Oman Sail are first ever Diam World Tour winners after latest success in the Pacific
by Oman Sail 18 Nov 2018 08:36 AEDT
Oman Sail in Bora Bora lagoon © Julien Giradot Photography
Oman Sail's Diam 24 team are celebrating after winning the first ever Diam World Tour with another competitive performance at the deciding event in Polynesia.
The victory was sealed when the race team of skipper Stevie Morrison, Abdulrahman Al Mashari and Quentin Ponroy completed the Grand Prix Pacifique des Jeux, the last of three events counting towards the 2018 World Tour title.
The Oman Sail team ended their winning season ahead of Bernard Stamm's Cheminees Poujoulat in second and the Beijaflore team who finished third.
Consistency throughout the international season proved to be the key to success. Back in February, the Stevie Morrison Oman Sail/Averda boat finished the first event, EFG Sailing Arabia – The Tour around Oman, in third place, and followed that with a fourth place in the season centrepiece Tour Voile in France during July alongside co-skipper Thierry Douillard.
The GP Pacifique – which started in Tahiti and concluded in Bora Bora on Thursday – saw the team finish the event as runners-up, with their cumulative total across all three regattas earning them the title.
"It is very exciting to have won the first ever Diam World title for Oman," said Abdulrahman Al Mashari. "The race here was very tough and long, a slightly different style from the Tour Voile and EFG Sailing Arabia - The Tour with some extreme offshore legs."
One such leg was the longest of the event, an 80 mile crossing between the island of Moorea and Huahine, which was won by Oman Sail by just 10 seconds when the team snatched the lead from local boat Treasures of Tahiti just 100m from the finish line.
Morrison said: "It's a real honour to win representing Oman. Along with Abdul, I have competed on all the legs in this competition, but of course this World Tour victory wouldn't have been possible without our other great teammates Ali Al Balushi, Thierry Douillard, Nick Asher, Mathieu Richard, Olivier Gandon, Loick and Suleiman. We're more than just the three of us on the boat and we couldn't have done this without the full team."
As 2018 Diam World Tour winners the Oman Sail trimaran will now have a golden Diam symbol on its mainsail when it competes at the opening event of the 2019 season, EFG Sailing Arabia – The Tour, which starts from Muscat in February.