Oman Sail arrived in Granville on Friday after the longest offshore leg of the Tour de France a la Voile in third place overall, on equal points with the favourite Groupama 34 skippered by Franck Cammas and just 22 points behind the leader Courier Dunkerque, skippered by Daniel Souben.
The Tour de France a la Voile has lived up to its reputation of being one of the toughest endurance races of its kind this week. Since the start of the first offshore leg last Sunday night from Dunkerque to Dieppe, the nine-boat fleet has battled hefty conditions with a 25-knot beat upwind to Dieppe to get things started, followed by two inshore races in lighter but no less tricky conditions and then a marathon 177nm upwind battle in 25knots to Granville where they finished on Thursday.
The mixed European and Omani crew onboard Oman Sail has managed to stay consistent throughout, finishing the first offshore leg in third place, the Dieppe inshore races in third and fourth respectively and the most recent offshore leg in third, cementing its third overall on the leaderboard.
Tired but delighted with their result at the finish in Granville, the Omani team was happy to relive some of the highlights of the week so far. Bowman, Ali Al Belushi gave some insight on the first offshore leg from Dunkerque to Dieppe: “We had a good first leg, particularly good because we fought right up until the finish, we did not let up for a moment. We had a good start in heavy conditions and were all very focussed on our jobs on the boat, we did not sleep at all overnight as we were locked in a battle with Courier Dunkerque and were determined to get ahead of them. We didn’t manage to in the end, but that didn’t stop us trying right up to the finish. There is a great atmosphere onboard the boat, but we are all looking forward to a good night’s sleep – one without buckets of saltwater in our faces!”
Pitman, Mohammed Al Mujaini, who is racing his third Tour with Oman Sail, described the Dieppe inshore races: “The inshore races are intense as it is very close quarters competition and we are all fighting for every point we can get. As a team we have made a lot of progress since the start of the M34 season and we are very focussed on our podium target for the Tour. We are trying to be as consistent as we can and to take every point that we can, of course we have some ups and downs but in general we are happy with the way things are developing, we are very motivated and very proud to feature amongst the top teams of the Tour.”
Fahad Al Hasni, one of the most experienced of the Omani crewmembers having spent several seasons racing the Oman Sail MOD70 was able to comment on the most recent leg of the Tour from Dieppe to Granville, the longest and so far, the toughest. “This offshore leg was extremely tough as it was very long at 177nms and rough and windy. We started in about 22knots but the wind increased to around 26knots half way into the race and then dropped back down again to around 17 coming into the finish 24-hours later. We are really happy to finish in third place overall as there were a lot of points up for grabs for this leg!
“Compared to the first offshore leg, we organised things differently onboard, rotating the crew so that everyone could get at least 20 minutes sleep. It worked really well and meant we were sharper – we are going to continue with this routine for the rest of the Tour. We were so close to our competitors that we could not afford to be distracted for a moment and this rotation meant that we were able to gain two places!
“The team is working well together, the vibe is very good and we are enjoying the racing. We plan to get a bit of sleep ahead of the next round of inshore races in Granville before the start of the offshore leg to Roscoff.”
The nine-boat fleet is due to start the next offshore leg to Roscoff on Saturday where it will race two days inshore over the National Holiday weekend before packing up and being shipped to the Mediterranean overland where racing will resume on the 17 July in Roses, Spain.
