Women’s Sailing Initiative Officially Launched
The Oman Sail project has always been bigger than just winning races at the highest level. The goal is to rally all Omanis around a campaign that combines sporting excellence with new skills, industries and opportunities.
Now, Oman Sail have officially launched a new phase in the project – a sailing programme aimed exclusively at the Sultanate’s female population.
Oman Sail’s CEO David Graham explains:
“It was always Oman Sail’s aim to contribute to the development of Oman and Omanis, and that means offering men and women the same sporting and career opportunities. The women’s programme is the next stage in the project and will ensure we fulfil what we set out for the Oman Sail project to achieve.
After much consultation, we have worked to create the right environment for the women to learn in. The programme is designed to find the right people with the right commitment and we will be communicating with the families every step of the way making sure they understand what we have set out to achieve.”
Since its launch in 2008, Oman Sail has taken nearly 7,000 Omani children sailing, over half of which have been females. The Women’s Programme, supported by Bank Muscat, will take that to the next level, instilling confidence and teaching valuable, transferable life skills while also creating jobs and unique opportunities for the nation’s women.
From Oman Sail’s national grassroots community programme to its 2020 Olympic ambitions, Omani women will be trained, coached, qualified, employed, developed and nurtured every step of the way, equipping them with all the necessary skills to excel.
And if it can happen in sport, it can happen in business.
Finding the next generation of female sailing stars.
The programme got underway in July, when 75 young women attended the first of the Women’s Programme open days at Oman Sail sailing centres. Of these, 40 were chosen to attend a three-week training course, developing their basic skills. A number of these women are now in the middle of a six-month training course equipping them to qualify as sailing instructors and take the first steps to becoming Oman’s first professional women sailors.
Afnan Al Adawi, one of the first women to be recruited for the project said:
“I am so happy and proud to be a part of Oman Sail Team, I learnt about sailing after working as a volunteer at the Extreme Sailing Series when it was hosted in Muscat and I loved the concept. Now I have the opportunity to pursue my career through sailing, am so pleased to be selected amongst the first Omani Women Team and I will work hard to make my country proud”
Double Olympic gold medallist, Shirley Robertson, and round the world yachtswoman, Samantha Davies, have been recruited as Project Ambassadors.
Oman Sail will enter a 100 per cent female crew into the second Sailing Arabia – The Tour (SATT), the demanding, offshore race around the Arabian coast, in February 2012. The team will compete in a Farr 30 boat, named Al Thuraya, the name of a star cluster which traditionally marks the start of the sailing season in Oman.
SATT is the first of two ambitious short-term goals Oman Sail has for the Women’s Programme. The other is to have teams of qualified female dinghy instructors in the three Oman Sail sailing centres by March 2012, to help develop Oman’s future sailing stars and to encourage more women to follow in their footsteps and get involved in the sport.
