The 24 Heures Motonautiques de Normandie takes place at Poses, in the Eure, on May 1 to 3, and the entry list carries some of the biggest names in international endurance racing.
Team Inshore Performance arrive on Boat 1 as reigning UIM S3 World Champions, having secured the 2025 title at the decisive round in Mons, Belgium last August.
Boat 2 — Team Touax MRK Racing — lines up Peter Morin and Nelson Morin. Peter is a seven-time Class 3 Endurance World Champion who currently competes in the UIM F1H2O World Championship for the China CTIC Team and in UIM F2 for Team RPM. He finished third in the 2023 F1H2O World Championship; a blown fuse in the 2025 finale cost him what could have been the title. Nelson is a multiple Endurance World Champion and a prolific winner of the 24 Heures de Rouen. Between them, the pair won that event consecutively from 2013 to 2017.
Boat 5 — Team Autovision — carries Tullio Abbate of Italy, from the famous boatbuilding family of Lake Como. Abbate won the Class S2 overall at the 2017 24 Heures Motonautiques de Rouen and took several world endurance titles with Team Abu Dhabi.
Boat 13 fields Jean-Baptiste Thomas, UIM F4 vice-world champion in 2025, with more than twenty-five years at the top of the sport. He races alongside Jérémy Brisset and Quentin Dailly, who together were part of the French squad that won the UIM World Circuit Endurance Championship.
Boat 27 carries Alexandre Bourgeot, who races in the UIM F1H2O World Championship for Maverick Racing.
On Boat 38, two young Swedes with credentials beyond their years. Hilmer Wiberg, born in 2005, has accumulated 14 medals including three world championship titles — GT15, GT30 and 3J. In his debut F2 season in 2025 he won European bronze and world silver, having led the world standings going into the final race in Portugal before a mechanical failure ended his challenge. He is the brother of Mathilda Wiberg, the first woman to win a world title in Formula-class powerboat racing. Adam Wrenkler finished third in the 2025 UIM F4 World Championship.
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Three Days, 24 Hours, Day and Night
The three-day programme totals 24 hours of racing, split across three heats: 12 hours, 7 hours and 5 hours. The first heat on Friday runs partly at night; boats are required to switch on their navigation lights from 20:00 until they leave the water.
The organisers have announced 15 international teams. The specified engine is the Mercury 4-stroke. Mercury Racing is listed as co-organiser alongside Rouen Inshore Racing, the Fédération Française Motonautique and the Cercle Nautique Rouen-Poses.
Mercury and endurance racing at Rouen have a long shared history. The manufacturer has powered more overall winners of the 24 Heures de Rouen than any other engine supplier, and was providing real-time internet coverage as far back as 1999. Its decision to join the Poses event as co-organiser positions the 24 Heures Motonautiques de Normandie as a serious successor, not a temporary substitute.
The S3 Framework
The Endurance S3 class is managed alongside F4 under COMINSPORT, the UIM’s competent body for circuit endurance and formula racing. S3 and F4 have run as joint programmes at recent world championship events. Only S3 appears in the UIM calendar entry for Poses at this stage.
A New Venue on a Familiar River
Poses sits on a narrower stretch of the Seine than the Île Lacroix course at Rouen, facing chalk cliffs rather than the city’s historic quays. The circuit layout changes between race days: Friday’s heat uses a 2,183-metre course marked by six orange buoys (left turn) and one yellow buoy (right turn). Saturday and Sunday use a revised 2,091-metre layout with five orange and two yellow buoys. The maximum field is twenty boats.
Fuel Rules
Fuel is not supplied on site by the organiser. Each team is responsible for its own refuelling across all three race days at a designated service station: the Super U in Les Damps, 5.8 kilometres from the circuit. No other station is permitted. Receipt checks will be carried out. Fuelling in the launch area is prohibited.
Driver Changes
Driver changes take place exclusively at the refuelling pontoon, near the boat park and control post. Each driver must sign the logbook, helmet in hand, before and after each stint. No driver may drive for more than two consecutive hours; time stopped at the pontoon does not count. The minimum rest period between stints is one hour. Each team carries between two and four drivers per boat.
Prizes
The top three finishers in each heat receive trophies. The prize-giving ceremony takes place on Sunday, May 3 at 16:30 on the podium facing the VIP area. Winners are required to attend in race suits.
