The 31st Key West World Championship, the last of seven events in the 2011 Super Boat International World Championship calendar, gets under way this afternoon in the US.

This championship appointment is of particular importance to Maltese sport as it marks the first ever participation of a Maltese sportsman in powerboat racing in the US, and, furthermore, racing in a Malta-built boat – truly a ‘baptism of fire’.

Aaron Ciantar, twice P1 SuperSport world champion in the Mediterranean, now ventures in new waters and more existing challenges. In fact, the last of these two world championships, that of 2009, he won as part of a successful partnership he had with Ukraine’s Viktor Shemchuk.

In the US, the winning team of owner-throttle Shemchuk and driver Ciantar will be racing the Maltese-built 13-metre powerboat Ukrainian Spirit, a Chaudron Canopy 41 model powered by two inboard 800hp engines.

Some 70 boats, divided into 12 classes, are expected to contest the Key West championship series made up of nine races with three races daily scheduled for today, Friday and Sunday.

Ukrainian Spirit, bearing number P1-55, will feature in the ‘Manufacturer Production 1 Class’.

Shemchuk will be having a second boat on the Key West circuit – this will be Seagull, also a Chaudron Malta-built 13-metre powerboat, equipped with two inboard 600hp engines.

An all-Ukraine crew made up of Oleksiy Chendekov (pilot), Andriy Lysenko (throttle) and Dmytro Gerasymenko (navigator) will race Seagull which will be featuring in the ‘Manufacturer Production 4 Class’.

This crew, and boat, placed third in the SuperSport Class of the 2010 World and European Grand Prix of the Seas championship.

Key West, in Florida, is situated on the dividing line between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico and enjoys a longstanding tradition in this 31st annual challenge, known as the Indianapolis 500 of powerboat racing.

Super Boat racing in the US has been organised by Super Boat International since 1989.