Over the last two weekends, SARF held the 3rd and 4th rounds of the UAE National Sailing
Championship at Al Hamriyah. Racing against strong international competition under truly
testing conditions, our young academy sailors (and parents) showed a huge amount of
resilience to cope with the shifting conditions and summer heat.
On the first weekend, the team put themselves under further pressure, by pushing the line
and picking up a handful of black flags. It meant that overnight in the Optimist fleet, only
Kornelia Pajak and Ruby Holmes featured inside the top 10.
On Sunday, nerves were high – the team needed to put in a performance with zero margin
for error. With everything on the line, Lucca Herve and Eddie West did just that. They took
first and second respectively begging the question – was this the greatest sailing comeback
since Team Oracle in 2013?
In the ILCA 4.7 it was all about girl power! Chloe Montanet never sailed outside the top 10 to
take second girl overall and Eva Hardie climbed onto the podium for third on countback.
With the bar now set higher than the Burj Khalifa, DOSC returned to Al Hamriyah for round
Whether it was the heat or the competition was irrelevant. You could cut the tension with a
daggerboard, and on the water we witnessed boat on boat tactics and plenty of protests.
After 6 races DOSC had six sailors inside the top ten with Fynn missing out on 3rd by one
point. As Al Pacino once said “Life is a game of inches”.
Over on the Optimist course, there was only one story. Pajak versus Herve. With Herve
discarding an OCS (again), and Pajak discounting a DSQ the two went bow to bow, often
crossing the line for a photo finish. In the end it was Lucca Herve who prevailed with
Kornelia Pajak in second. From Abu Dhabi, Khalifa Alromaithi came third. Then came the
DOSC armada with 6 sailors also inside the top ten.
It has been an intense month for the academy with the 43 rd Lake Garda Meeting, then back
to back national championships. You would think that the coaches might need a rest, let
alone the sailors. But then this is an academy with more resilience and determination than
an underdog who never got the memo.
So will see ya’ll on Friday, preparing ourselves for the weekend’s Commodore’s Cup!
