Marine Drive or the Queen’s necklace as it’s called, is inarguably one of the city’s biggest attractions and the ongoing weekend is adding another gem to the bejewelled stretch. This weekend offers a spectacle of sorts with the launch of the Nexa P1 Powerboat, Indian Grand Prix of the Seas. The one of its kind project, promoted by Procam International under the aegis of Union Internationale Motonautique (UIM) and P1 Global, will host seven teams — with two boats each— competing on a tailor-made course. It is the first time that something like this has been attempted in the world. Ankit Somani, along with his team of 60 workers has tailor-made a 5.2 km racecourse on Marine Drive for the water sport event.
The racecourse is built on a pontoon and later submerged under water, explains, Ankit. “This is happening for the first time in the history of powerboat racing in the world. We say this because the other race courses have imaginary markers on water, may be say 20 to 30 buoys but here we have built an entire stretch with 11 turns and 6,000 buoys,” says the M.D of Drishti, a Goa-based organisation that provides lifeguard services. The entry is from Trident and goes north moving past Wankhede Stadium.
The team took over three weeks to construct the stretch and spent over Rs 10 lakh rupees for the same. “We have used all the material available locally. The racecourse has markers mounted underwater to form a pattern racecourse on the surface. The buoys are made using PVC and are connected with a plate underwater,” he adds.
Since this hasn’t been attempted at a global level before, the difficulties were aplenty, admits Ankit. “We had to innovate and improvise on the job. There were times when our design plates were folding because we were expecting a sandy bed underneath. But it was a rocky patch and we had to combat that. The currents were difficult and were pulling the entire structure in a different direction. There is a five-meter tide variation in Mumbai and our structure moves 25 feet up and down with the tide twice a day,” he says, talking about the bigger technical problems faced by the crew.
Having attempted a feat as huge as this, team Drishti now wants to set a record. “We intended to set up about 5,400 to 5,500 buoys or floating balloons. This will help us to set a record for the longest chain of buoys or floating balloons used to create a race course on water,” he informs.
