Casino Portomaso Chaudron racing to win

Around 18 international powerboats will be taking part in the German Grand Prix at Travemunde, Germany over the coming weekend.

These sleek, yet highly-powered racing machines, have been competing in a series of races throughout Europe and have already battled it out in Malta and Naples so far.

Many of the world's leading boat and engine manufacturers are represented in this year's world championship. Competitiveness, as usual, is intense as the most advanced production performance boats demonstrate breathtaking speed and acceleration.

The Powerboat P1 World Championship is open to both petrol and diesel-powered craft with the usual two categories, Evolution and Supersport.

The Evolution Class is designed for 36ft to 43ft powerboats with inboard engines. These high-powered prototype racing craft can reach 100mph speeds even though they are limited to less than that.

The Supersport Class is for standard production model hulls which measure between 33ft and 42ft. Again, these boats can top up around 75mph but today's rules limit these speeds.

Maltese boat, Casino Portomaso Chaudron, has been competing for three years now with the brother and sister pairing of Aaron and Audrien Ciantar.

With this year's tight struggle for power, the local yellow boat will not stand still, also buoyed by a healthy backing mainly coming from the Casino Portomaso and other local sponsors.

So far, the Maltese boat accumulated points in every race and looks poised to grab podium positions.

Pilot Aaron Ciantar is more than determined to prove his salt both to his sponsors and the local public in general. His favourite official boat number 46 has been chosen by Aaron simply for his admiration of former MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi.

That shows what sort of dreams he carries. Aaron's ambition is likely to be achieved one day, may be not this year, but it certainly is getting closer as the Maltese team has become a strong contender in every championship.

"This is my passion... to win races both for my country and also to justify the trust the sponsors have shown in me, my sister and my boat," Ciantar said.