Ras Al Khaimah: Wouter Sonnema’s TU Delft Challenge won the second leg of EFG Sailing Arabia — The Tour, from Sohar to Ras Al Khaimah, on Thursday.
The young and relatively inexperienced Dutch squad finished ahead of Oman Royal Navy in second and Bienne Voile in third after the longest and most challenging leg of the six-stage annual race from Muscat to Manama.
Organisers ended the second leg early, some two nautical miles before the Strait of Hormuz, on safety grounds as a lack of wind and strong currents threatened to force the 11-strong fleet onto the rocks off Musandam.
Nevertheless, after having finished fifth in the first leg from Muscat to Sohar, Sonnema was pleased with his side’s progress.
“We were a bit disappointed with our first leg as we were third with ten miles to go before we made a stupid mistake [with wind positioning],” said the 20-year-old skipper. “But now we have won [the second leg] we are really confident about the next legs, we believe we can beat the professionals and stay up there with the top teams.”
Asked if they could go on to win the overall race, Sonnema replied: “You never know, we’ve trained hard, have prepared better than last year and we have learnt a lot from previous editions.
“We have a great team and I think it’s possible, but our main goal is top three. It would be great to win but the race has only just started and we’ve no idea how to succeed.”
Teammate Coen Bouhuys denied there were any bragging rights for finishing first in this leg against more experienced sailors, and remained pragmatic about their chances going forward.
“Relatively speaking if you win a long leg it’s because you had better boat speed overall,” said the 23-year-old. “But short legs can be won on tactics over speed. The next leg [53 nautical miles from Ras Al Khaimah to Dubai] is a short one so we have to prove we are as tactical as we are fast.”
Reigning champions and leg one winners EFG Bank Monaco were fourth in the second leg and remain top of the overall standings just ahead of second-placed TU Delft Challenge. Team Averda are third after finishing second in the first leg and fifth in the second.
Onward legs will take the race to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha and Manama, where the race is scheduled to finish on February 28.
