The opening round of the 2026 UIM Offshore 3D World Championship took
place last weekend in Rodi Garganico, Italy, where four-strokes engines were
used in the championship for the first time. Three teams competed with twin
Mercury Racing 200 ROS engines.
Boat D96 Foresti & Suardi, with Frenchman François Pinelli and
Italian Saul Bubacco, won Friday’s race 1 ahead of Erik Sundblad Johansen and Andre
Strand, the all-norwegian crew of boat D55, Team Energima Racing. Boat D8 Marco,
with Italians Fabio Magnani and Lorenzo Prosperi sharing the cockpit, completed
the podium.
Teams took advantage of Saturday's rest day to resolve various technical
issues that had arisen on their race boats before returning to the waters of
the Adriatic Sea for Sunday's Race 2.
Boat D10 Gasbeton, with renowned Italian throttleman Giovanni Carpitella
and fellow countryman Andrea Bacchi at the wheel, took the chequered flag after
technical issues in Race 1 had prevented the team from finishing. Boat D96
Foresti & Suardi posted another solid result with a second-place finish,
while Boat D20 Blu Blanca, crewed by defending World Champions Serafino Barlesi
(ITA) and Joakim Kumlin (SWE), secured third place.
The next stop of the UIM Offshore 3D World Championship will be Arendal,
Norway, from 30 July to 1 August 2026.
Pictures: Claude Sammut, KCS Photography
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