MUSCAT: Oman Sail finished their 2019 Tour Voile adventure with a flourish on Sunday with two of their four teams earning a place in the deciding Super Final race in Nice. At the end of the 17-day marathon event around France — which saw five long coastal races and more than 40 high-intensity stadium races at seven venues — the nerve-jangling double-points Super Final saw the lead of the race, as well as the overall Tour result, change hands several times.
The Renaissance Services team of skipper Stevie Morrison, Abdul-Rahman al Mashari and Quentin Ponroy led the finale at one point, and they and the EFG Private Bank Monaco crew of skipper Pierre Pennec, Corentin Horeau and Hussein al Jabri were able to secure competitive overall results to help celebrate Oman Sail’s 10th anniversary year. Renaissance, who won three stadium race finals, finished the Tour Voile in an impressive fifth place in the 23-strong fleet with 711 points, just three ahead of EFG Private Bank Monaco in sixth and only eight behind the fourth placed Golfe du Morbihan team.
Morrison said: “We were winning the Super Final at the first mark. We had a great start and Abdul-Rahman did a fantastic job on the first reach and it was great to be ahead at the beginning — but it’s being ahead at the end that matters.”
Perhaps the high spot of the Tour was the two Oman Sail teams’ storming 1-2 finish at the Port Barcares venue, which marked EFG Private Bank Monaco’s first final victory.
Meanwhile, the all-female EFG Sailing Arabia The Tour development squad of skipper Audrey Ogereau and crew Ibtisam al Salmi, Maelenn Lemaitre, Marwa al Kaifi and Tami al Balushi had two race wins in Nice.
The all-Omani Team Oman Sail squad with skipper Akram al Wahaibi, Haitham al Wahaibi, Raad al Hadi and Yasser al Rahbi had taken their own race win back in the first Act of the Tour in Dunkerque.
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