The event, which took place at the Café de l’Homme in Trocadero square, was also the perfect occasion to officially present the new A100 class of giant which has been designed primarily at competing in competitions within the Middle-East / Asia arena. Representatives from the Fédération Française de Voile, the Route du Rhum and the Extreme Sailing Series circuit as well as racing sailors were also present.
Oman Sail Background
Oman Sail was set up in mid-2008 under the guidance of the Ministry of Tourism to create an enduring capability to inspire, teach and coach young Omanis to be able to succeed in the field of maritime endeavour, restoring the Sultanate to a position of maritime eminence and promoting Oman as an attractive tourist destination internationally. The heart of the project is the development of seven sailing schools across the country over the next five years, giving Omanis the opportunity to try sailing for themselves either as a recreation or professional sport in order to create the infrastructure to create a sustainable future for sailing in Oman.
The events taking place in France this year are a small, but important aspect of the Oman Sail project and will play a significant role in the progressive transfer of knowledge and skills from international experts to the new Omani race and shore team.
Nearly two years old, the project has already achieved a number of successes. In March 2009, Mohsin Al Busaidi became the first Omani and Arab to sail non-stop around the world on the trimaran Musandam (previously Ellen MacArthur’s Castorama/ B&Q). This was a source of huge national pride back home and inspiration to the youth. This success was soon followed by two Omani Extreme 40 entries taking both the European and Asian Extreme Sailing Series Circuits by storm with a double win on their boat Masirah and coming third and second respectively on the second Oman boat Renaissance / The Wave, Muscat. After two years as apprentices, two Omanis became full time sailors in the Asian circuit and Nasser Al Massari will now be moving over from the Extreme 40 circuit to the Omani Tour de France à la Voile team to share his expertise with the new Omani trainees.
With huge success on the international arena, back in Muscat the first of the Oman sailing schools was opened in mid-2009 and this now focuses on a double mission of forming an elite squad that is qualified to compete in international races at a high standard and secondly in developing a school and community sailing programme to give Omanis an opportunity to try the sport for themselves. The school now has six Omani instructors and three international coaches and consists of forty sailing dinghies and small sporting catamarans. After two gruelling selection processes, the elite squad now consists of forty full-time Omani sailors learning to sail at a high standard and four hundred and fifty school children have already taken part in a six-week training course once a week after school that now enables them to sail safely on their own in light winds. A second sailing school will be opened later this year outside the capital Muscat, with a further five schools opening along the coast by 2015.
In conjunction with these activities, Oman Sail has conceived an ambitious racing programme in the Middle-East /Asia arena, open notably to the new A100 class. The star project of the Asian calendar is the Indian Ocean 5 Capes Race, a course covering 15,000 nautical miles over 5 legs between Oman, the Maldives, South Africa, Australia, Singapore and back to Oman, and passing in front of the 5 capes of the Indian ocean: Ras Al Hadd (Oman), Cape Aghulas (or Cape Needle, South Africa), Cape Leeuwin (Australia), Cape Piai (Malaysia) and Cape Comorin (India).
The A100 is a 105ft (32m) monotype maxi multihull, designed by Nigel Irens and Benoit Cabaret, sistership of Sodeb’O, but a more streamlined version (no rotating mast, no foils). The first of its kind, Oman Sail’s Majan is currently tracing out the route for the first edition of the Indian Ocean 5 Capes Race in 2012 and has currently just reached Cape Town.
There are also two further potential race courses: Round Oman, a 835 nautical mile course that will be a coastal sprint from Oman’s most northern point, Musandam, past the capital Muscat and down to the southernmost city of Salalah and an Asia Circuit, a course covering 6,800 nautical miles in eleven legs between Yokohama and Singapore.
A French year for Oman Sail
There is a strong French influence to the Oman Sail project in 2010, with participation in the Tour de France à la Voile with a mainly French, English and Omani crew, the Route du Rhum with Sidney Gavignet skippering Oman Sail’s A100 Majan, and a french leg of the Extreme Sailing Series Europe with two Omani Extreme 40 catamarans.
The Tour de France à la Voile is a true offshore racing school for newcomers measuring up to the sailors of the pro series. Oman Sail has decided to enter a Farr30 on the 2010 Tour with the aim of placing five Omani sailors alongside 5 other European sailors, led by the English skipper Rob Greenhalgh.
“The Tour is the opportunity to discover crewed offshore racing” emphasises Nicolas Honor, Project manager of the Oman Sail team for the Tour. “It is the only deep-sea project that allows five Omani sailors to sail with the best of the series and to train in the throes of the action. After the experience of one month around the french coasts, they will be able to bring their experience back to Oman to benefit the students of the sailing schools in Oman who will soon sail on the Farr30, once the 2010 Tour is over.”
Oman Sail is also participating in the Route du Rhum to show case the A100 class and also to draw interest to the new Indian Ocean 5 Capes Race to be held in 2012. The helm has been entrusted to french sailor Sidney Gavignet, whose outstanding sailing achievements are equal on both the national and international scenes, notably with 4 Whitbread/Volvo Ocean Races to his name.
“Sidney was a natural choice” underlines Oman Sail’s CEO David Graham. “He is a profesional sailor used to skippering boats with an iron hand, his strong point being his perpetual quest for performance and the A100 is designed to be sailed fast and pushed hard. Sidney is also a true communicator who understands the commercial stakes of his sport. He has never participated in the Route du Rhum, but he is extremely motivated.”
The Route du Rhum 2010 will in fact be Sidney’s first participation in this epic comptetition. He will be racing in the maxi multihull ULTIME category, a class that largely contributed to the emergence of the myth of this transatlantic race.
“A great believer in team values, I have been dreaming of single-handed racing since I first started competitive sailing” remembers Sidney Gavignet. “Today, the race course is simple yet magnificent, as Majan, the A100 that I will sail to Pointe à Pitre. A streamlined boat, without artifacts, one of the most beautiful from the start. In spite of limited experience sailing multihulls, I feel at ease with the idea of finding myself at the helm of this 105 ft trimaran, as I have already been able to verify that it is a particularly safe and seaworthy boat.”
Although it is a single-handed competition, the Route du Rhum is a race that mobilises many forces within the teams for preparing both boat and skipper and there will be two Omani shore team apprentices as part of the technical team in Lorient (Majan’s training base from July to beginning of October), then in Saint Malo, the start town of the Route du Rhum.
France will also host one of the legs of the Extreme Sailing Series Europe competition during the summer. The French town chosen for this circuit as well as the crewmembers for the two Oman boats Masirah and The Wave, Muscat will be announced in a future communication.
