(MENAFN- Muscat Daily) Abdul Aziz al Hussaini will spearhead the Royal Navy of Oman crew for next month's EFG Sailing Arabia-The Tour (SATT), the region's only long-distance offshore sailing race, it was announced on Tuesday.
Last year, Royal Navy of Oman had finished eighth on its debut in the race.
With a new skipper onboard this time for the February 9-24 contest, and with sound knowledge of local waters and conditions in the Gulf region, the Omani crew is confident of claiming one or two podium finishes during the 2014 edition. Hussaini's crew of eight - all members of the Royal Navy of Oman - features the full spectrum of experience from a raw recruit to senior officer-navigator- sailor.
Hussaini said, ''My team participated in SATT last year and has been training really hard for the 2014 edition for the last couple of months. I have three experts in the crew and some of the others are quite new. But we have been training regularly. I think they have become very good in their roles on the boat and they will be good in the race."
''They have learned fast and I can see they have improved a lot since last year. Faster reactions, better skills, better teamwork and better overall performance - there has been a lot of development, so we are being a bit ambitious. I am sure we will get on the podium in some stages.''
Hussaini is just one of the Royal Navy of Oman crew to have completed navigation training in the Gulf region and this knowledge is bound to give the team an advantage, he says. ''It does give us an advantage, but not as much as it used to earlier on. Our knowledge of the region, Musandam and the mountains means we are somewhat ahead of the other teams, but some of them, especially those manned by Oman Sail personnel, are also gathering good knowledge of the route and the conditions. So our advantage is not huge. Having said that, we do know the area very well,'' Hussaini said.
David Graham, Oman Sail's CEO, welcomed the Royal Navy of Oman team to SATT. ''This is the second all-Omani team to be competing in the race. Considering how all the sail boat racing in Oman used to revolve almost exclusively around Navy teams, it will be interesting to watch how they compete against each other,'' Graham said.
Launched in 2011 by Oman Sail, the 760 nautical-mile race covers eight marinas in four nations - Bahrain, Qatar, UAE and Oman, with Muscat as the final destination.
Royal Navy of Oman crew: Abdul Aziz al Hussaini (skipper), Mohammed al Alawi, Mohammed al Ahouri, Mubarak al Farsi, Samah al Hubaishi, Mahfoodh al Zarafi, Fahad al Abri, Mohamood al Shezawi, Mohammed al Ghaila
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.