kids being trained by oman sail's instructors

 

Oman Sail’s commitment to the development of children through sailing has been boosted with the addition of Thales, the multinational and solution provider for defence, aerospace, security, space and transportation markets, as the new official support sponsor for the Community Sailing Programme at Mussanah Sailing School. The partnership will enable 200 children from ten public schools around the Al Batina Governorate to participate in introductory sailing schools run by Oman Sail’s internationally certified instructors.

The new course will have two segments, spanning five weeks each and is designed to ignite children’s enthusiasm for the sport and build on that excitement through a series of fun and educational coaching sessions that focus not just on sailing but also across wider interests that help to shape young characters. The first course will take place on September 7th and the second course will be in October.

“It is the commitment to learning and development that appealed to Thales and persuaded us to back Oman Sail’s Community Sailing Programme initiative in Mussanah,” said Thales Mark Donderwinkel, Country Director of Thales Oman.

“When we saw what Oman Sail was doing and heard their ideas for engaging our Omani youth and the emphasis they place on social development, we wanted to get involved because those ideals match the ones that have been central to our business for many years.”

Oman Sail’s Community Sailing Programme was set up in 2010 as a vehicle for delivering the pledge to teach 70,000 Omani children to sail by 2020. Four sailing schools are now up and running with another four scheduled to be built and operational in the next six years and 16,500 children across Oman have been introduced to sailing since 2008.

Initiatives to train coaches and instructors as well as race management have proved highly successful and their efforts have paid off in producing a stream of talented sailors who are building up their skills by competing at international events. In the past year, a total of 27 athletes from Oman Sail, including 11 youngsters under 16 years of age, have represented their country in international regattas and competitions. Six of these have competed in Olympic class regattas or Extreme Sailing Series events and a further ten sailors, male and female have been earning their spurs among international fleets in M34, MOD70 and J80 events, mainly in Europe.

“We are delighted to welcome Thales on-board to support this initiative which we are confident will uncover new talent, not just in sailing but across all strands of activities that may be useful to Oman’s future,” said Oman Sail CEO, David Graham.

“The sponsorship will help lay the foundations for nurturing new sailing talent and developing it so that Oman is represented at an international level in a variety of sailing disciplines and is fully prepared to compete at the Olympic Games.”