Powerboat: Singapore Asia C’ship returns with an all-female category

SINGAPORE – A trip to Thailand in June sparked Janice Oo’s love for powerboating and the 35-year-old will be participating in her first competition just over four months later, as the Singapore Asia Powerboat Championship returns to the Republic on Friday.

The three-day event, one leg of the 2022 Asia Powerboat Championships which currently have four stops, was last held in 2019 and will feature an all-women category for the first time.

Oo will be one of the eight drivers competing in the inaugural women’s championship that will take place at the National Service Resort & Country Club Sea Sports Centre in Changi.

“I’m excited. I’m looking forward to real-time racing on the powerboat after training and meeting other participants from other countries who share the same interest,” said Oo, who works in a car workshop and in construction.

There will also be the men’s event with seven competitors – local drivers as well as those from Australia and Thailand.

Friday is reserved for practice, while the eight (men’s) and four (women’s) races are scheduled across Saturday and Sunday. Each race entails 15 laps around a 1.2km circuit while going at speeds of 43 to 45 knots (80 to 83 kmh).

It was through fellow powerboat driver Clement Tham, who is also taking part in the competition, that Oo got to know about the sport.

Both share a passion for motor sports and have been competing in different forms of motor racing for at least eight years.

The high speeds and adrenaline rush are what Oo enjoys most about the two sports but she noted that there are some significant differences as well.

She said: “I like the speed that’s why I chose to go into powerboat, but it’s something different because motor sports it’s on land and we have close contact with the ground. But in our powerboat it’s different – you must look at the waves, the current, sea and everything.

“It’s a bit of a challenge for me but that’s why I fell in love with it. Every day when you get out on the water, it’s different. You will not know what’s going to happen.”

Tham, whose father used to take him out on speedboat rides over two decades ago, only took part in his first race in May at the Thailand Asia Powerboat Championship in Bangsaray Beach, Chonburi.

It was that event that prompted Tham, 38, to want to introduce the sport to other people after he finished third in the seven-driver field.

Tham said: “After I went for the race, I didn’t expect anything, just didn’t want to get last and in the end, I got on to the podium by surprise. I realised it wasn’t that hard and I thought if I could do it, all of them can do it too.”

Singapore Power Boat Association president William Francis is glad to see the event taking place again and hopes that it will encourage a younger crowd to pick up boating in Singapore. He estimates there are currently about 8,000 to 10,000 active powerboat skippers here.

He said: “The only thing we find that is exciting and can lure young people is race boats and we’ve found it to be true.

“If you bring them out to sea, you realise that you’re in a completely different element, that you have to be confident, that you need to have the discipline, self-confidence and you’re able to manage yourself within the environment.”