DIMC season to get underway with traditional 43ft dhow sailing

by DIMC on 5 Oct 2012 The organisers are expecting a field of at least eighty entries for this year’s season-opening Dubai Traditional Rowing Race to be held at the Dubai International Marine Club (DIMC) on Friday October 5th.

The 2012-2013 season had a soft opening with the first heat of the Dubai Traditional Rowing Race last weekend (September 28), while the 43ft Traditional Dhow Sailing Race that was initially scheduled the following day had to be re-scheduled due to changing weather conditions.

Accordingly, organizers DIMC has decided that the course for the Rowing Race will be set up between the iconic Burj Al Arab and The Palm Jumeirah, while the course for the 43ft Dhow Sailing Race will be decided only on Saturday morning depending on projected weather conditions later in the afternoon.

However, the finish line for sailing will also be in the vicinity of the Burj Al Arab.

Meanwhile, the Dubai International Marine Club’s programme for the new season was released earlier this week in the presence of Ali Bin Ghulaita, Acting CEO, DIMC and Sid Bensalah, DIMC Sports Director with the meeting chaired by Brig. Ahmed Bin Thani and Vice Chairman Ali Nasser Belhabala, and in-charge of Traditional watersports activities Mohammad Suhail Alayali, among other members.

Meanwhile, one of the key decisions taken by the new board of directors is the re-launch of its highly-successful youth sailing development programme latest by the end of this year.

'One of our main objectives at DIMC is to nurture young sailors so that we have adequate representation when it comes to international events including the next Olympic Games in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro,' said Ali Bin Ghulaita.

'We feel quite positive of this new development programme where we will get school children involved so that we can establish a strong base of UAE sailors for the future and we strongly invite the UAE families to contact the DIMC directly and register their children between eight and 12 years by calling 04-3995777,' he added.

'As usual we have a packed calendar of events that we will be organizing during the course of the year with the finale once again being the 23rd running of the Al Gafal Long Distance Sailing Race from Sir Bu Na’air Island and Dubai on May 18,' Ali Bin Ghulaita said.

It may be noted that the DIMC initiated and had one of the most successful youth development programmes in sailing in the entire Gulf region. In fact, Oman, Bahrain and Qatar relied from the DIMC experiment in launching and sustaining their own programmes over a period of time.

The DIMC went on to organize six editions of the very successful Dubai Junior Regatta that had junior sailors from all across the world attend till sailing was suspended from its schedule in 2006 due to the many changes made on the Jumeirah coastline.

'To start with, it is our intention to put the sailing programme back on track. There has been a break, but hopefully we will be in a position to pick up from where we left of,' Bin Ghulaita said.

2012-2013 Watersports Season:

October 6: Dubai Traditional Rowing Race
October 20:22ft Dubai Traditional Dhow Sailing Race
October 12: UAE Biathle
October 26:Abra Mina 10km Race
November 2: UAE Wooden Powerboat Championship
November 10: 22ft Dubai Traditional Dhow Sailing Race
November 17: 60ft Dubai Traditional Dhow Sailing Race
November 17: Mina Mile Open Water Series
November 20: 2012 DIMC Annual Awards Ceremony
December 8:43ft Dubai Traditional Dhow Sailing Race
December 13-15: UIM Class One World Powerboat Championship
December 14-15: UAE Wooden Powerboat Championship
December 20: UAE Biathle
January 11-12: UAE Waterbike Series
January 25-26: UAE Waterbike Series
February 2:43ft Dubai Traditional Dhow Sailing Race
February 16: Dubai Traditional Rowing Race
February 22: Abra Mina 10km Race
February 23: 22ft Dubai Traditional Dhow Sailing Race
March 2: 22ft Dubai Traditional Dhow Sailing Race
March 5-7: Dubai International Powerboat Racing Safety Seminar
March 15-16: UAE Waterbike Series
March 23: Mina Mile
March 29: Maktoum Cup Traditional Rowing Race
April 5-6: UAE Wooden Powerboat Championship
April 13: 22ft Dubai Traditional Dhow Sailing Race
April 20: 60ft Dubai Traditional Dhow Sailing Race
May 18: 23rd Al Gafal Long Distance Race from Sir Bu Na’air Island to Mina Seyahi