Dubai: The Dubai International Marine Club (DIMC), under its new president Shaikh Mansour Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, wants to ensure marine sport in the emirate takes a step forward.
Topping the agenda of the new board is to successfully manage the sporting and commercial aspects to enable the DIMC take the next step forward and fulfil its potential as the best venue for watersport and other activities.
As Acting CEO, Mohammad Abdullah Hareb comes in with nearly a decade of hands-on experience in the field of watersport. After his initial role in traditional and rowing races, Hareb moved up the ladder as race director for various Class One and XCAT powerboat racing till his appointment as a member of the Environment Committee and Board Member at the world governing body, UIM. Hareb spells out the aims and objectives before DIMC:
GULF NEWS: How different are things going to be now at the DIMC following the recent changes?
MOHAMMAD HAREB: If you take a look at the new board of directors (which includes Saeed Hareb, Dr Khalid Mohammad Al Zahid, Arif Saif Al Zafe’in, Ali Bin Hindi, Khalid Bin Dasmal, Essa Khalfan Bin Kharbash apart from CEO Hareb), you will see that all come in with a heavy CV. All have invested their efforts in watersport over the past so many years. And definitely, our major goal is not to increase the publicity for DIMC as it is already high. What we need to do is to open new boundaries and keep DIMC as a mark in the world of watersports that all others can look up to and try and emulate.
Why do you feel this need to reassert the presence of DIMC?
To start with, I wouldn’t say that the DIMC had a dark rainy day. There is always an effort put in by everyone who has been assigned with tasks. All board members in the past have tried and we are here to try as well. We are not here to judge, but it is our responsibility to take things to the next level.
What sort of boundaries do you speak about?
The DIMC is already at a very high level if you consider the events we organise and races we host. If at all DIMC has reached this stage it is due to the hard work put in by everyone in the past, including board members and the government. Subsequently, a lot of international organisation came out from this venue. And now it is time that we take the next step forward and set a standard for all marinas to follow. We want to be the leaders in showing the way.
What will be the set-up be like now?
The board of directors have met on a couple of occasions since Ramadan. We have initiated two subcommittees: the sports committee headed by Arif Al Zafe’in and the commercial committee led by Dr Khalid Al Zahed. Both these committees have their share of tasks assigned to them already with a deadline to meet as well.
Can you elaborate on these tasks and deadlines?
The sports committee has been told to ensure that the portfolio of events held each year goes higher. At the same time they have to touch fresh levels, break new avenues, bring in new concepts and ideas to assist marine sports and its growth in the region. The commercial committee has to look at the future development of DIMC as an entity. There are a couple of projects in the pipeline that will make DIMC a Dubai landmark and these fresh plans will be revealed to all by January next year. The idea is to keep pace with the growth and development of Dubai.
Is there anything else that is fresh in the working of the new committee?
One of the main things we are trying to do is to get the racers and sailors involved in the organisation and running of the sport. We are taking the sport to the sailors because we believe that the success and growth of any sport jointly depends on the organisation and the participation. We are here as service-providers.
It makes sense to get the sportsmen involved in running their own sport as at the end of it all we may have leaders emerging as well.
In addition, we are looking at a revamp in the sailing department. We had one of the most successful programmes running here in the past and sailing will be one of the methods we will use to get our youths involved. Sailing is one of the pillars in marine sports and we need to have a properly-structured programme to get our juniors in sailing once again. There is a lot of potential in sailing here. We want sailing and marine sports to dream and breath here because it is part of our heritage and history.
