When Qatar abruptly ended its offshore racing program in 2015, Steve Curtis of Offshore Racing Services in Orlando, Fla., purchased most of Middle Eastern country’s raceboat assets. That included Al Adaa’am 96, a turbine engine-powered 50-foot Mystic Powerboats catamaran that Curtis and Qatar’s Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor Al-Thani used to reach 244 mph—and set an untouchable record—during the 2014 Lake of the Ozarks Shootout in Central Missouri.

Last seen in all its glory at the 2014 Lake of the Ozarks Shootout, Al Adaa’am 96 will be back on the water—if only for a test session on Lake Monroe—later this year. Photo by George Denny copyright George Denny Photography.

For the most part, the 50-footer has been in storage ever since. But spurred by a potential sale, Curtis plans to run it on Florida’s Lake Monroe in the next couple of months.

“People are talking to us about it about again and there may be some buying interest out there,” said Curtis, who took a quick break from testing the Miss GEICO raceboat this morning with crew chief Gary Stray and other members of the team in advance of next weekend’s Offshore At the Ozarks-Cat Edition event sponsored by Performance Boat Center. “So I’ll get it ready to run and take it out there before the end of the year.

“I don’t know that anything will come of it,” he added. “But it will be good to get the old girl out there. It’s been a long time since I’ve run her.”

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