Reigniting Maritime Heritage

R E I G N I T I N G T H E

O f f i c i a l

M A R I T I M E C a m p a i g n

H E R I T A G E M a g a z i n e

Foreword by Her Excellency Dr. Rajiha bint Abdulameer bin Ali Minister of Tourism The Sultanate of Oman.

I am delighted to introduce this first edition of the Oman Sail magazine.

Oman Sail is an audacious and challenging long-term project to inspire our youth and to allow our friends outside of the Sultanate to learn more about our magnificent country.

Oman, as you will read in these pages, has a rich, diverse maritime history and for periods during the age of sail dominated the Indian Ocean. By the 8th Century our trading ships were sailing as far afield as China.

We are a country blessed with outstanding natural beauty: mountains, deserts, wadis and thousands of kilometres of diverse coastline facing warm, bountiful waters; our people are renowned for their hospitality, tolerance, hardiness and friendliness. We are, under the wise leadership of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos al Said, an inclusive and welcoming society.

Set against a proud history and a rich maritime heritage it is our nature to accept new challenges and adventures.

I am confident that in the years to come the Oman Sail project will build a sustainable foundation of sailing for our youth and inspire them to meet the boldest of challenges: our history deserves nothing less.

Ahlan wa Sahlan (welcome) to Oman Sail.

Lloyd Images/ Oman Sail

CONTENT S

contents

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The Oman Sail campaign unveiled A vision and an objective.

OCEAN

Lloyd Images/ Oman Sail

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Around the world Aboard Oman Sail’s Musandam trimaran.

The ultimate sailing challenge A brief history of multihull circumnavigations.

Course map 20,500 miles for a planetary lap from Muscat to Muscat.

A portrait of the Indian In maritime mythology, the Indian ocean holds a place apart.

Three capes and a Strait A look at significant landmarks.

The Southern Ocean Cold. Brutal. Magnificent.

Forces of nature Wind and waves, behind the scenes.

Pure magic Dame Ellen MacArthur talks about her own trimaran experience.

Life on board Forget about space, comfort and decent sleep.

Up close and personal with the Musandam trimaran An exceptional thoroughbred in detail and figures.

INSHORE

26 The iShares Cup The best sailors, the most radical short-course boats… and great results for the Oman crew.

28 The Masirah Extreme 40

12 metres of pure excitement, for Olympic and offshore sailors alike.

ACADEMY

30 Oman Sail Crew

The selection process and training program

32 Team Profiles

Who is at the helm?

34 Oman’s Maritime history

Looking at the Sultanate’s glorious heritage.

36 The big picture

Oman’s splendour caught on camera.

42 Masirah Island and the Musandam peninsula A look at the Oman landmarks after which the team’s boats were named.

44 Fleeting gliMPse

The Oman Sail fleet on full screen.

Produced by: Oman Sail Edited by: OC Events / Editor: Jocelyn Blériot Contributors: Ellen MacArthur, Mike Wilson, Salim Al Kindi Designed by: OC Vision / Keith Lemmon All rights reserved. Published December 2008.

Cover picture: Lloyd Images/ Oman Sail

K. Birtwistle

Rekindling Oman’s maritime heritage Oman Sail is an exciting new initiative whose aim is to rekindle Oman’s long and glorious maritime heritage. The structure, which was formed earlier this year, operates with the support and guidance of the Ministry of Tourism and is achieving the aims of its charter through a carefully considered strategy, with plans that extend many years into the future.

Why? Oman Sail’s objective is to INSPIRE a new generation of young Omanis to take up sailing as recreation and as a competitive sport. This will help to restore Oman’s maritime eminence through competing at international level as well as supporting the development of events to support professional sailing in Arabian Peninsula.

Today we are in the first chapter of a book that includes hi-tech round the world ocean sailing and the highest level inshore professional racing, in turn driving interest from young Omanis to step on to a boat for the first time, creating dreams of their own and re-igniting Oman’s great maritime heritage.

The commercial mission of Oman Sail is to help SHARE THE SECRET of the unrivalled opportunities that the country offers as a prime tourist destination, as a great place to do business, and ATTRACT inward investment including in to a new developing marine sector – Oman Sail aims to help the re-branding of Oman to an international audience.

R E I G N I T I O N

S E Q U E N C E 2008

27-29 November Dubai Extreme 40 racing

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2-4 December Oman Air ‘Extreme 40’ Challenge – Muscat

2 0 0 9 10/11 December Presence at 1st World Yachting Racing Forum – Monaco

9 January Musandam first attempt Round the World voyage

February Maktoum Cup Dubai

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How? A DECADE OF HARD WORK AHEAD, FIRST STEPS IN 2009, ON THE OCEAN, INSHORE AND WITH THE ACADEMY...

Oman Sail’s dream is a big one, and it will take a decade or more to build a new capability of top level competition for the Omani team. The transfer of knowledge from an international team of professional sailors has already begun, and Oman Sail Racing Team will become progressively more and more Omani with time – leading to greater and greater home-grown ability on the OCEANS, in the cauldron of high-level INSHORE pro racing, and through the ACADEMY - aspiring to create champions in Asian and Olympic level competitions.

In 2009, this means international teams competing on the world stage, promoting Oman, and introducing as well as nurturing the first Omani recruits in to the Oman Sail Racing Team.

ADVENTURE AND COMPETITION ACROSS THE OCEANS OF THE WORLD

Oman Sail purchased Dame Ellen MacArthur’s record breaking 75 foot trimaran, renamed her MUSANDAM and sailed her back to Muscat recently. On January 9th 2009, Oman Sail plan to set sail on a round the world adventure, establishing a 20,500 mile (37,966 km) round the world course from Muscat to Muscat via the Indian Ocean, and the frozen wastes of the Southern Ocean around Antarctica, a journey only ever achieved 12 times in history in such a giant high-speed multihull (non-stop).

Success would mean the first Omani ever to circle the globe, but regardless this will be the first of a number of offshore adventures in the Indian Ocean and beyond for Oman Sail with Musandam and a new, bigger and faster One Design version of her, currently under construction – due for completion in Oman for 2009.

ON THE INSHORE RACETRACK OF PROFESSIONAL SAILING MASIRAH, an Extreme 40 catamaran, has already been competing in the iShares Cup, a highoctane top level inshore event visiting 5 European cities – a podium finish in the final event in Amsterdam, confirming a 4th place overall, was a remarkable result for the team in their first year. In 2009, the Extreme 40 squad will be made up of 4 international Olympians with decades of experience behind them, and 3 Omanis striving to be the best and gain entry in to this hallowed circle of pro-racing.

The Extreme 40 circuit sets the bar very high for the Omanis, and gives them a goal to aim for as they step up through the steep learning curve of inshore racing – with intermediate objectives of the Asian Beach Games in Musannah in 2010, and ultimately the Olympic Games one day.

BUILDING A FUTURE OMAN WINNING TEAM THROUGH THE ACADEMY

To achieve the dream, the Oman Sail Academy aims to make sailing accessible to schools and young enthusiasts, developing a wider base from which sailors from around the country can progress up in to the Oman Sail Racing Team – or on to develop marine industry skills, and the infrastructure to create a sustainable future for sailing in Oman.

2009 April / May Musandam projected return to Muscat

May – September iShares Cup – Europe (5 countries)

Autumn Launch of Oman’s new ocean racing, One Design trimaran

Winter Potential Extreme 40 race series in Arabian Peninsula

Winter Musandam - Indian Ocean and beyond 5

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The ultimate

Sailing Challenge

Ellen MacArthur - Solo Record, B&Q/Castorama, 2004/5

Up until 15 years ago, no one had ever completed a non-stop round-the-world journey aboard a sailing multihull, and still today, it remains the hardest challenge a sailor can ever dream of tackling. Fewer than 20 boats have succeeded and one of the most famous of them all, Ellen MacArthur’s former B&Q trimaran, is now about to set off around the planet once more, this time under her new name Musandam and flying the colours of the Sultanate of Oman.

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Even though their first appearance can be traced back to more than 4000 years ago, sailing multihulls only gave birth to a modern ocean-going branch of their own family just before the 1950s… and it took a handful of slightly insane pioneers to actually race them on the edge. By the 1980s, multihulls ruled the racing scene thanks to their inherent speed potential, yet remained reserved to a certain “elite” with regards 8

to their natural instability and perceived danger.

Whereas monohulls rely on ballast to remain upright even in heavy winds and sea conditions, multihulls are deprived of any counterweight and depend on their specific geometry when it comes to stability. Wide and light, they are unbeatable on the race course but also prove extremely demanding for the helmsman: where a monohull will take longer to reach its critical heeling angle and can recover from a broach thanks to its heavy keel, a multihull caught in a gust will flip over in a matter of seconds… and once upside down, there is no second chance. Speed has a price, multis are extreme machines proving all at the same time fascinating

and frightening, which certainly explains why they only linedup for planetary laps in recent times.

Surprisingly enough, the first completed circumnavigations aboard multihulls (albeit with stopovers) were carried out by singlehanders, who all came back with terrifying accounts of storms during which they could feel the devil breathing down their necks. Alain Colas in 1974, Philippe Monnet in 1987 and Olivier de Kersauson in 1989 all described the experience as lifechanging and were seen as being on the verge of insanity when they left the dock. Friends, family and journalists who came to say goodbye were convinced that there was only a slight chance of seeing them again. Colas did

O C E A N boats to cross the starting line of what became the “Jules Verne Trophy” only did so in 1993.

Olivier de Kersauson’s trimaran and crew were the first to set off from Brittany, followed a week later by New Zealand’s Peter Blake and Bruno Peyron, hot on the Kiwi’s heels.

