“We treated last year’s race as a training session because we had never match raced before. It was very exciting for us to try a new way of sailing and we learned so much from that experience,” said 22 year old skipper and helmswoman, Raja al Owaisi. Raja and her crew Raiya al Habsi, Asrar al Ajmi, Ibtisam al Salmi joined by new team member, Hajer al Omrani, believe that they have what it takes to be victorious after a year of hard work and constant competition at home and abroad in international events.
They were the only all women’s entry in the 2012 Kingdom Match Race but hope they have inspired women from other regions to compete in this year’s event, which will take place from December 15 to 18 at the Bahrain Sailing Club near Al Jazayer Beach in Zallaq. The Women’s team will be joined by their fellow team mates from the national offshore team led by Mohsin al Busaidi, who will also be taking part in the race. “Match racing is a totally different style of racing to what we are used to.
It is a very tactical, strategic and intense two boat contest where you have to be aggressive and attack the other boat in order to get the upper hand. We hope to take our performance to another level this year,” Raja said. The team will arrive in Bahrain on December 12 and will have three days to rig its J24, practice and get to know the local conditions.
Registration is on December 14 followed by the start of the qualifying races on December 15 to 17. The finals will be held from December 18 to 21. This has been a year of many achievements for the team and other top Omani women who only started sailing when the Oman Sail Women’s Programme was launched in 2011.
Today they are considered among the new generation of highly motivated sailors who share an ambitious goal for a national women’s team to qualify and compete in the 2020 Olympics. Most of the team members going to Bahrain were also members of the all women Al Thuraya bank muscat crew competing in the premier EFG 2013 Sailing Arabia The Tour yacht race in February this year.
They finished an impressive fifth after 15 days and 760 miles of intense racing down the Arabian Gulf from Bahrain to Oman. The team also represented Oman in Europe for the first time this year in a series of international regattas aboard the Oman Sail J/80 yacht team Al Thuraya Bank Muscat. They included SPI Ouest, the Grand Prix Ecole Navale, Normandy Race Week and the J/80 World Championship in Marseilles, France.