Al Marzouqi and crew clinch top honours in Al Gaffal race

Dubai: A boat owned by General Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nayhyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, won the 2010 Al Gaffal long distance traditional 60-foot dhow race Saturday.

The winning boat was skippered by Marwan Abdullah Juma Al Marzouqi.

In second place was defending champion Al Qaffay skippered by Obeid Saeed Al Tayer while third place went to Al Serb with Al Hur Rashid Khadim Al Muhairi at the helm.

"I have sailed in the Al Gaffal race for ten years with my father Abdullah and he taught me so much, but I have a very experienced crew as well.

"I knew in my heart that we would win today, I promised everyone that this was our race," said Al Marzouqi.

After weeks of preparations 95 boats started from Sir Bu Na'air Island at 7:30am yesterday in a good breeze to battle for a prize purse of Dh10 million, with Dh500,000 awaiting the winner. All boats that entered the race received prize money with the last boat receiving Dh50,000. It is a structure put in place by Shaikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and Minister of Finance, to keep traditional dhow sailing alive.

Dubai International Marine Club CEO Saeed Hareb was happy with the success of the race .

Season finale

"This race is the climax to our year and although we have been running this race for 20 years I feel that each time it is the first time.

"We have a lot of experience but the weather is something we can't predict and I am always a little nervous until the race gets underway.

"Today we were lucky with the wind although the direction spread the fleet very wide and made keeping track of all the boats quite a task.

"But everything went well and we look forward to next years event.'

Al Gaffal ended the watersports season in Dubai.