Ivor Wilkins/Offshore Challenges/DPPI

end up paying the highest price for his passion four years after his Round The World journey, when his “Manureva” trimaran was caught in a hurricane during the first Route du Rhum transatlantic race - neither the skipper nor the boat were ever found.

By the mid-eighties, classic ocean races were dominated by multihulls and the idea of an open round-the-world nonstop event had germinated in the mind of a few French racers.

Yves Le Cornec went further by calculating that Jules Verne’s challenge - Around the World in 80 days - could be tackled aboard a maxi-multihull, whose speed was, on the paper at least, sufficient to rival with Phileas Fogg. An improvised meeting on the River Seine formalised the idea, in the presence of Loïck and Bruno Peyron, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, Peter Blake and Jean-Yves Terlain (among others), but the first

By the time they were about to enter the Roaring Forties, Peyron and his four crewmates had a first taste of how scary life can be aboard a relatively nimble 26-metre catamaran when a storm hit them at the threshold of the deep South: “The ocean was smoking”, wrote the French skipper, “walls of water were coming towards us, and we did not dare to look at them”. A week later, they had no rivals left as both Kersauson and Blake’s boats had suffered breakages. Yet the game wasn’t over, and after having rounded Cape Horn Peyron’s crew found themselves trapped by a fierce low pressure system generating 80-knot winds (hurricane force).

“It lasted for two days, we were bare pole (Ed’s note: without any sails up) and each of us knew that the slightest mistake by the helmsman would mean a certain death.” Fortunately they escaped, and came home after 79 days at sea, capturing the first-ever Jules Verne Trophy!

Since then, 14 attempts have failed, 6 have succeeded… and Peyron still holds the RTW record with an incredible 50day circumnavigation.

In the wake of this fantastic breakthrough, maxi-multihulls made only a modest appearance as a force to be reckoned with on the RTW racing scene, despite their amazing ability to capture the public’s imagination. Events were staged but did not reach massive proportions, record attempts did not boom and remained rather marginal…

T H E

all this for a simple reason: the boats were and still are extreme machines tricky to design and set-up, requiring seafaring qualities (not to mention nerves of steel) that only a few selected sailors on the planet are able to display. One can only start

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would have been very proud of.

Meanwhile, Ellen MacArthur was building a new trimaran to serve exactly the same purpose and knew that the strong Joyon had made her task even harder, if not almost impossible - gear failure considerations aside,

C H A L L E NG E

circumnavigation aboard a multihull, a statistic which in itself qualifies the difficulty of the challenge.

Another story is about to begin for Ellen’s celebrated yacht in her new livery, another journey which shall take a new

Orange II, current round-the-world record holder with a 50-day circumnavigation.

to imagine what it takes to set out on such a beast alone, and when it comes to sailing a multihull non-stop around the globe singlehanded, the figures drop dramatically. Only two sailors have achieved that feat throughout history! Quite a refreshing thought in a world where one too often gets the feeling that every summit has been conquered; everything has already been said or done.

In 2004, Francis Joyon managed to sail alone around the planet in just 72 days, aboard a former Jules Verne Trophy holder that he barely had adapted for solo sailing. The strong Frenchman gained the sailing community’s admiration, setting a solo reference time that only a few years before full crews

Ivor Wilkins/Offshore Challenges/DPPI

and even with an ideal weather pattern, the young British skipper wasn’t looking at a wide open door, but rather had to slip through a slightly ajar window. Yet she could count on her team’s professional approach and on a state-of-theart trimaran designed by maximultihull pioneer Nigel Irens.

The British naval architect’s creations have been in the limelight and accumulated titles of glory since the early 1980s, and Ellen’s machine certainly was the deserving heir of this all-conquering family.

Digging deeper than she had ever done before, facing situations more stressful than she had anticipated, she achieved the impossible in 2005 and returned home an even greater heroine - after 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes and 33 seconds at sea, Ellen beat a record that most specialists thought was going to stand for a good decade! Two years after that feat, former record holder Joyon was back in business with a more powerful trimaran and recaptured his title in style… shaving two weeks off Ellen’s reference time aboard (yet another) mighty Nigel Irens-designed trimaran.

To this day, Ellen and Francis are the only two sailors to have ever completed a solo non-stop

Jacques Vapillon/DPPI

generation of Omani sailors around the planet, reviving the Sultanate’s maritime traditions and placing the country at the forefront of the international racing scene.

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• Total Solo Round The World Voyages Non-Stop Monohulls : Less than 100 skippers Multihulls : 2 skippers (3 journeys completed)

• Total non-stop RTW voyages fully crewed on multihulls 12 (among which 7 successful Jules Verne campaigns) Jules Verne Trophy Stats Attempts (since 1993) : 21 Failed: 14

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First ‘Around The World’ attempt by AN Omani SAILOR 20,500 NAUTICAL MILES (37,966 KILOMETRES) OF GRUELLING CIRCUMNAVIGATION

MUSCAT

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A T L AN T I C O CEAN

O CEAN

Cape of Good Hope Cape Leeuwin Tristan da Cunha

IT’S TIME TO GET OFF THE “CONVEYOR BELT” ... and turn left. The journey isn’t over yet, as lighter airs and the second ITCZ crossing can prove challenging.

Cape Leeuwin Cape of Good Hope

A NT A RCTIC A Cook Strait

Cape Horn

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“Completing the journey is a challenge in itself… doing so by scoring a creditable time would only be a bonus.”

Oman Sail ‘Musandam’ Crew

THE INTER TROPICAL CONVERGENCE ZONE (or Doldrums) is the main obstacle on the way to the Southern Ocean, due to light airs and sudden squalls.

(Shown: ITCZ January position).

P AC I F I C O CEAN

Cook Strait

STEADY WINDS AND LONG SWELLS allow for the best 24 hour runs of the voyage. Musandam can expect to clock up more than 500 miles per day.

Cape Horn ROUNDING CAPE HORN AND THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE are two major milestones of the circumnavigation. Sailing close to the Southern tip of Africa is made difficult by the Agulhas current, which the crew has to tackle head on.

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Indian ocean cyclones © NASA

A portrait of

‘the Indian’ The world’s first civilisations developed on its shores, and with the Sumerians, it saw the dawn of sailing. Feared by ancient explorers and modern-day racers alike. IN maritime mythology, the Indian Ocean holds a place apart.

It’s a legend, an icon, an ocean to which sailors often refer to as if it was a person - a kind of majestically evil transcendent figure, essentially known for its (his?) dark side.

Below 35° of latitude South, ‘the Indian’ displays a chaos-prone personality, a tendency to throw tantrums, to give a beating to any vessel caught in the crossfire of its opposing waves.

Famous for its conflicting sea movements, the Indian is known and consequently dreaded for its boat-breaking capabilities.

Wave shaped clouds induced by Amsterdam Island, Indian ocean. ©Jeff Schmaltz/NASA

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aving feared for her life in ‘his’ waters, French racer Isabelle Autissier went as far as writing ‘him’ a letter, complaining about his attitude after a particularly rough passage… “I know that on the scale of the thousands of years during which you let the albatrosses caress you, the little decade I spent with you should not be of great significance, yet I watched you, feared or cursed you, and just like an old lover I have the feeling of knowing everything about you, of being able to interpret the slightest mood change (…) I paid for your unfair outbursts. You stole a boat from me, you almost took my friends, you made me cold, you scared and hurt me (…) Yet I don’t even hold a grudge, I only want to keep the memory of your grandeur, the invisible wake of your birds, the sudden glow of a cloud during a sunny spell, the feline movement of your swell, the little gems of pure happiness taken on your broad gray back. And already, I wish for us to be reunited.” Behind the formal artefact - addressing directly nature or the elements was one of the trademarks of 19th century romantics - her text echoes that of other adventurers who also felt a strange proximity with this ocean. Maritime literature is full of references to its merciless ferocity, its untamed character, and to put things bluntly, its life-threatening nature. As the famous seafarer and author Alan J. Villiers wrote it in his epic “Vanished Fleets” opus published in 1932, “Here all nature is at war. And puny man may look to all his wiles, if he will live; these long foaming seas have raced 10,000 miles unchecked from Cape Horn, and they will not suffer easily to be checked here.” In this lyrical passage, where treacherous waves seem to have a will of their own, Villiers describes the approach of Tasmania, whose Southern tip marks the official boundary between the Indian and the Pacific oceans. A region that the Musandam trimaran will most definitely “visit”, as it is located on the route between Cape Leeuwin and the Cook Strait…

But ‘the Indian’ also has another facet, and its dark side slowly fades away as one escapes the high latitudes and heads North, as winds get milder - yet the respite can be short-lived, as around the Equator and back in the Northern Hemisphere, monsoon and tornado wind systems are active. Cyclones can wreak havoc on the shores of the Arabian sea, as the Sultanate of Oman painfully experienced in 2007 when the

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infamous Gonu struck, leaving a trail of destruction and human losses. One can easily understand why ‘the Indian’, displaying violent tempers both in the North and in the South (albeit in a different fashion), holds a place apart in maritime imagery and folklore. Curious phenomena have been observed - or at least consigned in log books - as the aforementioned Alan Villiers reports in “Monsoon Seas: the story of the Indian Ocean”, published in 1952. “The extraordinary “milk sea”, for instance, has frequently been seen. The whole sea seems to boil with light and ships to sail upon liquid fire. Frank Bullen, in his voyage around the world in the New Bedford whaler he immortalised as © iStockphoto.com/Remus Eserblom the Cachalot, speaks of this. ‘It was a lovely night {he has written} with scarcely any wind, the stars trying to make up for the absence of the moon by shining with intense brightness. The water had been more phosphorescent than usual, so that every little fish left a track of light behind him greatly disproportionate to his size. As the night wore on the sea grew brighter and brighter, until by midnight we seemed to be sailing in a sea of lambent flames. Every little wave that broke against the ship’s side sent up a shower of diamondlike spray, wonderfully beautiful to see, while a passing school of porpoises fairly set the sea blazing as they leaped and gamboled in its glowing waters. Looking up from sea to sky, the latter seemed quite black instead of blue… In that shining flood the blackness of the ship stood out in startling contrast, and when we looked over the side our faces were strangely lit up by the brilliant glow. For several hours this beautiful appearance persisted, fading away at last as gradually as it came’. Other ships have reported this same phenomenon, some speaking of passing through areas of intense light 15 and 20 miles long”, notes Villiers. “Phosphorescence at sea is well known elsewhere, but the tiny Noctiluca of the Indian Ocean excels itself as an agent for lighting the sea.”

