Today brisk downwind conditions, took the full fleet of nine Farr 30s home to The Wave, Muscat, providing the perfect conclusion to this year’s tour. The fleet, leaving Mussanah Marina at dawn this morning, was up to its full strength with the return of Adil Khaled and his Team Abu Dhabi, following their grounding and helicopter rescue on leg two. A fitting end to the event was that honors on the leg should go to French America’s Cup helmsman Bertrand Pacé and the crew of AISM, who have constantly dominated EFG Bank Sailing Arabia The Tour 2013. Over the last two and a half weeks they have won five of the seven offshore legs, and set the tone for the in-ports when they claimed three out of three races in Doha. AISM won 2013 SATT by 10.25 points.

Starlets of the show, regardless of where in the GCC they visited, have been Rising Tide Leadership Institute Ambassador Dee Caffari’s all-female crew on Al-Thuraya Bank Muscat.

Caffari, the first woman to have sailed singlehanded around the world non-stop in both directions, said today’s leg was a fine conclusion to SATT, even though they just missed the podium: “We had great wind and good conditions, and really close racing. It was intense and a really good way to finish a great event. This was our chance to get on the podium, and we missed it by just two gybes. On the finish line all the girls burst into tears – I was quite emotional for them, but it shows just how much they wanted it – we wouldn’t have got that reaction two weeks ago.”

Almost speechless with disappointment, hiding behind her sunglasses, was Al-Thuraya’s Intisar Al-Tobi. “I am sad, because we were so close and we did our best, and we tried so hard to finish in the top three places,” she said.

Taking in four countries and eight ports of call, EFG Bank Sailing Arabia The Tour (SATT) is a showcase of everything that the Gulf has to offer in terms of state-of-the-art facilities, and idyllic sailing conditions. Leaving Manama on February 10th, EFG Bank SATT calls at Doha, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Ras Al Khaimah, Dibba and Mussanah, ending February 25th in Muscat.

More details to come from Rising Tide Leadership Institute Ambassador Katie Pettibone…

Photos by Lloyd Images

 

Excellent video: Al Jazeera’s Jo Gasiorowska speaks to Rising Tide Leadership Institute Ambassador Dee Caffari, and Oman’s women’s team – some of whom had never set foot on a sail boat until two years ago – about making waves in the professional sailing world. Despite a history of maritime trade and pearling, Omani sailors have been largely under-represented on the international sailing circuit. Now the country is trying to build on it’s maritime heritage, and train a new generation of young Omani sailors to compete at the top level of the sport… these Omani women are making history!

The young Omani Women’s Team continues to perform well…
Rising Tide Leadership Institute Ambassador Dee Caffari, a veteran of past events, shared thoughts before Leg 6: “It is usually quite eventful with quite a mixture of weather.” Enroute there is a ‘ship graveyard’ the boats will sail past. In the last race the start was windy but then the wind dropped off to nothing, and the boats had to motor for 35 miles. “Fortunately I don’t think we’ll have any of that this time,” advises Caffari of the big conditions.

The leg will hold much significance for Caffari’s crew, four of whom are from Oman. “It is huge for these girls because they train out of Mussanah, and some of the girls come from Mussanah. For them this is going home.”

Dee Caffari (L)

 

Among Caffari’s crew is 22 year old Ibtisam Al-Salmi who knows Mussanah well, having trained there extensively since she joined Oman Sail Women Program more than one year ago. “EFG Bank Sailing Arabia The Tour is a good chance for me to sail,” says Al-Salmi who operates the ‘pit’ on board Al-Thuraya Bank Muscat, managing the hoisting and dropping of sails during the in-port races. “This is my first event sailing around the GCC countries, so I am very happy to be doing it. Dee is brilliant. It is good for me to learn as much as I can from her and her experience, because she’s a really good sailor and that is good for us.”

Like several of the other girls in Caffari’s crew, Al-Salmi is expecting to be heading for France this year from March until July to compete aboard a J/80 yacht, with a program culminating in the J/80 World Championship. Al-Salmi says that she likes inshore and offshore racing equally. “My ambition is to be a good sailor, and to know the boat, and everything going on it, so that when they put me in each place in the boat I can know what to do.” ~ Oman Women’s Sailing Team, placed a respectable 7th in Leg 6.

A stunning victory for the Dutch boys!
Dutch Student Team Delft Challenge -TU Delft pulled off a stunning victory in today’s leg of the Gulf region’s only long distance offshore sailing race, finishing over an hour ahead of the nearest rival!

All the boats competing in EFG Bank Sailing Arabia The Tour are Farr 30 one designs, identical boats of identical speed, and under normal circumstances in an offshore leg the boats are separated by minutes, if not seconds. However on the sixth leg of the event from Zighy Bay to Mussanah Marina, the leading boat, TU Delft, arrived one hour and 12 minutes ahead of her rivals. The sixth leg should have been plain sailing for the leading three teams, but Delft took a risky tactic of splitting from the rest of the fleet, and heading inshore in the early hours of the morning. The Dutch student team, at one point, was ahead by more than 10 miles – impressive, on a leg that ended up being less than 60 miles from start to finish, after it was shortened.

