Royal Navy of Oman among new entries to Gulf sailing event

Organisers Oman Sail on Monday announced the third edition of "Sailing Arabia - The Tour", which sees teams from across the Arabian Gulf and farther afield battle it out on the Arabian seas from February 10-25.

The only pan-regional offshore sailing race of its kind delivers 15 days of action across four different countries and seven marinas located in the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman in a fleet of identical Farr 30 keelboats.

The race will start in Bahrain on February 10 and continue on to Qatar. The boats will arrive in Abu Dhabi at the end of the second leg on February 15 and then race to Ras Al Khaimah on February 18. They will sail on around Oman's peninsular to Musandam and finally reach Muscat for the closing ceremony on February 25.

The event was initially launched in 2011 to promote one of the region's fastest growing sports and reignite the Gulf's rich maritime heritage.

This year's includes confirmed entries from Royal Navy of Oman and Team Messe Frankfurt in addition to some of the teams that participated in the 2012 edition, which will likely make the event as competitive as ever. Defending champions of the race are Courrier Dunkerque of France.

sports@thenational.ae

Follow us @SprtNationalUAE