On its western boundary, marked by Cape Agulhas and not Cape of Good Hope as the common misconception has it, the Indian Ocean shows another example of its disturbed nature, as the Agulhas current (flowing from east to west) opposes the prevailing winds, allowing for the sudden formation of massive and steep waves… the area is now known as one of the high-risk zones as far as rogue waves are concerned (see our article on page 18). Other strange phenomenon occur below the southern tip of Africa, and the meeting of warm subtropical and cold Antarctic air masses generate unusual cloud formations and even optical illusions. Some authors, and Villiers certainly is one of them, have argued that these clouds are the most likely explanation behind the legend of the ghost ship Flying Dutchman, which is doomed to sail the oceans forever, after having sunk off the Cape of Good Hope. Recently, scientists have come up with another theory, explaining that the ‘looming’ effect was probably to blame: when rays of light are bent across different refractive indices, a ship appearing on the horizon can be perceived as floating above the sea surface… Even if this takes away the magic from the legend, one thing remains certain: the Flying Dutchman, arguably the most famous sea myths of them all, was born out of the Indian Ocean and nowhere else, at the threshold of which for centuries mariners started to feel their animal instinct warning them of perils to come…

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Bibliography Alan J. Villiers - “Vanished fleets” (1932), “Monsoon Seas” (1952) Frank T. Bullen - “The cruise of the Cachalot” (1891) Isabelle Autissier - “Letter to the Indian” , Attitude Voile #2, (1999)

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Waypoints of

the world

Cape Horn O.Van Der Walle/Bluegreen

Three great capes and a strait: the landmarks that pave the way of Musandam’s round-the-world attempt amount to a journey encapsulating centuries of discoveries made by the all the great explorers throughout the history of mankind

Cape Leeuwin Greg O’Beirne

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The wild world of Cape Leeuwin The Dutch navigators who had first sighted it - without stopping or claiming possession - had named “Land of Leeuwin” (which in Flemish means “lioness”, the name of their ship) this vast and wild piece of territory located at the southwestern tip of Australia.

And if Mathew Flinders eventually gave the name Leeuwin to the cape itself in 1801, the French influence on this region could have been much more important! In 1772, while Yves de Kerguelen is sailing back towards France in order to inform Louis XV of his “discovery” (a barren, frozen and desolate archipelago, somehow hastily described to the monarch as a “Southern paradise”), the second vessel of his expedition wanders, lost in the icy fogs of a very hostile Southern Ocean. Louis de Saint-Allouarn, commanding officer on that ship named “Gros Ventre” (“Big Belly”), tries to make way towards a meeting point that had been arranged previously between himself and Kerguelen, sailing the “Fortune”, should the two boats end up separated.

The two officers had agreed to get together south west of Australia, a rather still unknown land then named “New Holland”. Of course, despite his efforts, Saint-Allouarn doesn’t encounter the other half of his expedition, and sails along the desert coastline, contemplating territories which haven’t yet been claimed by anyone. He eventually decides to head North and on March the 30th 1772, moors the “Gros Ventre” in the “Bay of the Sea Dogs”, today known as “Shark Bay”, before sending lieutenant Mingault de la Hage ashore, with the mission of claiming the territory in the name of Louis XV. But Saint-Allouarn dies on the way back, and will never see France again - his fellow navigators on their part will not be able to convince the authorities of the importance of the land they just claimed.

In reality, no one pays any attention, and England will only officially take possession of Western Australia in 1829. But in the meantime (in 1801 precisely), another Frenchman, Nicolas Baudin, led one of the most important scientific campaigns of the era, contributing to a tremendous increase in the amount of knowledge in terms of flora and fauna of the territory. Louis de Saint-Allouarn and his 1772 claim in the name of Louis XV has almost been forgotten… yet his lieutenant had, as the protocol required, buried a bottle containing official documents bearing the King’s seal, even though it did not seem to interest anyone.

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in 1624. At the time it had not yet been considered a dangerous area, since Le Maire and Schouten had apparently rounded on a very calm day - their logbook makes no mention of rough conditions.

Cook Strait Gareth Cooke

Until one day in 1998, when a French tourist from New Caledonia finds traces of Saint-Allouarn’s passage, discovering a coin representing Louis XV at the tip of the Dirk Hartog Island! Below 15 cm of sand, on a beach, this coin was discovered a few metres away from a bottle, found by Myra Stanbury (head of the archeology Dpt. of the Fremantle Maritime Museum) a few weeks later: “After having examined it closely, we have concluded that there was more than 50% chance it actually was THE bottle”, she said at the time (source French Press Agency - AFP). Further thorough analysis and comparisons allowed it to be confirmed without any remaining doubt that the bottle indeed came from the “Gros Ventre”. Historically, this implies that this portion of Australia could have remained French, provided the authorities had paid attention to it: but taking possession without subsequently occupying the land could not be considered a legitimate claim… and it is blatantly obvious that France never even tried to encourage settlements or to open commercial establishments on the “Land of the lioness”.

Geographical coordinates: 34°22’ S, 115° 08’ E

Cape of Good Hope Paddy Briggs

Cook Strait Named after the most famous of all British explorers, who first sailed through it in 1770, this stretch of water separating the North and South Islands of New Zealand is 12.5 nautical miles wide at its narrowest point. The Maoris, who called the Strait “Raukawa”, used to send

young men across it in canoes, eyes covered, as part of an initiation rite… and a local story passed on from generation to generation has it that a brave Maori swimmer conquered the Strait in 1831. Wellington, the capital of the country, lies on the south-western tip of North Island, and is known as “Windy Wellington” due to its position in the Roaring 40s, with statistics showing that it blows over 40 knots for at least 40 days a year.

Coordinates: 41° 18’ S, 174° 48’ E (Wellington) The Fury of Cape Horn Gale warnings 200 days a year, fog and dark skies…

Welcome to Cape Horn! The southernmost tip of the American continent faces the Antarctic Peninsula and forms a narrow passage between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Fierce waves and winds are forced through this channel where the seabed also suddenly rises from 4000 to 400 metres; a perpetual state of wrath at the foot of the cape. “We only saw high snow-capped mountains ending with a very pointy cape, that we named cape of Hoorn”. This laconic mention of the Cape is taken from the logbook of the Dutch ship Eendracht, and marks the official birth of the sailors’ Everest. After leaving the port of Hoorn in 1615, Isaac Le Maire and Willem Schouten discovered a passage to the Pacific Ocean that meant they could avoid the Strait of Magellan; then controlled exclusively by the East India Company. Unfortunately, on stepping ashore in Java, the two discoverers were thrown into jail and no one would believe them. To add insult to injury, they were accused of having sailed through the Strait of Magellan despite the interdiction!

They were finally able to make themselves heard on arrival back home, still as prisoners, in Holland and the news started to spread around European harbours. The cape itself however, remained a mystery for many years, and the fact that it is actually an island was only revealed

The fierce reputation of the “Hoorn” took a while to establish. Yet as more and more ships opted for this route, it quickly became known as the “hard cape”, and by the beginning of the 18th century, there was no longer any doubt to its nature. In 1741 during an expedition destined to attack Spanish trade establishments on the Pacific coast, Admiral Anson lost 5 of the 8 ships in his charge whilst rounding the Cape. The voyage, especially westbound (against the prevailing winds and tides), is a very perilous one, and before the trans-American railway was in service the Clippers sailing to San Francisco from New York established the cape as a mythical landmark.

The sailors who survived gained the right to wear a ring in their left ear, but human losses continued to mount at the foot of the Horn Isles. For certain ships, it took several months to round the Cape successfully from the Atlantic to the Pacific – such was the case for the four-masted Edward Seawall, whose attempt started on March 10th (1904) and finally ended on May 8th!

Today the Horn is obviously not a compulsory passage for commercial routes, but as the French pioneer Alain Colas wrote during his 1973 solo round the world multi-hull journey, “Generations of men have fought, suffered and died here, and if compared to them we’re only amateurs, we’re happy to keep the tradition alive.

The Horn must remain a legend, and if no one rounds it the hard way anymore, it will shrink and end up a simple dot on geography books.”

Coordinates: 55° 59’S – 67° 15’ W Cape of Good Hope, “Mighty and mysterious” Discovered by Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Diaz in 1488, the Cape of Good Hope initially bore the selfexplanatory name of “Cape of Storms”, before being given its current denomination by João II, King of Portugal.

The monarch decided that this landmark, symbol of new commercial routes towards the East, should be seen as the threshold of new and promising horizons… hence its optimistic connotation. Nevertheless, the area quickly became quite well known among sailors for its dangers, and the legend of Adamastor, the spirit the Cape of Storms, was consigned in Luis de Camoes’s epic poem “The Lusiads” in the late 1500s. Warning intrepid sailors against the wrath they would unleash if they attempted to enter the Indian Ocean, this mythical figure embodies the power of nature reacting against the mortals who try to challenge and master it. Geographically, and despite the common misconception, this cape is not the southernmost tip of the African continent, since the Cape Agulhas, some 90 miles to the south-east, lies further down in terms of latitude – it is also the official dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian oceans.

