speedboat video

Apparently my first attempt at uploading a video was not successful, so I'll try again. The winner of the event was the boat Fazza, from Dubai, and it is the boat in the video. The Sheik from Qatar actually placed second in the race after the other boat from Qatar which had been leading most of the race ran into technical problems. Sorry, still no luck.

speedboats at Doha

This weekend the Class 1 Powerboats competed in the first race of the season at Doha. Wow, what speed, what power. A member of the Royal Family of Doha, his excellency Sheik Hassan al Thani was the pilot of one of the two Qatar boats entered in the race. The other Doha boat actually won the pole postion for the race, and Sheik Hassan was in third spot. The boats travel around a course which comes into the harbour and back out to sea for 21 laps. (96.5 nautical miles) The boats themselves are about 12-13 m long, weigh about 5 tonnes, and are capable of speeds of over 200km/hr. They are powered by twin engines, either V8s or V12s, and have all the latest technology on board. It's hard to capture on a camera the speed of these things, so I included a video. The quality of the video, taken with a small digital camera, isn't great but it does give a bit of an idea of what we were watching. Carolyn has a press card from the Goderich Signal Star, and it was good enough to get us into the restricted area. She also got a chance to talk to several of the crews, including the Sheik, and has lots to write about for her regular report to the paper. I am on holidays from the College right now and in the coming week we plan a trip to a seaside resort, and a visit to the horse and camel races, with a special trip to the Emir's personal Arabian horse stables. It is never dull here. We are both feeling anxious to get back to Canada however. Only 9 more weeks to go!!

mosque tour

Last weekend we took advantage of a tour of a nearby mosque sponsored by the Islamic Centre in Doha. Although it fairly obvious that the agenda was proselytizing, it was still a very interesting exercise. It started with a talk and tour of the Islamic Cultural Centre, near the souks in Doha, where we were given an explanation of the basic tenets of Islam. All the women were taken to a side room and issued 'abyahs' (the long black robes) and black headscarves to wear. Carolyn asked why the women had to wear the robes, but the men were not. She was given a long convoluted, but totally unconvincing, argument, about respect for women, etc. Then we were loaded onto a bus and after a 20 minute ride taken to a beautiful mosque in Al Wakra, a small former fishing village. The mosque here is very beautiful, with many interesting archetectural details. We were seated on the carpets inside the mosque while many of the features were pointed out. Then back on the bus, to the Islamic Centre where we were invited to attend evening prayers in the mosque there. Very interesting to see 400 bottoms up! Of course the women were not allowed to sit in the same area as the men, but had to watch through a lattice work in an upstairs room Afterwards we were fed a very nice meal of lamb, chicken, and rice. All in all an interesting day, and Carolyn got to keep the abyah! Certainly we were not in any way tempted to become converts to Islam, but it is good to understand a little more of their beliefs and ways.