Blue skies, sunshine and a warm sea-breeze welcomed all the sailors this morning to the first day of racing at Mussanah Race Week. 145 boats were separated into two fleets to give all participants the chance to enjoy the best racing.
The ‘Red Fleet’ started the morning off with over 30 boats being sailed by the young sailors who have been learning the sport with the Oman Sail youth learning programme. Many of these budding sailors have been coming to the Try Sailing courses and academy so Mussanah Race Week is their first chance to experience racing at such a high level and with so many other boats.
After a lunch on the gardens of Mussanah Marina the ‘Blue Fleet’ set out for what would be much more competitive racing. After two days of coaching sessions they were all raring to go out and compete in the points scoring races after yesterday’s practice races. Under the watchful eye of the coaches and the international jury they jostled for position at the start, tried to keep a step-ahead as they went to the first turning mark and worked on their speed as they sped down-wind to the second turning mark. The coaches weaved between the boats on the high-speed motorboats offering on the spot advice and encouragement.
In order to have so many races run with so many different sailors, there is a big team in the background ensuring everything goes to plan. The team that runs all this is lead by Issa Al Ismaili, Events Director at Oman Sail, who is committed to ensuring that as much as possible is done using local skill. ‘Mussanah Race Week targets the sailors but there is also a lot of coaching for the teams that run the races, set the courses, arrange the catering and transport and a host of other tasks. Alongside the clinics for the sailors, officials such as the ISAF Race Officer, Athanasios Papantoniou, have been hosting race management sessions for the Oman Sail staff that will ultimately be running world-class events themselves,’ he said. ‘We are proud that we have used in-house resources for setting up this event and the feedback we have had from the coaches and participants has all been positive and constructive. Using Mussanah Race Week to have events coaching sessions helps us ensure we keep international standards. Next year will again be bigger and better and we can’t wait!’ he added.
As the sailors came back to the marina after a grueling day’s racing, there were plenty of smiles and lots of laughter. The camaraderie showed as the teams helped each other get their boats out of the water and shared stories about how they had done in each race. Several languages could be heard due to the sailors coming from so many different places. One of the better represented countries is Bahrain, with four sailors sailors taking part under the watchful eye of their national coach. One of the Bahraini sailors Ibrahim Abdullah of the national sailing team, who returns to Mussanaha after sailing on board team Bahrain during SATT2012 a month ago says ‘Mussanah Race Week is a fantastic thing to be a part of and it is an honour to have not only been invited to, but to take part in.’ he enthused. ‘It is an amazing opportunity to learn from world-class coaches and compete with international sailors. The number of sailors participating is impressive. In fact, after seeing all the international sailors, arrangements and the facilities, I feel like I’m racing in n international race in Europe! The standard of the Mussanah Marina facility is truly amazing. What has also impressed me is the number of Omani sailors and the standard of their sailing. We have had some very friendly competition with them, the French and the Germans!’ Ibrahim went on to talk about how Mussanah Race Week will benefit them in many of the upcoming events, ‘This event has played a crucial role in preparing us for the 4th GCC Championship in Saudi Arabia and other major events of the year. We now look forward to be competing again in Sailing Arabia – The Tour in 2013 and we will indefinitely transfer these skills and gain a better position when we conclude in Oman again.”
With such competitive racing there will always be stories once the teams are back on shore and one of those today came from the Hobie 16 pairing of Khulood Al Kindi of Al Thuraya BankMuscat team from Sailing Arabia – The Tour and Hashim Al Rashdi of The Wave, Muscat’ Extreme 40. Khulood recounts their experience with a thrilling chase by their teammates Musab Al Hadi and Ahmed Al Bulushi, ‘The race was going very well for us, we were in first place and were confident we would win. In the last leg to the finish we saw Musaab Al Hadi and Ahmed Al Balushi coming down towards us with great speed and we were worried they would overtake us at the last second. These two won the Asian Bronze medal recently so we knew they were a threat and they just beat us across the line at the last second. Inshallah we will not let them past us again tomorrow!’
Musaab Al Hadi also enjoyed the tight finish and the competitiveness amongst the teams, ‘The event so far is amazing. We were on the pace and leading until we had a penalty in the third race as we were over the line at the start. We are really enjoying sailing against so many of our team mates from the Extreme 40 and the offshore sailors. I hope we have more wind tomorrow so we can really push hard.’
Today’s racing will be similar to yesterday with the forecast offering the sailors more conditions to push themselves. Racing will again commence in the morning for the ‘Red Fleet’ with the ‘Blue Fleet’ taking to the water in the afternoon to take advantage of the stronger wind.