But the historical importance of Good Hope, which had for many years been simply referred to as “The Cape” by sailors, make it the most significant of these two African landmarks.

Geographical coordinates: 34° 21’ S, 18° 28’ E

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Southern Ocean iceberg and wildlife

The maxi-catamaran Kingfisher II surfing down 10-metres high waves

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Š R.Rinaldi / Bluegreen

Š Offshore Challenges Sailing Team

O C E A N A

q u i c k ,

n o n - s c i e n t i f i c

g u i d e

t o

S OUTHERN

OCE A N

t h e

SOUTHERN OCEAN There have been quite a few arguments in the oceanographic community regarding the precise definition of the Southern Ocean… but do the albatrosses really care?

And when you’re being hunted down by the rolling thunder of waves as big as blocks of flats, knowing where the northern limit of this wild liquid territory lies certainly seems very futile. Technically speaking, the Southern Ocean encompasses the southernmost waters of the World Ocean south of 60° S latitude.

According to the International Hydrographic Organisation, it is defined as an oceanic division encircling Antarctica - but let’s not forget that the National Geographic Society (based in Washington DC) continues to consider that the Atlantic, the Indian and the Pacific oceans reach all the way to Antarctica… This conception is shared, albeit unofficially, by many European countries, where rather than speaking of the Southern Ocean, most people will use the vague term Southern Seas (the plural being important) to refer to that underworld where no land separate the oceans.

For sailors, those technicalities are of little importance once the roaring forties have been entered. Below 40° of latitude South, a series of low pressure systems continuously ‘roar’ and move towards the east without being blocked by any land mass - further South, winds are even more fierce, hence the nickname of ‘howling fifties’. Down there, one finds himself in Albatross territory, in the Grey World, in the land of perpetual shade - countless expressions have been created to describe this remote and dangerous part of the planet. A very desolate place, where “no one should go without having some fear of it”, as Ellen MacArthur once put it. Some days, there will be no horizon at all - the grey of the sea melting with that of the sky, or the height of the waves hiding it from sight. On certain mornings, the sun will make a brief appearance, reminding those who’ve been stranded down there for weeks that they’re still alive, that one day they’ll manage to escape, as an ancient mariner once supposedly said. Whoever he was - if he ever existed - whatever his exact words were, they’ve been carried by the howling winds which relentlessly circle the bottom of the world, and give us a sense of the emotional reality of the Southern Ocean… or whatever you call it. Latitudes and administrative subdivisions are of no importance for the man who is being reminded of his own insignificance on the planet by the sheer power of nature.

Southern Ocean facts Typical depths: 4,000 to 5,000 metres Maximum depth: 7,235 metres (South Sandwich trench 60°00’S, 024°W) Water temperatures: vary between -2° and 10° C. Geographical coordinates: 34°22’ S, 115° 08’ E The Antarctic Circumpolar Current: integral part of the Southern Ocean, moves perpetually eastward, like a snake biting its own tail. It transports 130 million cubic metres (4.6 billion ft³) of water per second — 100 times the flow of all the world’s rivers.

© R.Tomlinson / Bluegreen

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Forces of Nature A sailing vessel interacts with two very unpredictable fluids at the same time, unlike any other means of transportation. Air and water, whose structure in motion can barely be replicated even by the most powerful computer-generated algorithms, make for the most fascinating, powerful and at times frightening environment: the world’s vast oceans and their raging storms, dead calms, huge waves or mirror-like surface.

Blowing in the wind The Greeks were the first to make the distinction between the different winds, based on the direction they originated from.

An initial division in four cardinal orientations was established, and Aristotle quickly refined it by adding intermediary vectors (north-west, north-east etc.) thus obtaining eight different directions. This decisive step allowed for the construction, during the 1st Century BC, of a tower fitted with a wind vane the first wind rose was created.

Yet the next major outbreak came much later, and it was not before 1640 that Galileo’s works demonstrated that air actually had a weight. Later, Toricelli and Pascal discovered the wind’s real nature and showed that it is in fact an air mass in motion. This discovery,

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which came rather late and seems nothing less than obvious today, was at the time a genuine revelation: wind direction and strength could be measured, yet no one had the slightest idea concerning the physics at stake.

The wind actually is a movement of air with a compensating function: air masses move from high atmospheric pressure zones to low pressure systems, in order to equalise them. To have a clear understanding of the phenomenon, one can consider the “bursting tyre” analogy: the air contained and compressed inside the tyre (high pressure zone) is released when the envelope bursts and rushes outside (low pressure zone), thus eradicating the pressure delta. The air movement is only momentary and stops when the system’s equilibrium has

been restored. The greater the difference, the more violent the “compensating blow”…

Force 0 – “calm”

Measuring wind strength: the Beaufort scale

Force 1 – “light air”

One of the first scales to estimate wind speeds and its effects was created by Britain’s Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort (1774-1857).

He developed the Beaufort scale in 1805 to help sailors estimate the winds via visual observations.

In the early 1800s naval officers made regular weather observations, but there was no standard scale and so they could be very subjective - one man’s “stiff breeze” might be another’s “soft breeze”.

Beaufort succeeded in getting things standardised. The scale starts with 0 and goes to a force of 12. It is used around the world in meteorology and for maritime and aviation purposes.

In general terms the Beaufort scale outlined here, will serve as a quick reminder of what these “forces” imply: NB. One knot of wind speed is the equivalent of one nautical mile an hour (1.852 kilometres).

Flat seas. On land smoke rises vertically.

1-3 knts (1-6kph, 1-3 mph) Ripples without crests. On land wind motion visible in smoke.

Force 2 – “light breeze” 4-6 knts, (7-11kph, 4-7mph) Small wavelets; crests of glassy appearance, not breaking. On land wind felt on exposed skin.

Leaves rustle.

Force 3 – “gentle breeze”.

7-10 knts (12-19kph, 8-12mph) Large wavelets; crests begin to break; scattered whitecaps. On land leaves and smaller twigs in constant motion.

Force 4 – “moderate breeze” 11-15 knts (20-29kph, 13-18mph) Small waves. Dust and loose paper raised. Small branches begin to move.

Force 5 – “fresh breeze” 16-21 knts (30-39kph, 19-24mph) Moderate (1.2 m) longer waves.

Some foam and spray. On land smaller trees sway.

Force 6 – “strong breeze” 22-27 knts (40-50kph, 25-31mph)

O C E A N

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A ND

W A V E S

© iStockphoto.com/Fred Didier

Large waves with foam crests and some spray. On land large branches in motion. Whistling heard in overhead wires. Using an umbrella becomes difficult.

is considerable tumbling.

Visibility is reduced. On land trees uprooted. Considerable structural damage.

Force 7 – “moderate gale”

56-63 knots. (103-119kph, 6473mph)

28-33 knots (51-62kph, 3238mph) Sea heaps up and foam begins to streak. On land whole trees in motion. Effort needed to walk against the wind.

Force 8 – “fresh gale” 34-40 knots (63-75kph, 3946mph) Moderately high waves with breaking crests forming spindrift.

Streaks of foam. On land branches broken from trees.

Cars veer on road.

Force 9 – “strong gale” 41-47knots, (76-87kph, 4754mph) High waves (6-7 m) with dense foam. Wave crests start to roll over. Considerable spray. On land light structural damage..

Force 10 – “storm” 48-55knots (88-102kph, 5563mph) Very high waves. The sea surface is white and there

Force 11 – “violent storm”

Exceptionally high waves. On land widespread structural damage.

Force 12 – “hurricane” 64-80knots, (120+kph, 7495mph) Huge waves. Air filled with foam and spray. Sea completely white with driving spray. Visibility greatly reduced. On land considerable and widespread damage to structures.

Waves… from fascination to fear The undulating sea surface has always fascinated poets, painters and seafarers. The captivating spectacle of oceanic motion is the result of an incredibly complex fluid dynamic, and two waves perfectly alike are not to be found.

Ocean surface waves are generally created by the friction of the wind, but despite what is

generally thought, there is little forward motion of individual water particles: a wave is not a traveling volume of water, but particles near the surface move in circular paths, making ocean surface waves a combination of longitudinal (back and forth) and transverse (up and down) motions. For example, a floating cork will not be carried forward by a wave (unless it is breaking), but will rather be lifted up and come back down to roughly the same position after its passage - which can very easily be observed.

Wind-generated waves are influenced by four major factors which are wind strength, wind speed, distance of open water that the wind has blown over (referred to as fetch), time duration the wind has blown over a given area, and water depth. Breaking waves observed on a beach are generally the result of distant winds, and the breaking occurs when the base can no longer support the top, due to the gradual (or sudden) loss of depth. Scientists have determined that a wave breaks when its height exceeds 0.8 times the water depth.

Swell, for which the Pacific ocean is famous, is a formation of long wavelength ocean surface waves on the sea. Compared to “regular” waves, swells tend to be more stable in terms of frequency and direction, and they result from distant tropical storms or other strong wind systems. But neat and tidy swells can also be the fertile ground upon which huge waves rise up should the wind blow hard, and a Force 11 storm accompanying a swell for 72 hours generates a significant wave height of 20 metres. In the opposite configuration - wind against waves - the generated waves are very steep, sometimes almost vertical, and sailors generally describe them as “walls of water”. This is frequently observed around the Cape of Good Hope, where the westerlies meet the Agulhas current, flowing in the opposite direction.

But one cannot omit to mention rogue waves and Tsunamis, often wrongly perceived as close associates, which are the two most extreme manifestations in the wave spectrum. A Tsunami is not caused by wind but by

geological effects such as an underwater earthquake, and is not conspicuously visible in deep waters - the height of the wave rises to reach considerable proportions as the depth lessens, and can cause damage up to a few miles inland.

