Final preparations on for Sailing Arabia – The Tour

By Sports Reporter/Manama

At Amwaj Marina, one of Bahrain’s premier locations for yachting, the local community and sailing enthusiasts will this morning notice a flutter of activity as the nine teams competing in EFG Bank Sailing Arabia – The Tour prepare for the start of what will be a grueling 15 day race ending in Muscat, Oman.

A host of world-class crews and regional sailing elite are in final preparation, pulling ropes and tuning rigging or doing intense cardio workouts along the waterfront as they fine tune their boats and themselves ahead of the physical and mental challenge. It is only three days until the start of the Gulf region’s only long distance offshore sailing race EFG Bank Sailing Arabia – The Tour, which will take the crews on a two week journey and the 760 nautical miles. 

In the last few days, the expert teams have come together and familiarised themselves with Farr 30 yacht that all teams will compete in as they pit themselves against the offshore conditions of the Gulf as well as challenging inshore courses at 4 of the ports.  

Amongst the leading teams arrived and in the final phase of their preparation is Al Thuraya Bank Muscat, the all-female crew led by world famous single handed round the world sailor Dee Caffari.

Dee outlines how the team has come together: “We have all been training hard in the last months, but now is the time that the team needs to really come together and iron out any creases in our performance.

The girls are all ready to go, but we need to practice the drills in particularly for the starts and on the spinnaker — if the weather picks up we will need to be twice as efficient as the heavier crews.”

The wind for the opening leg is forecast to be between 11-14KmH, which may give Dee, her female crew and her light boat a competitive advantage against the other 8 teams. 

The battle will take place across four countries and along an 8 port route, competing in off shore and in port racing over the course of 15 days.

The all Emirati Team Abu Dhabi, skippered by Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing sailor Adil Khalid, are competing in the race for the first time and are looking forward to testing their skills in home waters. The Emirati skipper can’t wait to get started.