2009 was a highly-charged year mixed with emotions for Maritimo Australia; highs and lows, success, elation, dejection and drama.

Running a two-boat team with new hull engine-packages the season-opener was forgettable.  The team hit back in Arendal, Norway, with Tom Barry-Cotter and Pal Virik Nilsen (Maritimo 11) leading home team-mates, Giorgio Manuzzi and Peter McGrath (Maritimo 12), to post a deserved two-three finish.

The Romanian Grand Prix saw Maritimo 11 impress in qualifying and take a second podium in race 2, but it also saw the exit from the Championship of Maritimo 12 after a dramatic crash in race 1 ended their racing year.

In Italy the young Australian-Norwegian partnership of Barry-Cotter and Nilsen could be forgiven for thinking the world was conspiring against them.  They missed their first pole position by just tenths, and then grabbed their first race win, only to lose it after being given a late post-race time penalty.  But they would take third overall in the European Championship.

Despite a second impressive qualifying session in Abu Dhabi, going second quickest, their run of bad luck which started in Italy continued, with technical problems preventing them from posting points in the remaining races of the year, to end what might have been an impressive year, in fifth place.