First Volvo Laser SB3 Middle East Grand Prix outside the U.A.E.

The city of Muscat played host to the fourth round of the Volvo Laser SB3 Middle East Grand Prix which took place from Jan. 25th -26th in the waters near the Shangri-La Barr Al Jissah Resort & Spa.
Eight boats, two of them with Oman-based crews, had to manage the Grand Prix’s most difficult and stormy weather conditions so far. On the first day, twenty knots of wind and rough seas pushed crews and equipment to their limit. Luckily, some of the teams spent the previous weekend training in high winds with Colin Simonds in Dubai. Colin, 3rd at this year’s Cowes Week in the SB3, aided Jonathan Hill’s Team during the weekend to give them two first’s on Friday. Also putting in a good first day performance was Markus Fiala with all results within the top three. Following closely was Team Premier Composites, the only team to beat Jonathan Hill on the first day. Although only stepping on an SB3 for the first time the day before, one of the Omani teams skippered by Fran2 van Beek managed a respectable performance with a third place in the first race.
The second day began much calmer with clear skies and a lighter breeze. This allowed for much closer tactical racing in the first race. The second race however saw the winds increase dramatically with 15-18 knots. This made an thrilling finish to the last two races, even creating the first “man over board” situation of the series: thanks to the experienced crew on board Men On Pause, the incident ended quickly and safely. Even the increasing wind strength in the last race could not deter Team MacLaren, the all female team, from clearly winning their first race, which proves “girls can do it”.
In the end, the third place of this exciting racing weekend went to Team Premier Composites, second was Markus Fiala on Petit Tazo and the overall winners of the fourth round of the Volvo Laser SB3 Middle East Grand Prix were Men On Pause skippered by Jonathan Hill.
To further develop sailing in the Oman, the whole event was enthusiastically being supported by the Ministry of Sports Affairs, Sultanate of Oman (Mr. Mohammed Bin Ahmed Al-amri and Mr. Saif Al –Shibli), the Marina Bandar Al-Rowdha (Mr. Bob Looker), the Ras al-Hamra PDO Recreational Centre( Mr. Tony VanThiel) and the Shangri-La’s Barr Al Jissah Resort & Spa.