Schedule
| Session | Local time (CEST, UTC+2) | Your time |
|---|---|---|
| Thursday, April 30 – Pre-event | ||
| Team arrival, administrative and technical checks | 10:00–20:00 | |
| Pilots’ briefing | 19:00 | |
| Safety briefing | 19:30 | |
| Friday, May 1 | ||
| Technical checks (continued) | 08:00–11:00 | |
| S3 free practice | 09:00–10:30 | |
| Pit crew briefing | 09:00 | |
| Heat 1 (12 hours, day and night) | 12:00–00:00 | |
| Saturday, May 2 | ||
| Technical checks | 08:00–10:00 | |
| Pilots’ briefing | 08:15–08:45 | |
| S3 free practice | 09:00–10:30 | |
| Heat 2 (7 hours) | 12:00–19:00 | |
| Pilots’ briefing (Heat 3) | 19:45 | |
| Sunday, May 3 | ||
| Technical checks | 08:00–10:00 | |
| S3 free practice | 08:30–09:30 | |
| Heat 3 (5 hours) | 11:00–16:00 | |
| Prize-giving ceremony | 16:30 | |
All times CEST (UTC+2). Your local time is calculated automatically above.
Access and Parking
The race venue is the Club Nautique Rouen-Poses, Quai de Seine, Mesnil de Poses, 27740 Poses. Three public car parks serve the site: Parking 1 at the Mesnil campsite, Parking 2 on the Rue du Roussillon, Parking 3 near the church at Poses. Entry is free throughout the weekend.
Entry List
The following list is drawn from the official organisers’ document (version V4 bis, March 31, 2026). Nations represented include France, Belgium, Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Greece, Italy and Spain.
| No. | Team | Hull | Pilots |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Team Inshore Performance | Molgard | Alexis Fischer (FRA), Loic Huet (FRA), Aymeric Troussel (FRA) |
| 2 | Team Touax MRK Racing | Moore | Nelson Morin (FRA), Peter Morin (FRA), Thomas Cleret (FRA) |
| 5 | Team Autovision | Molgaard | Philippe Karras (FRA), Jean-Paul Karras (FRA), Maitos Konstantinos (GRC), Tullio Abbate (ITA) |
| 6 | Team VSI Racing | Molgard | Michael Dragutin (FRA), Florian Girard (FRA), Florian Sévéré (FRA), Jens Westphal (LVA) |
| 9 | Team Torpilleurs Racing | Moore | Pierre Lambert (FRA), Romain Nedelec (ESP), Alexandre Jean (FRA) |
| 13 | – | – | Antoine Boutrais (FRA), Jérémy Brisset (FRA), Quentin Dailly (FRA), Jean-Baptiste Thomas (FRA) |
| 27 | BRT Maverick Racing | Moore | Alexandre Bourgeot (FRA), Thibault Clement (FRA), Enzo Lethiec (FRA) |
| 38 | Monsnauteam | Molgaard | Benjamin Berti (BEL), Maverick Grolet (BEL), Hilmer Wiberg (SWE), Adam Wrenkler (SWE) |
| 69 | Akvashelf Racing | ASV | Toms Smilskalns (LVA), Niklaus Rimeicans (LVA), Nida Kilinskait (LTU), Paulius Stainys (LTU) |
| 86 | Slovakia Team | Moore | Simon Jung (SVK), Marian Jung (SVK), Vladimir Slany (SVK) |
| 87 | Club Motonautique Normand | Alicat | Paul Palenzuela (FRA), Bastien Masselin (FRA), Pierre Labigne (FRA) |
John Moore is the editor of Powerboat News, an independent investigative journalism platform recognised by Google News and documented on Grokipedia for comprehensive powerboat racing coverage.
His involvement in powerboat racing began in 1981 when he competed in his first offshore powerboat race. After a career as a Financial Futures broker in the City of London, specialising in UK interest rate markets, he became actively involved in event organisation and powerboat racing journalism.
He served as Event Director for the Cowes–Torquay–Cowes races between 2010 and 2013. In 2016, he launched Powerboat Racing World, a digital platform providing global powerboat racing news and insights. The following year, he co-founded UKOPRA, helping to rejuvenate offshore racing in the United Kingdom. He sold Powerboat Racing World in late 2021 and remained actively involved with UKOPRA until 2025.
In September 2025, he established Powerboat News, returning to independent journalism with a focus on neutral and comprehensive coverage of the sport.
