Al Hasni challenges mentor Gavignet
EFG Bank Monaco lead Sailing Arabia
MUSCAT, Feb 20: Omani sailing star Fahad Al Hasni took the fight to mentor Sidney Gavignet as the nine international teams of EFG Sailing Arabia — The Tour took on their second offshore leg from Abu Dhabi to Doha yesterday. Al Hasni has sailed under the French offshore sailing master’s tuition for the past five years as part of the Oman Sail programme, and last year the pair set a new world record for the fast lap of Ireland by boat.
After a disappointing sixth place in the opening leg of EFG Sailing Arabia — The Tour Al Hasni was determined to show Gavignet what he was capable of as the teams raced 160 nautical miles across the Persian Gulf to the Qatari capital. And following more than a day of intense racing in light, shifty winds Renaissance Services yesterday crossed the finish line of the testing leg in second just behind Gavignet’s EFG Bank Monaco.
Offshore trek for Leg 2
get this result. They did not get the result they wanted in the inshore racing in Abu Dhabi but I told them to keep pushing.
“When the leg to Doha finished and they got second we heard them on the VHF and it was like an explosion of happiness. I’m very proud of them — they deserve it.”
Team Averda, led by young Brit Marcel Averda, completed the podium for leg 2. But it was behind the front three that one of the most exciting incidents came, as Lorenz Mueller’s Swiss team Bienne Voile pulled off a sensational comeback following a navigational error. Their crew had been in a strong position early in the leg but mistakenly passed a mark on the course on the wrong side.
By the time they realised their error they had sailed 1.4nm past the mark but were left with no choice but to turn round and go back. The mistake saw them relegated to last place but all was not lost for the team — they gambled everything on taking a wind shift but it paid off and they rocketed past the fleet and into fourth.
A delighted Mueller said: “We were really happy about our position early in the leg but it was a bad moment when we realised our mistake. “We had to go back and we lost lots of ground on the rest of the fleet — we ended up dead last.
“We were a little bit desperate and so we decided to put everything on the line and go for a wind shift. It came right at the moment we hoped, and it was an amazing moment.
“We had some bad luck but we also got some good luck too. Before we made the mistake we were up with the top three boats so it’s very satisfactory for us to have recovered that position.”
Stunning conditions of flat seas and winds of around 10 knots saw the nine international crews cross the Gulf faster than expected. However a disappearance of wind 15nm from the finish line led to EFG Sailing Arabia — The Tour race director Gilles Chiorri to end the stage early. The results were therefore decided by the order the fleet were in when they passed the final gate of the leg, 35nm from the finish line.
The sailors now have a day to rest and recharge at the luxurious Hilton Doha hotel before they take to the water for the third round of inshore racing, the Doha In-Port Race Series, tomorrow. On Monday the fleet will depart Doha for Khasab on Oman’s Musandam peninsula — at 280nm it is the longest and toughest leg of the 2016 EFG Sailing Arabia — The Tour, and will take the crews almost two days to complete.
England looked set for a big total as opening batsmen Jason Roy and the inform Alex Hales hit 38 off the first 3.3 overs before Roy clipped Kagiso Rabada to Hashim Amla at mid-wicket.
Tahir came on to bowl after the sixover power play had yielded 50 runs for Roy?s wicket. He struck with his fourth ball when Hales top-edged a sweep to backward square leg. JP Duminy held the catch despite being knocked to the ground by Rabada, who was also running for the ball.
Tahir followed up by dismissing Ben Stokes, Morgan and Moeen Ali. The latter two wickets were off successive balls and he narrowly missed a hat-trick when a googly went over Chris Jordan’s middle stump.
South Africa made a confident start, with Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers putting on 31 for the first wicket. But England bowled well on a slow pitch and no batsman was able to dominate.
All-rounder Ben Stokes and leg-spinner Adil Rashid were impressive in the middle overs, taking one for 19 and one for 24 respectively.
It seemed to be England’s match when Jordan dismissed David Miller and David Wiese in the penultimate