The Dubai International Boat Show is preparing an official statement on whether its April 8-12 event will proceed, as escalating military conflict in the Middle East puts a series of powerboat racing events in the region under active review.
Nine days after DIBS closes, XCAT is scheduled to open its 2026 world championship in Fujairah, UAE, on April 17-19. The UIM MotoSurf World Championship is even closer: it is due to run in Fujairah on March 27-29, four weeks from now.
Both events sit in the path of a conflict that has moved quickly. US and Israeli strikes against Iran on Saturday 28 February were followed by Iranian retaliatory attacks across the Gulf, hitting targets in Bahrain, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Marinas across the UAE are closed. Iran has reported the Strait of Hormuz closed, threatening to fire on any vessel attempting transit. Commercial air traffic through the region remains suspended, with Etihad Airways operating only limited repatriation and cargo flights under special approvals.
The physical damage to the UAE has been visible. The Burj Al Arab and the Fairmont The Palm in Dubai have both sustained damage in the strikes.
“Leisure yachting – both participating and investing – requires stable, predictive environments to flourish. The outcomes of the current military campaign cannot yet be quantified as it is still ongoing, but it is unlikely to be positive for leisure marine growth in the short term across the GCC.”
– Richard Haws, chairman, Global Marine Business Advisors
Haws noted that the Arabian Gulf nearing the end of its boating season is a marginal factor, but added it was too soon to draw any conclusions.
Government Travel Advisories
The UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office updated its advice for 21 countries on March 1-2, advising against all but essential travel to the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain. British nationals in the UAE are told to shelter in place and avoid all movement. Around 300,000 British nationals are currently in Gulf countries; the FCDO is drawing up potential evacuation routes should airspace remain closed.
The US State Department ordered non-emergency government personnel to leave the UAE on March 2, reclassifying it to Level 3 – “Reconsider Travel” – and noting that Iran has publicly stated its intention to target UAE locations associated with the United States. A broader advisory followed, urging all American citizens to depart immediately from 15 regional countries. The Federal Aviation Administration issued a Notice to Air Missions recommending caution for US carriers across the entire Middle East.
Airports in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Iran and Iraq were fully closed as of March 2. Dubai and Abu Dhabi are operating limited departures only. British Airways cancelled all timetabled flights to the region and is allowing passengers to rebook through to March 29.
For any racing team, official or media organisation, the insurance position is straightforward: standard travel policies are invalidated when a government advises against travel to a destination. Travelling to a race in the region while these advisories remain in force means travelling without cover.
Business Closes Doors
Nvidia closed its Dubai offices on March 3, with staff working remotely, after chief executive Jensen Huang issued an internal memo confirming the company’s crisis management team was supporting affected employees and their families in the region. Amazon instructed all corporate employees across the Middle East to work remotely and follow local government guidelines.
Dozens of Google employees remained stranded in Dubai, unable to leave after attending the company’s Accelerate cloud sales conference the previous week. Google said the majority were regional rather than US-based staff.
The infrastructure disruption ran deeper still. Iranian drone strikes damaged two Amazon Web Services data centres in the UAE and a third in Bahrain, taking all three offline and disrupting around 60 AWS services across the region. Banks, consumer apps and enterprise software providers reported outages. More than 11,000 Middle East flights have been cancelled since the US-Israeli strikes, according to aviation data firm Cirium.
Sport Responds
The FIA moved first in motorsport. The World Endurance Championship’s season-opening Qatar 1812km, scheduled for March 26-28 at Lusail, was officially postponed on March 3 – the first confirmed motorsport race cancellation of the conflict. The FIA cited “the current and evolving geopolitical situation in the Middle East” and stated that safety and security were of “utmost importance.” The WEC season will now open at Imola on April 17-19. A rescheduled date for Qatar, if one is possible, will be in the second half of the year.
The postponement is significant beyond the WEC. The FIA governs both WEC and Formula 1, and its decision establishes a clear precedent for how the governing body is reading the situation ahead of the Bahrain and Saudi F1 rounds in April.
Elsewhere, the picture is broadly the same. The Asian Football Confederation postponed its Champions League round of 16 fixtures in the UAE and Qatar indefinitely. The Qatar Football Association suspended all domestic league matches. The Finalissima between Argentina and Spain, scheduled for Doha on March 27, was postponed indefinitely. An ATP Challenger tennis event in Fujairah was cancelled mid-play on March 3 after drone debris from an intercepted strike ignited a fire at an oil facility roughly 15 kilometres from the venue – players were heard scrambling for shelter after a public announcement at the site. The Euroleague basketball Under-18 qualifying tournament in Abu Dhabi was abandoned. England’s Lions cricket squad, in the UAE for matches against Pakistan Shaheens, was stranded after their series was cancelled, with players unable to leave the country.
The disruption extends beyond the conflict zone. The Milano Cortina Winter Paralympics, which open on March 6, reported that airspace closures were affecting athlete arrivals. Several tennis players who competed at the Dubai Championships the previous week, including Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev, faced travel difficulties reaching Indian Wells in California due to the closure of Gulf transit hubs.
Aquabike Confirms Calendar Shift
On March 4, Aquabike Promotion confirmed that the planned Middle Eastern season opener for the 2026 UIM-ABP Aquabike Circuit Pro World Championship has been withdrawn from the calendar. The announcement cited “current global geopolitical circumstances” without specifying the conflict directly. The round, which was scheduled for April, has been moved to December 1-5, where it will also serve as the venue for the single-event Endurance World Championship. The exact Middle East location is yet to be confirmed.
The 2026 Aquabike Circuit World Championship will now open in Shanghai, China on October 1-2 – a venue that has not hosted the series since 2019. The full four-round calendar runs Shanghai (Oct 1-2), Olbia, Italy (Oct 16-18), Doha, Qatar (Nov 19-21), and the rescheduled Middle East round (Dec 1-5).
It is the first powerboat racing organisation to publicly cite geopolitical circumstances as the reason for a 2026 calendar change. The UIM itself has still issued no statement on the situation.
The F1 Parallel
Formula 1 faces the same geography for its own April rounds. The FIA has confirmed it is closely monitoring the situation ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix on April 12 and the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on April 19. FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem has stated that safety will be the determining factor for both races. European circuits including Imola and Mugello have been discussed as potential alternative venues.
Powerboat racing has no equivalent contingency structure. When COVID-19 removed the Gulf from the 2020 schedule, F1H2O did not race at all. XCAT also went dark for the entire year. Only UIM F2 salvaged any competition, running one round in Lithuania and two in Portugal. Formula 1, by contrast, ran 17 races that year, rescheduling across Europe and adapting its calendar at speed.
Beyond April
The 2026 exposure extends well beyond the next six weeks. XCAT has Kuwait confirmed for October and Dubai for December. The F1H2O season finale is fixed at Sharjah on December 18-20. An unannounced F1H2O round at Jeddah remains among the six rounds still to be confirmed for the 2026 championship calendar. Sharjah in December is far enough away to assess when the situation becomes clearer, but it represents the sport’s most significant single event in the region.
Whether the conflict stabilises before DIBS issues its statement later this week will be the first public indicator of how the Gulf is reading its own near-term future. The UIM has issued no statement on the situation.
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.
