Dubai to Muscat Race

[doug1720]

Hi, I wanted to mention this as off sailing on a yacht in a couple of weeks time.

About 300 miles and difficult weather as usually pretty light as you sail through the straights of hormuz.  Also a lot of shipping traffic and strong tides.  Should be fun!

Link to web site is http://dosc.squarespace.com/muscat/

Sailing on an SJ 32 called Rush Knot, pic attached.

Doug

[Neil C.]

I saw an interesting yot race on Sky Sports the other night, from down your way. It was a fleet of Arab dhows racing in open water, with the finish line near Palm Island. Full helicopter TV coverage and the whole lot. Looked interesting.

[doug1720]

They race 20', 30' and 40'.  Pretty impressive.  Professional crews that all share in the prize money.  Only Emirates or perhaps GCC nationals can sail as part of their cultural heritage.  Only downwind, each of the boats has a big tender to take it to the start.  Fantastic to watch.  These pics I took myself as we took a look at the fleet sailing past.  We are at the end of the palm jumeirah and you can see the new Altantis hotel in the background.  The money they give out as prize money is more than the AC!

Doug

[Neil C.]

Wow, that's a pretty amazing event!

 From what I saw on the telly, gybing those boats is quite an exercise. Don't they float the sail right over the top of the gaff or something?

[doug1720]

Yes, it is pretty amazing to see.  I have a photo of a dhow mid gybe. 

Doug

[phil_kirk]

I thought Allah looked after health and Safety but it appears that some are wearing life jackets.

[JimC]

I thought Allah looked after health and Safety but it appears that some are wearing life jackets.

I believe there's an Arabic proverb on the lines of "trust in God *and* tie your camel up".

But they are wonderful things the racing Dhows. I especially like it that they see no need to spaned most of their day going upwind. After all a working seaman would always regarded having to go upwind as being a mark of poor planning or at best bad luck.

[doug1720]

Well the race starts tomorrow!  Light winds predicted for two days (i.e. less than 5 knts) and so will not be much fun.  After rounding the Musandam looks like 15knts or so in the indian ocean.  Hope to make it for Monday!

I will find the link for the yacht tracker transponder and put it online so you can see us drifting!

Doug

[doug1720]

If you want to watch progress, or lack of it, go to

http://dosc.squarespace.com/muscat-tracker/
 
Yacht is Rush Knot
 
If you want to make a donation it is:
 
www.justgiving.com/lymington-mobros
 
Thanks,
 
Doug

[doug1720]

Well, the race finished for us on Monday morning. Very light conditions with wind shutting down at night. Very spectacular views through the tip of Oman (Musandam) and we took the short cut through the tip at night.  Good fun.

Unfortunate that Bahrain yacht got caught on the way to the start.  We had to tack in the night to stay outside their waters.  Saw plenty of smuggling fast speed boats on their way from and too Iran.

Raised some money for charity and so happy with that.

Doug

[dave_ching]

Thanks for sharing. It is amazing to lern more about these kind of events.