Final Project - Sail Boat Racing

Sailboat racing was a very popular sport in ancient UAE. It extends in the past era as long as people knew pearl hunting and diving. At least, this has been a century old sport enjoyed by Emiratis who lived by the seashores. When the UAE announced its independence in 1971, one of the main speeches of the late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the previous president of the UAE, was about protection of heritage of our ancestors depicted in camel herding and racing, horse breeding, sailboat racing and diving.

This information would not have been available to us but through one of the seniors of this field Mr. Mohammed Khalifa Al Romaithi, 58, whom was a sailboat member, then a Nokhada on shipping boats, one of the main members of the sailboat club and  finally the Secretary of Abu Dhabi Sailboat Club, located near the Marina Mall, Abu Dhabi.

In comparison between the past and present, Mr. Al Romaithi thinks that the traditional boat building was better and if continued would have flourished and made the UAE one of the leading world nations in building race boats in the traditional sense. In the past, they made fine woodworking and crafts that made very light boats even better than recent PVC manufactured race boats. A boat was completed in three months, and was used for pearl hunting, fishing and racing during leisure times. Presently the modern ones are for one task only, and that is sailing. If we want a boat to do both tasks it will cost us a fortune. Even now if we want to build a traditional boat like the past times it will cost us plenty of money; lumber, skilled builders and other issues are observed. Even finding builders who can build boats like the old days are rare and we have to trace them, and keep a record of their names and addresses.

Before 1990 the UAE used to compete with other countries of the Gulf and I remember that we won several medals and trophies against Qatar, Bahrain and Oman. After 1990, due to unrest in the Arabian Gulf, the sports were done by our shores in Abu Dhabi and people who enjoyed sail boating were welcomed and registered in our club, and allowed to participate in events.

Now we have traditional sail boating and power boats as activities. We encourage both of them but the main difference is traditional sailing is restricted to our shores of the UAE and we do not allow sailing out of UAE regional waters, due to safety and precautions not available in the traditional sail boats. On the other hand, power boating is allowed up to 30 nautical miles off the coast with strict supervision and escorting by helicopters and the Coast Guards to assist and help in case of emergencies.   

The government in Abu Dhabi is very keen in reviving sailboat building and racing. Therefore, presently, it has ordered building several sailboats and training crews to be able to participate in the old games that used to run in the Gulf. Now these are going to be ready and active during the coming year 2016.