: Oman Sail and Ahmad bin Majid Private School in Muscat hooked up to beat the drum for sailing recently in a special championship event at Al Mussanah Sports City to highlight the benefits of the sport among youngsters. The two organisations formed a close bond four years ago when the school, named after the famous Omani navigator and cartographer Ahmad bin Majid began sending its students to Al Mouj Sailing School for introductory lessons in sailing, upholding a founding principle of the school to teach youngsters leadership discipline, self-dependency, and how to overcome challenges.

Since then, almost 300 students have become involved in Oman Sail’s sailing programmes and 36 of them took to their Optimists and Laser Picos to have some fun, inspired by Oman Sail’s sailors such as Mohsin Al Busaidi, Khamis Al Anbouri, Fahad Al Hasni and Nasser Al Mashari who all earned their spurs on the Mussanah race track.

A soft breeze made their task of sailing around the marina area all the more challenging but after some friendly competition, cheered on by around 150 fellow pupils, Marwan Fauzi Al Busaidi emerged as winner in the Optimist class with Qussai Nasser Al Dhakhari runner-up and Marwan Mohammed Al Rahbi in third. All the competitors came from the school’s primary level. Furthermore, 8 year old Yusuf Suleiman Al Kasbi of Grade 3 won the Youngest Sailor Award.

In the Laser Pico class, popular among the secondary level pupils, the winner was Isaa Nasser Al Gahwari with Turky Abdulla Al Hasni second and Abdulmalik Ahmad Al Rahbi third. Blue House was the overall winner.

School chairman Najim Mohammad Al Timami, who spent the day cheering & supporting the competitors, congratulated the students on their participation in the championships and extolled the virtues of sailing as a learning activity. “This has been an enjoyable and valuable day for all of us. We have seen sailing as a sport bring out the best in these youngsters,” he said. The theme of the first Inter-House Sailing Championship in Oman by Ahmad bin Majid was “Today’s navigators – tomorrow’s leaders”.

“They have learned leadership skills, taking risks and chances and being good sports, both in victory and defeat. They will have gained an understanding of how important it is to have resilience and to remain calm and collected when the going gets tense. All these are great lessons to learn in life and reinforces our confidence in such activities, moving away from dependency on textbooks. The sailing programme started four years ago and it forms a core part of the school’s leadership programme. The programme runs parallel to the equally successful international curricula at Ahmad Bin Majid.”

Watching out for new young talent at Mussanah was Mohammed Al Balushi, Centre Manager of Mussanah Sailing School. “Sailing for these kids is all about having fun but they look at the likes of Mohsin Al Busaidi and Nasser Al Mashari and see how successful they have become through sailing and their interest is immediately engaged,” he said.

“Oman Sail has worked hard at developing these exemplary role-models for the youngsters and having a connection with an organization such as the Ahmad bin Majid Private School which upholds the same principles is a great boost to all the coaches and instructors who are tasked with introducing and teaching the sport of sailing to new generations.”

The school will continue its training sessions with Oman Sail as part of the curriculum in order to up skill the levels of their current sailing talents. According to Abdullah Al Mahwashi who is leading the sailing programme at the school. The school plans a bigger event next year to mark its 25th anniversary.