SCS drop boxes that we developed when we were with Jolly Motors.” said Dyke. “Although we are not expecting to go out there and win every race, we are expecting to be at the front and in for a chance of the title at the end of the series. After all, we are not the only ones with the advantage of owning a Victory Team built boat.”

Michael Peters

Michael Peters is considered the very best in his field when it comes to boat design and innovation.  His alliance with Victory Team began in 1998 and in that time his Catamaran designs have taken Victory Team to two Class One World Offshore Championships, two European Championship titles and one Pole Position World title. The new model Class One boat will be used in the 2003 race series and has taken a year from initial preliminary design to completion with all building work being carried out in house at the Victory Team headquarters in Dubai .