Thursday, February 01, 2018

Final countdown begins to start of 2018 EFG Sailing Arabia – The Tour

The waiting is over, the teams have gathered, and it’s all systems go for the all-new 2018 EFG Sailing Arabia – The Tour.

Sunday, February 4, will see the opening skirmishes in a highly competitive fleet of eight Diam 24 teams with a series of stadium races at Salalah in the south of Oman.

It marks the start of an intensive 14-day campaign which will take the international fleet along hundreds of miles of Oman’s striking coastline before the final, deciding encounters in the capital Muscat.

The teams face a demanding schedule of intense inshore stadium racing and challenging coastal raid courses, interspersed with road trips between some of the six coastal venues:

• 4 February – Salalah – Stadium Racing
• 5 February – Salalah – Coastal Raid
• 7 February – Duqm – Stadium Racing
• 8 February – Duqm – Coastal Raid
• 10 February – Masirah – Coastal Raid
• 11 February – Masirah – Stadium Racing
• 13 February – Ras Al Hadd – Coastal Raid
• 14 February – Sur – Stadium Racing
• 16 February – Mutrah – Coastal Raid
• 17 February – Mutrah – Stadium Racing

The variety of venues will also allow the event to highlight Oman’s great natural beauty and welcoming culture to a new audience, which is part of organiser Oman Sail’s mission to promote the Sultanate as a high end and adventure tourism destination, alongside reigniting the country’s maritime heritage.

Now in its eighth edition, the Gulf region’s highest-profile yacht racing event has attracted a multinational field eager to take advantage of Oman’s ideal wind, sea and mid-20°C temperature conditions.

And with EFG Sailing Arabia – The Tour now sharing the high-speed Diam 24 one-design trimaran with the classic Tour Voile in France, the fleet includes several of the multihull’s leading exponents keen to get their season off to an early start.

• Boat name TBC (OMA) – Skipper: Stevie Morrison (GBR) – Crew: Abdulrahman Al Mashari, Quentin Ponroy
• Beijaflore (FRA) – Skipper: Valentin Bellet (FRA) - Crew: Julien Villion, Guillaume Piroulle, Valentin Sipan, Jason Saunders
• DB Schenker (GER) – Skipper: Elodie-Jane Mettraux (SUI) - Crew: Sophie de Turckheim, Mathilde Geron, Marwa Al Khaifi
• EFG Bank Monaco (MON) – Skipper: Thierry Douillard (FRA) - Crew: Mathieu Richard, Ali Al Balushi
• Team Lorina Golfe du Morbihan (FRA) - Skipper: Solune Robert (FRA) - Crew: Louis Flament, Riwan Perron, Charles Dorange
• Poujoulat (FRA) – Skipper: Bernard Stamm (SUI) - Crew: Jean-Christophe Mourniac, Gwen Riou
• Renaissance (OMA) – Skipper: Cedric Pouligny (FRA) - Crew: Yasser Al Rhabi, Sami Al Shukaili, Haitham Al Wahaibi, Hussein Al Mansoori
• VIVACAR (FRA) – Skipper: Matthieu Souben (FRA) - Crew: Didier Le Vourch, Fred Moreau

Note to media and broadcasters:

Oman Sail’s media team will be following the fortunes of all the crews and providing blow-by-blow commentary and reporting as EFG Sailing Arabia – The Tour unfolds over the next two weeks.

News, updates and results will be posted across our social media channels #sailingarabia and online at http://sailingarabiathetour.com/ with high-resolution photography available at http://omansail.qiumediacenter.com/en/photo  

Experts in yacht racing, Sunset + Vine are the host broadcaster and will be sending regular multilingual VNRs and digital edits to interested broadcasters. These will also be uploaded to: http://omansail.qiumediacenter.com/en/video

All material is rights free for editorial use.

For any media information or to be added to the press release or TV distribution lists, please contact Daphne Morgan Barnicoat, Global PR for Oman Sail, [email protected]