Dubai: Team Averda skipper Marcel Herrera hopes performance food will be the difference between finishing second and first in the two-week EFG Sailing Arabia — The Tour from Muscat to Dubai from February 14 to March 1.
Herrera, who has twice finished second in the 760nm race, has now done away with a navigator in order to make room onboard for bags full of pre-prepared meals to enhance his crew’s endurance.
“We are a young team with a lot of offshore experience, so if we can get the balance right between the amount of calories we take in and the energy we burn, we should be able to push harder for longer and that could make all the difference. So that is why we have taken all the catering into our hands and will make our own arrangements with the navigation software with our own kit. We would love Averda to win and believe we are in with a very good chance.
“We get to see some amazing places and some extraordinary sights,” he added. “For us, this is a big part of why we do SATT. The schedule is pretty demanding but there is a real incentive to finish first in each leg because you then get to spend more time in the stopovers. So, if things go well for us, we could end up Go Karting in Doha, skiing in Dubai or lying on a beach at any of these places. That sounds like a lot of fun.”
The seventh edition of the race starts in Muscat on February 14 with the first in-port races befores the fleet heads north to Sohar and around the tip of the Musandam Peninsula to Khasab.
Competitors must tackle the congested Strait of Hormuz before racing to Abu Dhabi and then on to Doha for the second round of in-port races. The last and longest leg to Dubai with the final round of in-port racing will provide a defining test for the champion.
