The capital of the French Riviera, Nice, will add its name to the list of new venues for this year’s UIM XCAT World Powerboat Series. Last week the WPPA vice-president and CEO, Khaled al Zayed and Ronan Morgan, met with the mayor of Nice Christian Estrosi, and the President of the French Powerboat Association, Jean-Marie Lhomme.
This will be the first time that XCAT racing – powerboat racing that sees teams of two pilots in two-engined, carbon fibre catamarans that can reach up to 200km an hour – will be contested in France.
The agreement which was signed between the WPPA and the city of Nice will see a round of the UIM XCAT World Series taking place in the ote d’Azur city for the next three years. This year’s race will be contested over the weekend of 16-18 October.
“The next race of the UIM XCAT World Series is taking place in Portugal in a couple of weeks and the one after that in Australia in August. With the Nice event scheduled for October, that means three new countries within a matter of months,” said WPPA CEO Ronan Morgan. “I believe that is testament to the rapid rate at which the hugely popular XCAT Series – the greatest motorsport series on water – is growing”.
The race is set to take place in the water facing the popular Promenade des Anglais, accessible for the public and focal point of Nice.
France has traditionally been one of the historical hot-spots for powerboating, with a circuit race on the Seine dating back to 1903.
The XCAT event in October will be the fifth round of the 2015 UIM XCAT World Series.