Issa Al Ismaili, Events Director of race organizer Oman Sail, however, knows that upsets are all part of the thrill of sailing: “It’s a sign of how wide open sailing can be as a sport – our mission is to show everyone in the region that sailing is an accessible sport, and there could be no greater vindication of that ideal than a win from one of our youngest teams. It’s a thrill to see Team Delft Challenge excel here on one of the final legs of the tour, in idyllic sailing conditions.”

These young women, and men, are competing against,
and with, some of the greatest sailors in the world!

Photos by Lloyd Images

 

Leg 5 ~ Ras Al Khaimah to Zighy Bay in Oman ~ via the Strait of Hormuz

Our stopover at Six Senses Resort, Zighy Bay, has been an amazing slice of heaven, and a much-needed rejuvenation. The resort is beautiful, serene and eco-friendly. I highly recommend it, and will definitely be visiting their resorts in the future!

Leg 5 was long, and sometimes painful, but we made it after nearly two days and one night. This leg includes the internationally famous Strait of Hormuz. The start, leaving Ras Al Khaimah (RAK), was a nightmare. Two of our passports had been incorrectly stamped somewhere in the process, which when we went to leave, caused an 8 hour delay! The Race Committee had arranged for an early morning start – so we were up at 5:00 am – only to wait, and wait, and wait until 2:00 pm to finally leave the dock. Really frustrating. It was upwind the coast of UAE in a good, but quickly clocking and dying breeze. Early in the night we were on spinnakers heading up to the top. Going through the strait in the dark (again), under spinnaker through a little hole and sheer cliffs, allowed us to not have to circumvent the strait entirely on the outside. Once we popped through to the other side of the gulf, the wind died for all competitors. It was a restart, with all of us floating around. Luckily for us, we were positioned in on the shore, and were able to grab some zephers and move along with a couple of other boats. Others were not so lucky, and hung around for hours before they could move. At one stage we were in 2nd! The wind was fickle, however. Although we were moving, EFG Bank grabbed another piece of wind, and were able to sneak by us – knocking us off the podium. Argggh! But being fourth was a great move up for the team, and the girls were very happy.

Did I mention that on this leg we saw a ton of sea snakes? During this tour I have seen more sea snakes than ever before, but on this leg it was amazing to see the amount, and the variations! (Most of the 62 species grow to between 3.9-4.9 ft in length, with the largest, reaching 9.8 ft. Despite the venom being highly toxic to humans, sea snakes usually present little threat.) National Geographic Photo

The girls struggle with night sailing, and not sleeping. At this stage of the race they are tired. Light air sailing requires immense concentration, but very small and nuanced movements. This is hard for new sailors who are exhausted, but they kept trying, and although they would zone-out, and require prodding, they kept good attitudes. Intisar did a tremendous job at trimming in light air, wavy conditions – she has really come a long way. All the girls have come a long way. One of the things that we have continued to work on is to drink enough water, and go to the bathroom on the boat. If one doesn’t drink enough water, performance suffers greatly, plus it is simply not healthy. So to incentivize this, in the last port I announced a competition. The Omani girl who drank the most bottles of water, and used the bathroom the most, would get a spa treatment of their choice at Six Senses Resort… and I would pay. It worked wonders! I have to go up to the office shortly to pay for that. 🙂

Today, we leave on a very long leg to Mussanah, Oman, which is where the training facility of Oman Sail Keelboat Teams is located, and essentially has been home to the girls. Their friends, and old instructors will be there. It will be quick, as we finish in the afternoon, and then leave the next day for the final leg into Muscat. It has been such a good journey for the girls thus far. There is much to reflect upon, but they have really taken it on. Yesterday’s in-port race in Zighy Bay utilized the full Omani crew, with coach Niall and Dee onboard. The race was not counted, but it allowed our Omani girls to do it all, and own it. A good experience – although Tahira told me later, that she missed having the coaches onboard, and wanted us back on – pronto!

Here’s hoping to keeping the wind today, and tonight!

~Katie

Photos by Lloyd Images & National Geographic

The fifth leg of Sailing Arabia The Tour saw the eight competing Farr 30 one designs set sail from Al Hamra in Ras Al Khaimah, bound for Zighy Bay in Oman ~ via the Strait of Hormuz, and past the most visually spectacular part of the race course… the flat desert giving way to the mountainous Musandam Peninsula.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 24 hour long leg was a tense game of snakes and ladders for the majority of the competitors. Only AISM consistently performed well, leading for the majority of the leg. Bertrand Pace and the crew of AISM have won their fourth consecutive offshore leg of the tour. Some, including Cedric Pouligny-steered BAE Systems, lying in second place overall, got stuck along the course and found themselves racing among the backmarkers. For others the most tactically tricky leg to date worked in their favor, with Kay Heemskerk’s Delft Challenge – TU Delft scoring their best result of the whole race, coming home in second place.

Finish times:

1. AISM – 15:29:59

2. Delft – 16:17:33

3. EFG Bank (Monaco) – 16:36:59

4. Al Thuraya – 17:02:10

Fourth place winner, Al-Thuraya Bank Muscat, is skippered by Rising Tide Leadership Institute Ambassador Dee Caffari, with and an all female crew: Sarah Hornby, Elizabeth Bayliss, RTLI Ambassador Katie Pettibone, Basma Al Nofali, Raiya Al Habsi, Rajaa Al Uwaisi, Ibtisam Al Salmi, Tahira Al Yahyaee and Asrar Al Ajmi

Photos by Lloyd Images