Rogue Waves (or freak waves, killer waves etc.) are another type of danger… Considered to be a creation of the maritime folklore until recent observations proved their existence, they are spontaneous ocean waves whose size is at least twice that of the significant wave height (i.e. the average). Rogue Waves have been know to cause the loss of very large ships, and their origins remain somewhat mysterious although certain factors have been identified (storm force waves driven in opposing current, several small waves combined due to the shape of the seabed…). In February 2000, a British oceanographic vessel registered individual waves of more than 29 metres of height - enough to reach the top of Musandam’s mast, which is as high as almost 7 piled-up double-decker buses!

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Th.Martinez

No one knows the Musandam trimaran better than Dame Ellen MacArthur. No one can describe as astutely as she does how incredibly hard - but also rewarding - it is to sail her around the world… the fastest woman sailor on the planet reflects upon her journey, and wishes fair winds to her old three-hulled friend, about to set sail for new adventures.

“Pure magic” magine driving a car, fast, off-road at night in lashing rain.

You’re forced to hang on to the steering wheel just to stay in your seat, and you have no idea what’s coming next as you have no headlights. To make matters worse, you have no windscreen wipers clearing your view.

In fact, you have no windscreen. No roof. That’s how it feels sailing fast in the Southern Ocean at night.

It’s not necessarily difficult to be on a boat in those conditions.

It’s like a fairground ride: it can be a thrill, and parts of it can be fun. But when you’re on the fairground ride day after day, night after night, without respite, it becomes harder and harder to deal with. There’s always an unsettling feeling of nervousness, mixed up with stress and fatigue. You can’t switch off; it eats away at you, bit by bit. Lots of wind, and there is a very risk that the boat can capsize; no wind, and you’re beaten to bits because you’re not making progress.

The only impression of warmth comes from the red glow of the instruments, when you do lie down to get some sleep as the boat takes a beating, waves slamming against the hulls relentlessly. You never know if you will even fall asleep, you’re on the edge 24/7.

Inside you, the nervousness is always there, nagging away. It’s like the feeling you have before you go to the dentist, or if you have an exam that day.

You find it hard to have normal conversations with people; you don’t really feel like eating. It’s a feeling that rarely left me on my roundthe-world trip, and day by day it chipped away at my reserves.

Yet the picture is not always so dark as multihulls are quite frankly the most thrilling boats one can ever dream of skippering out at sea. My own experience around the world was extreme, most of all because I was tackling a singlehanded record which was deemed as almost impossible to beat. That pressure and the relentless unforgiving nature of the journey combined to create one of the most difficult challenges I had ever been through. Racing in the Vendée Globe in 2000 had been exhausting, and I really had felt at the time that I

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All trimaran pictures: B.Stichelbaut/DPPI/OCST

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was pushing it really far… but my 2005 RTW record aboard “Mobi”, as I call the trimaran affectionately, took me even further. Unlike a competitor, the clock I was racing against never had a bad day. It did not experience light airs, gear failure, or the desperate need for sleep; it just ticked on and on, mercilessly.

But when Mobi and I were piling up miles surfing along the majestic Southern Ocean swell, it was pure magic. The feeling you get when the boat can stretch her legs and demonstrate her sheer power and seaworthiness is just indescribable and puts the widest smile on your face.

Bearing in mind that the main issue is the incredible amount of energy and concentration the boat requires from you at all times, sailing her fully crewed considerably increases the pleasure factor since theoretically at least - the guys who are on deck have been able to rest before coming on watch.

And they’ve had a proper rest too, knowing that someone

IN

E L L EN ’ S

W ORD S

they could trust was at the helm. I don’t mean to offend my autopilot, but when solo I often found it very hard to rest knowing the unpredictability of my own hands not being on the tiller! Glitches in the functioning of the system when it’s running for weeks on end are inevitable.

Then again, it’s also tricky since when sailed with a crew, the boat is pushed harder than singlehanded, which in fact makes the ride more tiring and potentially more dangerous… at least when it comes to gear failure considerations. A crew will reduce sails a little later than a solo sailor might, because the skipper knows that if things get a bit hairy, he can always call for all hands on deck: consequently, average speeds will be slightly higher but the crew will also be sailing on the edge much more often.

These incredible sensations will soon be experienced by the crew who will have the privilege to sail the trustworthy ‘Mobi’ around the globe, under the flag

of the Sultanate of Oman. A world premiere for this country whose rich maritime heritage is being revived through an important campaign, creating both competitive sailors on the international inshore scene and role models for the youth.

Sailing is a fantastic learning ground, and if reaching faraway

latitudes involves getting cold, wet and sometimes scared, it also enables one to get in touch with a reality that only a few people have witnessed before.

The journey around the world will also be a fantastic chance for the crew to come back with a new vision of the planet,

its beauty and its fragility, and to share that vision with youngsters they will inspire.

Musandam knows her way around the globe, and I’m sure she will take care of the crew as she took care of me! Fair winds, and sail safe.

Ellen MacArthur

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L I F E

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you are. When there are a lot of stars or shore lights, the lights of ships or fishing boats are harder to spot,” says Abdullah Said Al Busaidi. Sailors have to practice manoeuvring at night because it is slightly more stressful than in broad daylight, as one has to rely on a routine rather than on what can be visually observed. Helming in the dark in rough sea conditions is probably the most demanding exercise.

Eating Mohammed Khalfan Al Obaidani: “The food was as good as it could have been, given the lack of facilities, but it would be interesting to add up the kilos we all lost during those weeks. To tell the truth, you are often very hungry because sailing is a very physical sport, and when you are famished most things taste good.” The “kitchen” aboard Musandam consists of a simple camping gas burner, on which water is heated in order to rehydrate the pre-packed freeze-dried meals.

A total of 120 kg of food supplies were taken for the Cowes to Muscat voyage, a total that can be broken down to 1 kg per person per day for 20 days. In normal conditions, a crewmember will need 5,000 to 6,000 calories a day, which is about twice as much as a person needs in a daily urban environment (in the Southern Ocean, that figures rises to 8,000 calories a day!).

Cowes (UK) - Muscat (Oman) delivery Crew Loïk Gallon - skipper Abdullah Said Al Busaidi Mohsin Ali Al Busaidi Mohammed Khalfan Al Obaidani Charles Darbyshire Jean-Sébastien Chénier Proteau All photos: C. Darbyshire (except top left opposite; K. Birtwistle)

“ It’s impossible to choose one thing to encapsulate a voyage like that. It’s always going to be the sum of many things, and that includes the hardships. But more than once, usually at dawn or sunset, I remember thinking, there is nowhere I would rather be and nothing I would rather be doing.” Mohsin Ali Al Busaidi

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Up close and personal with the

Musandam trimaran

multihull is inherently stable - effectively it is a natural raft - and so does not rely on ballast such as a heavy lead keel to keep it upright as a monohull would. As a result, a racing multihull is lighter than an equivalent-sized racing monohull and therefore faster in almost all wind conditions sometimes by as much as 50%.

Musandam weighs 8.3 tonnes, just like the lightest IMOCA Open 60 Vendée Globe monohulls, that are 15 feet shorter but have to carry a keel weighing almost 4 tonnes itself!

Yet there is a downside, and if a multihull is flipped over or pitchpoles turning upside down, there is no comeback, the boat cannot be righted. A monohull can suffer a knockdown, laying the boat flat on its side, and in extreme circumstances a total 360 degree roll and still be righted by using the leverage of the canting keel. For this reason, multihulls are deemed as precision tools requiring highly qualified and cold-blooded operatives.

Musandam was originally conceived to be sailed singlehanded, and her designer, British multihull legend Nigel Irens, opted for a platform offering a lot of longitudinal stability. This was mainly to reduce the risk of nose-diving (and associated pitchpoling hazards) while sailing downwind on the massive waves of the Southern Ocean. Effectively, Musandam has often been compared to a “4x4 of the high seas”, a boat capable of safely maintaining high speeds even in rough conditions. This characteristic differentiates ocean-going and short course racing multihulls: the former have to be forgiving and can maintain high average speeds over a long period, whereas the latter display radical architectural options allowing for unrivaled performances within a narrower wind / sea state range (to a certain extent, the Masirah Extreme 40 is a good example of that category).

Built in carbon fibre with foam and Nomex honeycomb used as core materials (the core is effectively trapped between the inner and outer carbon skins), Musandam combines structural stiffness and impact-absorbing zones, notably the sides of the floats which are very likely to be hit by waves. The platform is fitted with a 30.6 metre carbon mast, as high as 6.5 English double-decker buses stacked on top of each other and can hold up to 380 square metres of sails surface, the equivalent of 10 Olympic boxing rings.

Comfort is not exactly a word one could expect to find in the owner’s manual, and the galley is in fact reduced to the most basic gas camping stove on which water is heated to prepare freeze-dried meals. The onboard desalinator provides fresh water from sea water (up to 1.5 litres per hour), and there is no central heating - outside temperature is only 3 to 4 degrees above 0 Celsius in some parts of the Southern Ocean!

Accommodation is extremely spartan, with just one bunk and a total cabin area of approximately 5 square metres, not even

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the size of an average kitchen.

Often compared to giant birds, ocean-racing multihulls are graceful machines whose impressive

Musandam is fitted with a state-of-the-art satellite communications system allowing the crew to download weather information, surf the internet, send and receive e-mails… and of course make phone calls! The navstation itself is much more similar to aircraft instrument panels than to traditional chart tables. Satellite positioning, electronic charts, route plotting devices, wind instrument displays and communications devices are placed on a vertical panel in the middle of the central hull.

wingspan allows them to almost

Track record

literally fly over the waves. They

• Singlehanded Round-The-World record - February 2005 - 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes, 33 seconds (record stood until February 2007)

simply are the fastest ocean-going sailing boats on the planet.

