Speedonthewater.com is delighted to announce that it will carry the livestream for the Australian Offshore Superboat Championship series for the balance of the season. The next race is scheduled for Sunday morning, July 19, and the livestream will begin shortly before the races begin. Australia is 14 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time, 15 hours ahead of Central Standard Time and 17 hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time, meaning the races will air Saturday evenings in the United States depending on your time zone. (Speedonthewater.com will announce specific livestream times for the U.S. on the day of each event.)

Sydney’s Conn Saloumidis, who reached out to us with the opportunity to stream Australia’s premiere offshore powerboat racing circuit, graciously agreed to author a primer on the organization’s and structure for speedonthewater.com visitors. To learn a bit more about offshore racing in the Land Down Under, please check out his contribution below.—Matt Trulio

Australian Offshore Superboat Championship: A Guide For Our American friends

By Conn Saloumidis

The Australian Offshore Superboat Championship series is very similar in classes to the American series, but all the boats in Australia must have a canopy, At this stage we do not have a mono-hull class. We have two classes:

Superboat Extreme (Inboard) is similar to a combination of Super Boat International’s Unlimited and Superboat catamaran classes. Power ranges from twin 525-hp engines to twin 850-hp in catamarans from 34 to 42 feet long, and the class is based on a standard power-to-weight ratio.

The Superboat Extreme class features catamarans from 34 to 42 feet long. All photos courtesy/copyright Australian Offshore Superboat Championship

Supercat Outboard (like much SBI’s stock class) features 24- to 34-foot cats with twin 300-hp outboard engine. Engines included the 280-hp 2.5 Mercs, as well as 300-hp Evinrude E-TECs and Mercury Marine 300XS models.

The Supercat outboard class features cats from 24 to 34 feet long. 

Teams are very excited about racing in the Australian Series, with most of the race courses in and out of the harbor giving teams normally calm conditions in the harbor and the taste of offshore out of the heads. There are six races per year up and down the East Coast of Australia.

All races share a similar format. Saturday is the pole position shootout, which lasts for about 30 minutes per class. To win, teams must have the fastest lap time—all boats must do a minimum off four laps. On Sunday, we have two 30-minute races with all of the boats from both classes in each race.

Here’s a quick look at the current race teams.

Supercat Extreme
Club Marine, 39’ Maritimo designed by Michael Peters and powered by twin supercharged 850-hp Mercury Racing Engines with surface drives.
Martimo, Maritimo 39’ Maritimo designed by Michael Peters and powered by twin supercharged 850-hp Mercury Racing Engines with surface drives.
Team 3, 36’ Victory Cat with twin 525-hp Mercury Racing engines and surface drives.
Global Racing, 39’ MTI with 525-hp Mercury Racing engines and No. 6 drives.
Tradulator , 42’ Victory with 750-hp Scorpion engines and No. 6 drives
Mazlin Electrical, 32; Victory Marine with 525-hp Mercury Racing engines and No. 5 drives
Yellow Brick Road, 37’ Maritimo with 750-hp Maritimo engines and surface drives

Supercat Outboard
SUV Ram Trucks 32’ SUV Blade with twin 300-hp Evinrude E-Tecs.
88 Offshore, 28’ Shifty Cat with twin 280-hp Mercury Racing 2.5s
Hog’s Breath Racing , 32’ Blade with win 300XS Mercury
SUV Ram Trucks, 26’ Shifty Cat with twin 200hp Mercurys
Phantom, 28’ Shifty Cat with twin 200XS Mercurys
All Aussie Sheds, 26’ Shifty Cat with twin 200-hp Mercurys

Editor’s Note: For more information on the Australian Offshore Superboat Championship, check out the series’ website and Facebook page.