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Introducing The Class 1 Championship

Organisations

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WPPA - World Professional Powerboating Association

WPPA Logo

The WPPA was founded by Saeed Hareb based on the agreement with IOTA-Class 1 in 2006. For a few years there was increasing tension between teams competing in the Class 1 championship and the UIM. Rule changes and the inability to incorporate a second engine manufacturer into the championship lead to many arguments and it was deemed necessary to create a separate organisation by IOTA. The WPPA had wanted to work with the UIM but the UIM does not recognise them and this has lead to uncertainty over several events in the 2007 season with the UIM threatening to withdraw all it's events from any country hosting a WPPA event.

The WPPA is governed by a Council. The Council overlooks the entire structure and operation of the WPPA and its members. The WPPA Council comprises of the Founding Members, Member National Authorities, Class 1 representatives, Class 1 Promoter Representative and other classes' representatives. WPPA seeks to become an internationally recognized authority fo rthe regulation, operation, coordination and supervise and assistnational authorities to run of powerboat championships and races. It is currently recognised by IOTA -Class 1 and will be attracting further recognition from appropriate national authorities and other international sporting authorities. The main aim of the WPPA is to promote professional powerboat racing making the sport media-friendly and to manage the sporting side of the Classes represented, setting the related rules. The WPPA will also co-ordinate the calendar of all races under it's banner

IOTA - International Offshore Team Association

IOTA Logo

IOTA was founded in 1987 and is the officially sanctioned promoter and worldwide commercial rights holder of the WPPA Class 1 World Powerboat Championship. The association represents the collective interests of the teams. It's president until 2004 was Edoardo Polli (Highlander Team). He helped establish the current world championship back in 1992. Polli stepped down as president late in 2004 and Sheikh Hassan Bin Jabor Al-Thani (Qatar 96's driver) was elected.

U.I.M - Union Internationale Motonautique

UIM Logo

Powerboat racing can trace its origins as far back as 1902 when the British formed their Marine Motoring Association. By the following year, New York's Columbia Yacht Club had formulated a constitution for what ultimately became the American Powerboat association and the French formed their Congress of Automobile Boats. In 1908, a small group of motoring enthusiasts formed the Paris-based Association Internationale du Yachting Automobile and staged races regularly in Nice, Palermo, Monte Carlo, Algiers, Toulon and Arcachon until the outbreak of the First World War.

Around this time, the Americans clambered in on the act by staging a race from Long Beach to Catalina Island in California. By 1917, the Americans were running ten races a year in locations from Miami to Key West, Palm Beach, Havana and New York. It was not until 1922 that the forerunner of today's modern administration was formed in Brussels in the shape of the Union Internationale du Yachting Automobile. By 1927, the sport's first rules were promulgated and the first racing calendar was published, after a further change of name to the now familiar Union Internationale Motonautique.

Inevitably, the Second World War brought an end to all marine sporting endeavours, though it was paradoxically responsible for much of the technical development that gave the modern sport its direction. In 1946 the UIM emerged unscathed to meet a changed world. With its administrative base relocated from Brussels to Ghent the UIM developed into the streamlined and efficient body that is recognisable today. And the formation of a Technical Committee and the sanctioning of the American Power Boat Association to represent the nation with the biggest potential for competitive growth began a progressive programme of sporting, technical administration and safety development which continues still.

But the ultimate authority in the sport is vested in the UIM's General Assembly which is made up of one delegate from each of the sanctioned member nation's National Authority and the General Assembly meets once annually in the spring of the year, to ratify the issues and minutes of the previous year's Annual General Meeting and examine the reports of the General Secretary and Treasurer Responsible to the General Assembly for the management of the UIM is the Central Committee, made up currently of the President and a minimum of five members, which meets as often as necessary to ensure the smooth running of the Union. In practice however, as many as twelve Administrators, Commission heads and other officers are seconded to the Committee. It is this body which appoints the permanent Secretary General, a non-voting, ex-officio member of all Committees and Commissions who heads up the Unionīs administrative and personnel department. If the General Assembly is the supreme authority and the Central Committee is the power base of the UIM, it is the Commissions which make the sport work. It is the elected representatives of these Commissions from Offshore (COMINOFF), Medical and Safety (COMINSAFE), Sports (COMINSPORT), Formula, Technical (COMINTECH), Aquabike, Pleasure Navigation to Conciliation and Arbitration (COMCONA) who formulate, regulate and police the rules of competition. At any one time, it is possible to have more than 100 enthusiastic individuals voluntarily giving their time to the task of making powerboat racing safer and more effective.



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