• SNSM (St Nazaire to St Malo) crewed record, maximultihulls class - 1 day, 3 hours. 23 minutes, 29 seconds - still stands.

Asian Records Circuit reference times (established between March and May 2006) • Yokohama (Japan) - Jeju Island (South Korea)

906 nm - 5d 11h 10m 51s • Jeju Island (South Korea) - Dalian (China)

418 nm - 1d 15h 57m 28s • Yokohama (Japan) - Dalian (China)

1342 nm - 7d 3h 8m 19s • Dalian (China) - Qingdao (China)

265 nm - 1d 0h 2m 53s • Qingdao (China) - Shanghai (China)

308 nm - 1d 5h 25m 33s • Shanghai (China) - Taipei (Taiwan)

580 nm - 3d 0h 1m 55s • Hong Kong SAR - Sanya*

354 nm - 1d 22h 53m 25s* • Sanya - Nha Trang (Vietnam)

360 nm - 2d 01h 37m 45s • Nha Trang (Vietnam) - Tumpai (Thailand)

570 nm - 2d 17h 55m 14s • Tumpai (Thailand) - Terengganu (Malaysia)

75 nm - 0d 5h 39m 26s • Hong Kong SAR - Terengganu (Malaysia)

1350 nm - 7d 0h 5m 50s • Terengganu (Malaysia) - Singapore

280 nm - 1d 23h 9m 8s * Official time recorded by B&Q for the Hong Kong-Sanya 354nm route on the Asian Record Circuit. The current record holders for Hong Kong-Sanya course, in a time of 29h 55m, is the yacht Free Fire recorded during the annual Hong Kong to Sanya race organised by the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club.

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THE

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Technical specifications

1 Main Hull

Length: 22.9m (75 ft)

2 Floats

Beam: 16.2m

3 Crossbeam

Weight: 8.3 tonnes - slightly lighter than the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque chandelier, which at 8.5 tonnes is the largest known in the world.

4 Mast 5 Rudder

Mast height: 30.6m - 6.5 London doubledecker buses piled up on top of each other.

6 Cockpit 7 Chart Table 8 Bunk and galley area 9 Mainsail 10 Foresail

Total surface area: 419.79 sq. m approximately 1/10th of the area covered by the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque praying room carpet, which is the world’s largest hand-woven carpet.

Sails Mainsail: 160sqm - would take up more ground space than 31 large size official Oman flags.

Genoa: 106sqm - would take up more ground space than 10 average mid-size 4x4s.

Solent jib: 70sqm - would take up more ground space than 20 king size beds.

Large gennaker: 213sqm - bigger than a singles tennis court (a singles tennis court is 195.6 sqm).

Ropes There is a total of 1.5 km of fibre ropes aboard Musandam, some of which are up to 15 times stronger than steel on a weight to weight basis. The halyard used to hoist the mainsail, for example, is strong enough to tow three Range Rovers!

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Designers: Nigel Irens / BenoĂŽt Cabaret (Nigel Irens Design, UK) Builders: Boatspeed, Australia Launch date: 8th January 2004 Project management: Offshore Challenges

1 6 7 8

3 2

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Illustration: OC Vision/ Keith Lemmon

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Tornado Sport/Tommy Hilfiger

Extreme racing The iShares Cup holds a place apart on the international racing scene.

Attracting the best pros on the planet, it is the only high-adrenalin sailing circuit to actually bring the action to the public!

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i S H A RE S

CU P

© JM.Liot/DPPI/iShares Cup

JM.Liot/DPPI/iShares Cup

he iShares Cup Extreme 40 Sailing Series features premier European race events, delivering close-combat racing to the public as it never has been done before.

For its second season, the 2008 circuit saw the participation of America’s Cup teams, and the final victory of Team Alinghi, the defending America’s Cup champions. Ten teams took part in the series, and for its first season Oman Sail’s Masirah captured an extraordinary fourth place overall, stepping on the third step of the podium in the final event held in Amsterdam!

In a world-class series which sees the best inshore sailors of the planet compete, this achievement deserves to be duly saluted.

The 2008 entrants in figures: • 29 world champions • 18 America’s Cup campaigns between them • 8 Olympic sailors, 4 medallists • 17 world records

The 2008 iShares Cup consisted of 5 events held across Europe, in a mix of buzzing cosmopolitan cities, spectacular seasides and stunning lakes, each carefully chosen to provide not only the hottest racing but also the best vantage points for spectators to get up close of all the action.

The 2009 season, currently in preparation, will be based on the same format.

• 9 nationalities

© iShares Cup

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Technical specifications

1

Jib: Used for upwind sailing, made from a fibre called 3DL which has strands of carbon fibre and Kevlar (an incredibly light, strong fibre used in flak-jackets)

2

Mainsail: The powerhouse of the boat — about the same area as a 5-star hotel suite!

3

Gennaker: This rolls away upwind when not in use, but downwind it’s the driving force for incredible boat speeds and it’s even bigger than the mainsail

4

Trampoline: Held taught between the two hulls and made of lightweight but tough nylon mesh, this allows the crew to move from side to side

5

Hulls: 40ft long to fit in a standard container for easy transportation

6

Mast: 62ft (18.9m) high, and made in two sections. The stiffness varies along its length to allow the mast shape to be altered to increase performance. It can also rotate to improve main sail performance

7

Boom: Horizontal pole which extends out from the mast along the bottom of the mainsail, and helps pull the sail in and out

8

Mainsail traveller: A track which is attached to the end of the mainsail and stretches between the two hulls to adjust the angle of the mainsail to the wind

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Winches: Metal turning drums which take the huge loads when trimming the sails

Length: 12.19m (40ft) Width: 7.92m (26ft) Height: 18.9m (62ft) Weight: 1,250kg Sail area: mainsail 75m sq

2

jib 25m sq

gennaker 78m sq

Top speed: 40 knots - 75 km/h

3

10 Hydraulic vang: Used to pull down the boom to boost mainsail performance, this system can handle 8 tons of pressure that’s almost the equivalent of Musandam’s weight (8.3 tonnes)!

11 Rudders: Steering fins at the back which are attached to a stick called a tiller. There are two because, as the boat heels over, one rudder often lifts out of the water 12 Daggerboards: Fins near the middle of each hull, designed to stop the catamaran from going sideways

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Illustration: OC Vision/ Keith Lemmon

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M A S IR A H

E X TRE M E

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The Masirah Extreme 40 in detail

Big and incredibly fast orn at the hands of multihull specialists Yves Loday and Mitch Booth, the Extreme 40 catamaran is a radical speed machine in a league of its own on the international scene. Its racing circuit, the iShares Cup, attracts the best sailors on the planet, from Olympic medallists to America’s Cup legends.

We take a closer look at Masirah’s most striking features.

“The origins of the Extreme 40 are the Olympic Class catamaran, the Tornado”, explains Herbert Dercksen, CEO of TornadoSport, which developed the 40ft catamaran in 2005 and build the boats.

“Yves Loday, the designer, is an Olympic Tornado medalist and both I and Mitch Booth, who were involved from the start, have a lot of experience in the Tornado.

Basically, the Extreme 40 is a scaledup version of the Tornado, all of the dimensions are relative to the Tornado, it is just twice as big and incredibly fast.

The concept of the Extreme 40s is to bring sailing to the public and not the other way round. The Extreme 40s are incredibly exciting to watch and we placed great emphasis on enjoyment for the spectators, to try to give them the thrill of what it is like to sail an Extreme 40.”

Lloyd Images/Oman Sail

“It is like putting your head out of the window in a car when it is raining ... at 45mph”

Formula One sailing Like the Musandam trimaran, Masirah is almost totally made out of two layers of carbon fibre, divided by an inner honeycomb core called Nomex. This method of construction is very similar to the way Formula One racing cars are built — but a Formula One car isn’t 40ft long and 62ft tall! The carbon fibre hulls, mast and other structures are assembled using a type of carbon fibre called ‘prepreg’, which are strips of carbon fibre impregnated with a special resin. When the boat is being assembled, the structures are baked in a huge high-pressure oven called an autoclave. The very high heat and pressure act as catalysts causing the resin to harden, which makes the whole structure incredibly strong and stiff but also very light. The whole boat — including sails — weighs about the same as a Mini

Cooper. The finished boat fits inside a standard 40ft shipping container, and the crew can assemble it in just a few hours – then just add water for instant fun!

Unlike an ocean-going multihull like the record-breaking Musandam, the Extreme 40 is not an all-rounder destined to sail in a very wide range of conditions: relatively flat seas and light-medium winds are ideal and allow the boat to give its full potential.

Yet it’s a real seaworthy craft which can handle a bit of rough - provided the crew onboard is a team of experts - and Dame Ellen MacArthur broke the record of the Round the Island Race in 2007 aboard an Extreme 40. The course around the Isle of Wight is known to be very demanding!

Faster than the wind There is no similar fleet of racing yacht that can match the Extreme 40 for speed or spectacle; the boats do not have keels so they can race in shallow water, giving spectators a ring-side seat to some explosive action. The racing rules also allow for a passenger on board for the thrill of a lifetime. Dercksen explains: “The Extreme 40 is capable of reaching speeds of 40 knots, if you want an idea of what that feels like. It is like putting your head out of the window in a car when it is raining at 45mph (73kph)! Also, the Extreme 40 often flies a hull, sometimes over three metres above the water, giving the sensation of gliding like a bird.” Due to the stiff structure, the sails can be put under huge tension. Add wind and very little friction with the water and an Extreme 40 literally takes off like an airplane. In just 15 knots of wind, an Extreme 40 is capable of traveling at over 25 knots — that sounds impossible but Herbert explains how it can be: “If you get on a push-bike on a still day and start pedaling, the faster you go the more wind you feel on your face. This wind is created by your speed; sailors call it the apparent wind.

