Armed with a battery of tips and pointers following two days of instruction in Oman Sail’s Coaching Clinics, 120 young competitors gunning for honours at Mussanah Race Week 2014 will get a chance to earn their wings when racing gets underway tomorrow in Mussanah.
The training clinics, staged at Al Mussanah Sports City started first thing on Monday morning and have been run by internationally-renowned coaches, Chris Atkins, Mike Hart and Leonardo Espindola dos Santos whose stated aim over the course of the week is to instil and excite a passion for sailing among youngsters and to help in creating Oman’s next generation of sailing professionals.
To maximise the benefit of the 5-day-long Mussanah Race Week, the first two days were dedicated to training and some races. The training curriculum ranged from sessions that highlight only theory, practical races aiming to putting skills to test, and finally coming back from the water for debriefs, evaluation and feedback sessions to reassess performance. The final three days are allocated for pure racing and will conclude on Saturday March 15th in the Sports City’s iconic marina.
“Once again, the coaching clinics at Mussanah Race Week have proved an incredible learning and expertise-exchange platform,” said Oman Sail National Race Team Manager Rashid Al Kindi.
“These youngsters are privileged to be gaining top tips from the masters and we fully expect to see most of them rolled out during racing over the next few days which is what Mussanah Race Week is all about.”
Some of Oman’s current generation of professionals took part in the action including Extreme Sailing Series sailors Hashim Al Rashdi of Oman Air and Nasser Al Mashari who is the powerhouse bowman on the defending champions’ boat, The Wave Muscat. Both Al Rashdi and Al Mashari have worked their way through Oman Sail’s Performance Pathway which starts children sailing in Community Sailing Programmes then nurtures their talent and interest through Sailing School Clubs until they gain selection in one of the National Youth and Development Squads culminating in representation at elite National Sailing Squad level.
Amongst the Hobie 16 sailing stars are 22 year old skipper and helmswoman Raja Al Owaisi and Raiya Al Habsi, the first Arab to be nominated for Rolex Sailor of the Year Award, and promising Omani talents Sultan Al Belushi and Maryam Al Balushi.
Watching the local champions sail expertly around a race track was a coaching clinic in itself but the emphasis for the less experienced sailors was more on the fundamentals of sailing such as the difference between sailing upwind and downwind and understanding tides and currents. They learned about wind strength variations and shifty breezes with the local wind spirits playing ball by delivering a ten knot breeze that quickly built in the afternoon to 15, accompanied by a good sized chop, offering a taste of what they can expect when they start racing on Wednesday.
The combined experience and knowledge shared between Hashim Al Rashdi and Raja Al Owaisi proved to have worked well as the duo sailed together onboard the Hobie 16 for two days, making an astounding win of 5 points above the fleet overall. In second place came British sailors Giles Brinsley and Jules Brinsley, then Joachim Bildtein and Chiora Cei who scored 8 and 15 points respectively. The wins were followed by an informal prizegiving ceremony held at the marina to honour the winners after a long day of intense racing.
Controlling boat speed with concentration and maintaining confidence and energy from the start-line to the finish were also topics covered in the clinics along with the all-important tactics to win races.
By the end of the two days, the youngsters, representing 20 different nations, were buzzing with all the knowledge they had gained, and were ready to get out on the water to make an impression.
Yesterday night also saw a spectacular cultural Arabian Night held to welcome the participants in a casual and relaxed setting. Various accompanying activities were held as part of the celebratory evening, ranging from camel riding to wearing traditional Omani clothing and a chance to taste some special Omani food and sweet delicacies.
