The winning teams at the prize giving ceremony of the annual EFG Sailing Arabia—The Tour, which concluded on Sunday. The event was organised by Oman Sail.
By Sports Reporter/Doha
Zain Sailing Team (Kuwait), headed by seasoned Tour competitor Cédric Pouligny, won the final leg of the Oman Sail-organised EFG Sailing Arabia —The Tour 2015. Even more commendable is the fact that the crew consists of enthusiastic novices, formed mainly from employees of Zain, one of the Middle East’s leading mobile telecoms operators.
They managed to take the lead during the night on the windy, 90nm leg from Doha, and engage in a tough battle with Team Averda in the closing stages. Team Averda took the lead for a while, but some smart moves by Zain Sailing Team put them ahead and they crossed finish line off Bahrain in first place, completing the course in 18 hours, 31 minutes.
Zain’s win on this leg also shifted them up the rankings to a podium position at third place overall.
Cédric Pouligny commented: “We are really happy. Happy for the team and happy for Zain, our sponsors, too. Our speed was not so good at the start in the big winds but when the wind started to die we improved. The teamwork was good because we fought hard during the night, had good boat speed and managed read the windshifts well. We are truly delighted.”
A third place on this leg, however, was enough to confirm EFG Bank’s Sidney Gavignet, and his mixed Omani team the overall winners of the EFG Sailing Arabia—The Tour for the second year in a row. Gavignet, together with his highly-tuned crew; Damian Foxall, Alex Pella, Nicolas Lunven, Fabien Delahaye (from Muscat to Ras Al Khaimah) Mohammed Al Mujaini, Abdull Rahman Al Mashari, and Abdallah Al Shukaili, sailed an impressive series. They won all but two of the six legs and finished the event 9.25 points clear.
Chatting as he stepped ashore, double Tour champion Gavignet expressed his delight and paid tribute to his team: “I feel good to achieve the goal, and especially this time because we had a great atmosphere onboard, which I believe helped our performance. It was clearly the hardest Sailing Arabia event that I have done.”
The champions did not have it all their own way, however. Tthey were chased hard throughout by Marcel Herrera and his young student team from Plymouth on Team Averda who, for the second year in a row, took second overall, and Zain Sailing Team.
The young student Team averda demonstrated how amateur teams can compete equally well with the pros. They sailed a solid series and, although they did not win a race, they were consistent, which is what competing at the Tour is all about.
They were always in contention right to end and took another second in the final leg.
Marcel Herrera, Team averda skipper commented: “We are really pleased to have retained second place for the second year. It shows consistency and proves that last year was not just a fluke. Hopefully we can return next year to challenge for first place.”
Wouter Sonnema and his Dutch team on Delft Challenge from the Technical University in Delft went into the final leg in third but couldn’t quite match the speed of Zain and had to settle for fourth place, which meant they dropped to fourth overall.
Despite losing a place overall, they are delighted with their performance particularly with their 172nm, Leg 2 win. Sonnema said: “It has been fantastic with many highlights. For this leg however, we had a good start and were in third but during the night we lost speed and went to the wrong side of the beat. Zain sailed well and were faster so deserved to win that one.”
On this leg, Mary Rook and the all-girl team on Al Thuraya (Oman), sailed exceptionally well and were always in contention and finished the leg in fifth place.
They also managed to retain sixth overall beating GAC powered by Dongfeng Race Team after a close battle to the finish. Mary Rook commented: “Much nicer leg, still windy but with a flatter sea, so we were happy. In the closing stages we had to defend our place over GAC powered by Dongfeng Race Team. If they had beaten us today, they would have beaten us overall so we needed to make sure they were behind. Thankfully we managed it.”
Nick Moloney and his mostly Chinese team on GAC powered by Dongfeng Race Team were just behind in sixth, which meant they finished eighth overall. Ahmed Al Ma’mari’s Team OMIFCO are a young Omani team who have never sailed offshore, so to finish in seventh place on the final leg was a great achievement. They finished ninth overall.