The sails are designed and are adjusted by the crew to harness this wind and use it to increase the boat’s speed.”

And the harder the wind blows, the faster the boats go!

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“Harder than

Special Forces...

Selection”

Photos this page: Royal Army of Oman

Finally the briefing ends, there are questions.

Some are silent and introspective, others enthused and quietly determined. Some withdraw immediately.

here are over 40 men in the room. Soldiers, sailors, airmen, special forces and police. Volunteers for a place in the first Oman Sail team. The briefing begins with a graphic description of the hardships and dangers of crewing a racing yacht in the Southern Ocean for endless weeks. There is a video clip of a trimaran facing monstrous waves and buffeted by shrieking winds. Finally the briefing ends, there are questions. Some are silent and introspective, others enthused and quietly determined.

Some withdraw immediately.

So began the selection process for the first Oman Sail team. What followed was described as “harder than special forces selection,” and that was by a man who knew what he was talking about. It began with a week of gruelling, non-stop physical and mental tests, exhaustion intensified by sleep deprivation, errors and inattention punished by extra tasks and burdens.

Volunteers were woken every hour of every night, sometimes to assemble bewildering contraptions made up of differing sizes of nuts and bolts by torchlight, sometimes to be given mental puzzles or to carry out team tasks in the dark. By day there were group and individual tasks, and endless pounding up and down the dunes in the blazing sun while carrying ammunition boxes filled with rocks. Always the steepest dunes, always back to the top again one more time. On return to camp and the trench that was home, they would no sooner put their packs down than the shout would come “ Fall in for the next task, and by the way, we go to the dunes again in two hours.”

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And always, there was the Landcruiser.

Always within sight. Its driver sipping cold water or reading a newspaper in the comfort of the air conditioning. All they had to say was “I’ve had enough,” and they could fall out and climb aboard. Ride back to the camp and go home. No shame, no judgment. Hour after hour, day after day that desperate temptation followed them. Numbers dwindled as men began to fall out, unable to go any further, their strength and determination eroded, their resolve broken.

But some men would not be broken. They refused to give in even when on the very point of collapse. They would not be beaten, and these ones made it through to the second phase.

In the week that followed the pressure came off a bit as they took to the sea for their first taste of sailing, crowded aboard a ketch on the oil green seas of the Indian Ocean. There were safety procedures to learn, life jackets, rafts, ropes and sails to come to terms with. Sleep remained a luxury with watches changing every

four hours, discipline was strict and there were countless exercises by day and night to master the trim and set of the sails. Conditions were cramped, food monotonous and hygiene limited. Long days under a baking sun. Some men were beset by debilitating seasickness. Even to the very end men fell out.

Then finally selection was over. They had passed. And there were only eight of them.

Out to Sea With this arduous process behind them, the team began intensive training immediately, not least because Oman Sail had some very ambitious plans: participation in the 2008 iShares Extreme 40 Cup Series (read our article page 26) and a Muscat to Muscat round the world attempt in a 75-foot trimaran in January 2009 (read our article page 6).

Initial training saw the whole team undertaking a diving course in the mornings (thanks to the warm sea temperature underwater growth occurs at up to 6 times the rate in European waters so

A C A D E M Y

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S t o r y

diving is essential for boat maintenance), moving onto instruction on Lasers and Hobie Cats in the afternoons once the winds picked up. Three weeks later half the team flew to Greece where they took over a 40-foot monohull and sailed it across the Mediterranean to Hurgheda, Egypt in the Red Sea. The intent had been that the other half of the team would sail the boat the remaining distance to Oman but a variety of factors prevented this so they had to content themselves with 20 days sailing in the Red Sea.

Lloyd Images/Oman Sail

The team then flew to Cowes on the Isle of Wight (England) where they joined the UK Sailing Academy for further training in sailing and seamanship. In addition to almost nonstop sailing, this included power boat, sea survival, radar, VHF, boat maintenance and dinghy and yachtmaster instruction.

They came away with a plethora of qualifications, some at instructor level.

Remarkable results for young men new to sailing and not being taught in their native language.

Oman Sail team members training in the Solent, Isle of Wight, UK.

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Oman Sail had already purchased Dame Ellen MacArthur’s famous B&Q trimaran in which she established a round the world record, renamed as Musandam, and also acquired their own Extreme 40, Masirah. Both boats were then branded in Omani colours with the unmistakable crossed swords and khunjar of Oman slashed across their sails. Oman Sail also recruited a team of first class professional sailors to give the project the depth of experience it lacked at such an early stage and to establish a core of the best instructors they could find.

By now the abilities and strengths of each team member were becoming more apparent and the decision was made to stream individuals.

The 45-race series of the iShares Cup in Switzerland, France, UK, Germany and Holland produced a thrilling competition.

All was to be decided in the final round in Amsterdam. The Oman Sail team reached the podium for the first time in 3rd place and achieved a remarkable 4th place overall in the series. Unsurprisingly at this level the Omani crew involvement was more about gaining experience than racing but one Omani, Mubarik al Battashi, was the fourth man for one day’s racing in Amsterdam and performed most creditably.

Oma n

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Musandam departed Cowes on the 17th of October and arrived in Muscat 31 days later. She looked a truly magnificent sight as she entered Port Sultan Qaboos. Were it not for the grace and beauty of their vessel the crew could easily have been mistaken for pirates; gaunt, bearded and burnt black by the sun.

Back in Oman the training continues apace but now dinghy-based to build experience, competence and ‘feel’. To the gym each morning for an extended and high intensity work out, then to the Marina for lectures and a review of the previous days performance captured on video, before rigging the dinghies. A very quick bite of lunch, then onto the water with their instructors. Crucially, the crew retain the same enthusiasm, dedication and desire to progress that they demonstrated during selection while at the same time clearly enjoying the unique opportunities that have presented themselves through Oman Sail.

Lloyd Images/Oman Sail

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Oman’s Maritime

History The Sultanate of Oman has a long, diverse and far-reaching maritime history WORDS: MIKE WILSON

The earliest evidence of its coastal trade dates back to the Bronze Age, and a Sumerian text mentions a Mesopotamian king of the time who travelled to Majan (of which Oman was a part) to buy vessels. By the 8th century, Omani ships and merchants had reached the distant ports of China, spreading Islam through the Far East on their way, and bringing about that exchange between cultures that furthers mankind’s knowledge and development. It is thought that the Omanis have traded with the East Coast of Africa for over two millennia, but it was in the latter part of the last millennium that they became famous, not just as intrepid sailors and ship builders, but as a people at the heart of the Indian Ocean’s trade. In the 19th century their navy of modern Europeandesigned warships helped consolidate their expanding monsoon trade between India, Africa and the Middle East, and by 1840 their first representative to the United States of America had arrived in New York.

Pictures: (Top) Late 17th. century mural found in Al Hazm Fort (Note the traditional round paddles and the anchor being raised) Roger Garwood, 1994

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(Bottom) Stone carving Tom Vosmer, 1992

M A RITI M E

HI S TORY

1747 map of the Persian Empire (detail)

his is the extraordinary story of a largely desert country whose sea captains and sailors came to dominate the Indian Ocean and its monsoon trade links. Strange, that a desert country, with little or no wood, should have centuries of significant maritime history as a sea and trading power, and be famed for traditional shipbuilding. But that is Oman, and this same seafaring spirit is very much alive today as its young men embrace the new challenges of modern competitive sailing.

With over 1700 kilometres of coastline, which offers some outstanding natural harbours, and a pivotal location on the edge of the Indian Ocean, it is not hard to see why the early Omanis turned to the sea and the lands beyond in their pursuit of trade. In many ways their expertise as ship builders, sailors and navigators have helped to shape their national character.

Bold and adventurous, they ventured far and wide and in so doing met and interacted with hugely differing peoples and civilizations. As a consequence, they became open minded and tolerant, for with trade also went meetings with other cultures and religions, and the exchange of science and innovation.

Oman’s principal harbours and ports ranged from Khasab and its numerous khors and inlets on the Musandam peninsula, to Sohar, Muttrah, Muscat, Qalhat and Sumhuram in Dhofar. Places like R’as Al Hadd, Bandar Jissah and Bandar Khayran, though of less value as trading ports, being locked in by mountains or desert, were nonetheless excellent staging posts for littoral sailors and vital havens in times of turbulent weather.

In a gradual process over countless generations, shipbuilding, navigational skills and the Omani seafarers’ deep understanding of the region’s seasonal conditions, currents and winds were honed to a fine art, until they became masters in the exploitation of the monsoon winds that linked India, East Africa, Arabia and the Far East.

From 100 BC to 400 AD, the natural harbour of Sumhuram in Dhofar (Ophir in the Bible) was unquestionably the most important on the whole of the Arabian coast. Its wealth and fame was based almost entirely on one product – frankincense. Frankincense is the dried resin that is harvested from a unique tree (Boswellia sacra). It is hardy, stunted, has minimal foliage and sheds its thin bark in strips that flutter and rattle in the desert winds of the Negd desert and the slopes of the Dhofar jebel. Conditions in Dhofar produce resin of the very highest quality, white in colour and sometimes with a palest hint of olive green. It seems that the harsher the conditions, the more concentrated and intense the sweetness it gives off when burned. At one time frankincense (luban in Arabic) was more valuable than gold because of its use in places of worship as far flung as Rome, Egypt, the Holy Land and all points east, even to China.

Legend has it that one of the Magi who gave gifts at the birth of Jesus was from Dhofar, and from other information available this seems highly likely.

This frankincense trade was controlled by the kings of Shabwa, who also controlled the trade in myrrh. Perhaps the most famous of these was a queen rather than a king, and her name is still well known today – the Queen of Sheba. This remarkable woman was a contemporary of King Solomon of Jerusalem, and together they coordinated the overland routes thus protected the frankincense trade across Arabia to the Holy Land.

