Own a bit of Unlimited Hydroplane History! Now you can buy this limited edition H1 Unlimited hat from the inaugural running of the Oryx Cup UIM World Championship in Doha, Qatar for just $20.00.
Also available now...the H1 Unlimited hat pin which was given to owners at the annual awards banquet on March 6.
The pins measure 1.2 inches wide and carry the H1 Unlimited logo. They are priced at $2.00 each.
In a letter to H1 Unlimited Chairman Sam Cole, Joseph LeBaron, US Ambassador to Qatar, thanked H1 for exposing Doha to the "uniquely American sport of Unlimited Hydroplane racing." Adding, "The sportsmanship your organization demonstrated was a fine example of the best traditions of sports diplomacy."
Ambassador LeBaron went on to express appreciation for the warm welcome to American service men and women and his staff and "opening the gates to your pit area.....to thousands of people from all over the world," and closed with, "I look forward to your return next year and in years to come."
Unlimited Hydroplanes back on the ground in Jacksonville
Ryan Hamilton of Peters and May USA reports the unlimited fleet has arrived in Jacksonville after circumnavigating the globe with a stop in Doha, Qatar for the running of the inaugural Oryx Cup UIM World Championship.
Hamilton expects the boats, which are currently on an agricultural hold, to be released to their crews in the next day.
In the early days of the application of turbine engines in Unlimited Hydroplanes, several devices and systems were tried in an effort to keep the turbine from ingesting salt water. As was seen in the final heat of the Oryx Cup on Doha Bay, salt in the air and water has a devastating effect on the turbine if it's allowed to get into the air intake.
This photo, by Qatari photographer Bohamdan, shows the U-48 with a lot of salt water coming over the bow and driver Brian Perkins. The salt water "snorkel" is the extension of the air intake, above the driver's head. This photo shows how the snorkel extends out ahead of the problematic salt water, into the clean air. This is the system used by all of the turbine race teams today.
More than 200,000 unique web site visitors from 32 countries viewed various audio, video and photo files on the H1 Unlimited web site during the Oryx Cup/UIM World Championship event November 19-21. In all there were more than 2 million looks at the sitethe week of the race.
According to statistics released by the H1 Unlimited series media team, a daily average of 14,691 people viewed the H1 web site between November 15 and November 28 to catch-up on all of the action and activities associated with the sport’s first international venue held in Doha, Qatar.
