The Dubai International Marine Club's (DIMC) season will begin on Friday when around 80 teams take part in the Dubai Traditional Rowing Race between the Burj Al Arab and The Palm Jumeirah.
On Saturday, a 43ft traditional dhow sailing race will take place, with the course of the race to be decided that morning depending on projected weather conditions.
It is the start of a packed DIMC calendar of watersport events that includes wooden powerboat racing, waterbikes and culminates in the 23rd Al Gafal Long Distance Sailing Race from Sir Bu Na'air Island to Mina Seyahi on May 18 next year.
The DIMC's new board of directors has also taken the decision to relaunch of its youth sailing development programme, with the ultimate goal of producing entries to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
The DIMC previously ran six Dubai Junior Regattas that had junior sailors from all across the world attended before sailing was suspended from the schedule in 2006 because of the many changes made to the Jumeirah coastline.
"One of our main objectives at DIMC is to nurture young sailors so that we have adequate representation when it comes to international events including the next Olympic Games in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro," said Ali Bin Ghulaita, the acting chief executive.
"We feel quite positive of this new development programme where we will get schoolchildren involved so that we can establish a strong base of UAE sailors for the future and we strongly invite the UAE families to contact the DIMC directly and register their children. To start with, it is our intention to put the sailing programme back on track. There has been a break, but hopefully we will be in a position to pick up from where we left off."
Parents of children between the ages of eight and 12 who are interested in registering them on the DIMC programme can call 04-3995777
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