Frankincense was also exported by sea to other countries.

Trade with the Far East and China By the 8th century Omani sailors had reached many of the ports of China. In this gradual process of extending their maritime activities further east, it was inevitable that they should establish small trading missions with an Omani representative in the principal ports of the Far East. The tasks of these representatives would have been to establish sources for goods and buyers for Omani imports.

Kumzari boatmen

Roger Garwood, 1994

They also maintained good relationships with the local rulers and government officials involved with trade.

It was a task that could only be done by men with an intimate knowledge of the local language and customs, and, therefore, demanded a long-term commitment. Many such men would have married local wives, integrated into the community and remained in their posts for the rest of their lives. A son who had never visited Oman might follow his father in the post, and so Islam spread east, beginning through intermarriage and family, and succeeded by example and explanation, for to spread the word of Allah is the 35

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The

warmth,

colour and visual

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1. The old coastal route from Muscat to Sur (K. Birtwistle) 2. Sunset over the Al Hajar Al Gharbi mountain range (K. Birtwistle) 3. Sunset over the Muttrah Corniche

(J.Blériot)

4. Evening party

(Ministry of Tourism)

5. The Grand Mosque, Muscat

(K. Birtwistle)

6. Tomb of Mohammed Bin Ali 5

(K. Birtwistle) 7. The ‘Fatah al Khair’: one of the last ocean-going vessels built in Sur (Ministry of Tourism)) 8. Traditional Omani weaving

(Ministry of Tourism)

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1. Nizwa Souq (K. Birtwistle) 2. Sink Hole at Dibab Lake Park (Ministry of Tourism) 3. Muttrah souq (J. Blériot) 4. Dunes in the Empty Quarter (K. Birtwistle)

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5. One of Musandam’s many fjords (Ministry of Tourism) 6. Palm trees at the Al Bustan Palace Hotel (J. Blériot) 7. Baby Sea Turtle (K. Birtwistle) 8. The view across to Al Ayjah from Sur (K. Birtwistle) 9. Beach on Masirah island (K. Birtwistle) 10. Sweets at the Muttrah souq (J. Blériot)

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The descent to Khor Negd, Musandam

K. Birtwistle

Sunset on Masirah island

K. Birtwistle

Historic Landmarks

Respectively overlooking the gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, the Musandam peninsula and the Island of Masirah both are historically and strategically significant landmarks. Mike Wilson tells us their story.

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L A ND M A R K S MUSANDAM 26.01.14 N, 56.16.44 E

Detail of “Monsoon Seas”, by A.Villiers J.Blériot

A simple glance at the map is sufficient to confirm the Musandam Peninsular’s strategic location, projecting as it does into the narrowest point of the Strait of Hormuz to where a bare fifty kilometres separate the two shores of Oman and Iran. But it was a vital sea channel long before the Strait became the conduit for nearly 40% of the world’s oil traffic.

The name ‘Hormuz’ derives from the Kingdom of Ormus, which was a 10th to 17th century kingdom located within the Gulf and extending as far as the Strait. Its capital was one of the most important ports in the Middle East at the time and was probably located on the island of Hormoz, which is near the modern city of Bander Abbas. The Kingdom was established by Arab princes in the 10th century and in 1262 came under the suzerainty of Persia, before becoming a client state of the Portuguese when it was briefly occupied by Alfonso de Albuquerque in 1507.

Acacia forest, Musandam Ministry of Tourism

In a violent and bloody campaign Albuquerque attempted to close all the Indian Ocean naval passages — to the Atlantic, the Red Sea, the Arabian Gulf and the Far East — and transform it into a Portuguese Mare Nostrum.

Ironic when one considers that Alburque bore an Arabic name probably dating from the Arab conquest of the Iberian peninsula! The wealth of the region was legendary, and in this context Hormuz is mentioned in both Andrew Marvel’s poem ‘Bermudas’, and John Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’.

Straits and shipping usually combine to result in piracy, and indeed there were times when the area positively swarmed with pirates. By the 19th century, Sayyid Said bin Sultan had established naval bases on both sides of the Strait and was, therefore, able to levy taxes on all passing ships in order to fund the expansion of his powerful naval fleet.

Vickers Vincent of 55 Squadron, Masirah 1938 RAF Museum

Interestingly, while Hormuz made its way into 17th century English literature, Musandam added a curious phrase to the English language. In 1864 a sub-sea telegraph cable was laid from Bushire in Iran, through Musandam and finally to Gwadur, on the Mekran coast of modern Pakistan.

This was the cutting edge of communications at the time.

A relay post was established on tiny island of Jazeerat Al Maqlab (which the British called Telegraph Island) and in this lonely and harsh location a small team were left for long periods in order to maintain the relay.

To reach the island a supply ship steamed

south, then round a 160-degree bend into the khor (fjord) where the island was situated.

On more than one occasion, they found men who had become demented through isolation, heat and disease, and this gave rise to the phrase ‘going round the bend!’

In recent times, Musandam has been home to the Royal Navy of Oman’s most important base, from where they control and protect the safe passage of thousands of vessels that pass through the Strait each year to and from the ports of the Gulf, Iraq and Iran.

This is a vital service to the world’s shipping, and in the turbulent times since the 1980s has often been a dangerous and difficult one. Safe passage is managed and ensured by a well-controlled Traffic Separation Scheme, basically a massive maritime dual carriageway with a separation lane two miles wide.

Today Musandam is in the midst of continuing regeneration. In the economic sector Khasab’s, Musandam’s main town, facilities have been transformed from a small harbour into a large modern port, while in tourism it has become one of the industry’s new discoveries. Few combinations can rival the majesty and starkness of its harsh mountains rising sheer from the sea, the tranquility and utter peace of its silent khors or the diversity and abundance of its marine and coral life.

MASIRAH ISLAND 20.25.31 N, 58.48.09 E Masirah Island was known in antiquity as Sarapis, and it was so named by Alexander the Great’s admiral, Nearchos. It was noted, by the unknown author of Periplus for its loggerhead turtles, and inhabited by ‘settlements of Fish Eaters, a villainous lot, who use the Arabian language and wear girdles of palm leaves’. Until the early 20th century it is mentioned mainly as a landmark for seafarers. To this day it remains largely barren.

The legendary Arab explorer Ibn Battuta (1326 – 1354) passed the island on his way north to visit Sur and Qalhat. He had a difficult time of it; his ship had spent Eid Al Adha being storm tossed for a day and a night, and had been in great danger of foundering.

Indeed the ship ahead of his sank and they managed to pick up a solitary survivor.

Perhaps this influenced Battuta when he later described his fleeting impressions of the island without actually setting foot on it. ’We called next at the island of Masira, a large island whose inhabitants live entirely on fish, but we did not land as the roadstead is at some distance from the shore. Besides I had taken a dislike to these people after seeing them eat birds without slitting their throats.‘ Perhaps we should not be surprised at a certain superciliousness from Alexander’s all-conquering admiral or indeed a refined

and cosmopolitan young qadhi from Tangier. Nonetheless their descriptions speak of unimaginable isolation and poverty, which must have forged a seafaring people of great skill and resolution. When Oman’s naval power in the Indian Ocean was at its supremacy, it would have been people from such coastal communities who manned the nation’s warships and fought for their country.

Masirah’s recent history could not be in greater contrast. The island itself lies some fifteen kilometres from the mainland, off the beautiful shores of Barr Al Hickman and the saltpans of R’as Shana’a. Elongated from north to south, it is approximately sixty-five kms long and varies in width from twelve to sixteen kilometres. It is one of the eleven wilayats in the Sharqiyah region and is connected to the mainland by a charming ferry system governed by the tides and a rural willingness to wait for any member of the community who has been delayed. The island’s highest point is Jebal Madrub at 256 metres.

Strangely, the island’s rise to prominence was a result of its attributes as an airbase. From the very earliest days of flying Masirah has played a crucial role as a staging post linking the region together and facilitating the long journey to the Far East. From 1929 until 1977 the Sultanate permitted the RAF to have a base there, and the island has played host to the flying boats of Imperial Airways on their journey from Aden to Karachi. In the 1930s it was also an essential staging post between Iraq and Aden. During the Second World War the British expanded their base and Masirah’s links with flying boats were maintained through the antisubmarine patrols that were stationed there.

The island’s crucial role as a hub for early communications was not restricted to its airbase. For many years it was home to the British Eastern Relay Station, transmitting the BBC World Service to listeners throughout the region. Today the island is home to one of the Royal Air Force of Oman’s most important air bases, and Ibn Battuta would have been gratified that one of their tasks is search and rescue. Fishing has developed into a lucrative export, much of the catch travelling overnight in refrigerated lorries directly to the markets of the UAE. Visitors, although increasing, remain few because of the distance from the capital, but those who make the journey are enchanted by the island’s unique charm and isolation. The people are friendly, and probably because of the long association with the RAF, all seem to speak excellent English. The empty beaches, which are dotted with the massive hulks of wrecked dhows, remain a highly important breeding area for loggerhead turtles, and the seas are well known for their abundance and varieties of coral. The island has surprisingly clement weather in the summer months and its steady winds make it popular with wind and kite surfers.

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Fleeting Glimpse A closer look at the Oman Sail crew

and its wind-driven thoroughbreds

P I C T U R E S B Y L L O Y D I M A G E S / oma n sail 45

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Photo: K. Birtwistle

K. Birtwistle

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JM.Liot/DPPI/iShares Cup Bottom four photos, this page: K. Birtwistle

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K. Birtwistle

P ICTURE

New 105’ One-Design trimaran being built for the Oman Sail team. Expected launch in Oman: Autumn 2009. J.Hildebrand

All uncredited photos throughout this feature: Lloyd Images/Oman Sail

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www.omansail.com