Making history at 2013 Rolex Fastnet Race…

Oman Sail’s Raya al Habsi was chosen by Rising Tide Leadership Institute Ambassador Dee Caffari to join the crew on Oman Air-Musandam MOD70 trimaran in this year’s 608 mile Fastnet race which started yesterday in Cowes, England ~ enabling her to become the FIRST Omani woman to race offshore and take part in the Rolex Fastnet Race. A record fleet left Cowes, England yesterday, with 347 starters from 20 countries for the 45th edition of the Rolex Fastnet Race (which first took place in 1925), with both men and women competing in the same race for the FIRST time. Meanwhile at Plymouth Yacht Haven crowds of press, friends and relatives of crew begin to gather, waiting for the boats to start arriving.

MOD70 Oman Air rounding the Fastnet Rock earlier today.

Raya commented before race start: “I am excited and I know maybe I will face hard times. But I am ready to face those times and do what I need to. I want to get to the end of the race and feel proud. I know very little about the ‘Mod70’ Oman Air-Musandam, but I know you have to be strong in body and strong in mind as well.”

Rolex Fastnet Race reports an intriguing dust-up is taking place between the world’s fastest competing yachts:

After an excellent start, the 40m trimaran, Spindrift 2, led the Multihull division along the south coast of England last night, but earlier this morning off Land’s End it was the Sidney Gavignet-skippered MOD70, Oman Air-Musandam, that had moved into the first place, despite being half Spindrift’s length. Crossing the Celtic Sea, it was then the turn of the 31.5m trimaran, Banque Populaire, to edge ahead. But at the Fastnet Rock, Spindrift 2, just managed to get her nose in front, rounding at 14.03:08 BST with the Armel le Cleac’h skippered Banque Populaire right on her transom.

“It is a great match,” enthused Spindrift 2’s co-skipper, Yann Guichard, this afternoon. “Right now, Banque Populaire is just 300m to windward and we are doing the same speed and the same angle.”

In theory the bigger boat should be faster, but Guichard says that in the 18-19 knot winds they have, the smaller Banque Populaire benefits from being lighter. “We are too heavy, so it is really close. We gybed first and she gybed just to windward, so it is like a match race – it is definitely not over yet.”

Click to follow the race!

During the Traverse City Film Festival, Rising Tide Leadership Institute’s Jeanne Gross and Linda Lindquist-Bishop met Pushpa Basnet of Nepal, the 2012 CNN Hero of the Year. Pushpa was in town to bring awareness to the new documentary Waiting for Mamu about her life mission to make sure that ‘no child grows up behind prison walls.’

Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world — according to UNICEF, 55% of the population lives below the international poverty line — so it lacks the social safety net that exists in most Western nations. Space is extremely limited in the few children’s homes affiliated with the government.

So when no local guardian is available, an arrested parent often must choose between bringing their children to jail with them or letting them live on the streets. Nepal’s Department of Prison Management estimates 80 children live in the nation’s prisons.

“It’s not fair for (these) children to live in the prison because they haven’t done anything wrong,” said Basnet, who started a nongovernmental organization to help. “My mission is to make sure no child grows up behind prison walls.”

Pushpa is leaving Traverse City, Michigan for the Philippines, where she will speak to a group from 28 countries who desire to learn how she is helping children of incarcerated parents – a global (and US) problem. This 28-year-old Nepali woman has become an inspiration to many.

You can learn more about Pushpa’s work and how you can help the plight of children being raised in prisons at the Butterfly Home.

Rising Tide Leadership Institute salutes Pushpa Basnet for stepping up to lead as a 21-year-old and Thomas Morgan for telling her story.

L to R: Linda Lindquist-Bishop (RTLI), Pushpa Basnet (2012 CNN Hero of the Year), Jeanne Gross (RTLI), Angela Bernhard Thomas (Filmmaker)

In the fall of 2011 Raya al Habsi and several other young Omani women met Dee Caffari, Katie Pettibone and 4 other elite international women sailors. Dee, Katie and their peers had been invited to Oman by Oman Sail to begin coaching and mentoring this novice group of young women to compete in their first sailing race – the 2012 Sailing Arabia the Tour (SATT). From never having been in a gym to competing with men in a 1200 mile grueling race along the Arabian Coast, Raya and her team mates embarked on a journey that has not only changed the course of their own lives, but inspired thousands of girls and women and their families around the world.

“As part of Oman Sail’s continued efforts to develop women’s sailing in the sultanate, Omani sailor Raya Al Habsi will also be competing on board. She has previously competed in Sailing Arabia-The Tour in 2012 and 2013, and is currently part of the all-female Oman Sail entry at the J/80 Worlds. “Raya has been with us from the beginning of the girls’ offshore sailing,” says Caffari. “She has been working the bow on the Farr 30 and has been cold, wet and beaten up and still continues to smile, which is a good characteristic to have for a tough environment, which the Fastnet is. This is big deal for Oman Sail and for Arab women in sport.” [Read More]

Join us as we follow Rising Tide Leadership Institute Ambassador Dee Caffari, and Oman Sail’s Raya al Habsi, as they compete on the blazing fast 70′ multihull Aman-Air Masandam in this year’s Fastnet race starting August 11th. More news to follow!

Congratulations Ladies!  In a three-day series at the Chicago Match Race Center that featured everything from light shifty breeze to big wind and waves, Chicago-based Jennifer Wilson and her team of Sally Barkow (Nashotah, Wisconsin), Katherine Pettibone (Sacramento, California), Krista Paxton (Royal Oak, Michigan), and Sandi Svoboda (Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan) have won the Allegra Knapp Mertz Trophy for the 2013 US Women’s Match Racing Championship. After defeating Sandy Hayes in a 2-0 Semi-Final, Wilson and team went on to defeat Stephanie Roble and her team in a 3-1 Final.

L to R: Sally Barkow, Sandi Svoboda, Jennifer Wilson, Krista Paxton, Katie Pettibone

For winning this ISAF Grade 3 championship, Wilson will receive an automatic invitation to the Open US Match Racing Championship this September in Sheboygan, Wisconsin as well as the Women’s International Match Race Series event this July in Oyster Bay, New York.

“I was really comfortable racing with this team,” said Wilson. “We have sailed a lot together over the years. I felt like we had the best group out there. I let Sally do her magic and take care of tactics, while I focused on sailing fast and smooth in the shifty conditions.”

Rising Tide Leadership Institute Ambassador Katie Pettibone shared, “It was a great weekend of racing with both new and more experienced match racers. It was fun to battle it out against Stephanie Roble and her team who after doing an Olympic campaign have been out on the circuit honing their skills. We had great speed and picked our lanes carefully and were able to prevail to ultimately win.” [Read More]