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Al Serb claims honours in style

Traditional boat racing off the Mina Seyahi shores provided rich fare again during the weekend. Al Serb won the final race of the Dubai Traditional 60ft Dhow Sailing held by the Dubai International Marine Club on Saturday.

With winds ranging between 6-10 knots not too favourable for ideal racing conditions, the dhow skippers struggled with many of them drawing penalties and infringements during the course of the race as only 46 of the total 74 dhows finishing the race. Atlas, owned by Faraj bin Butti Al Muhairbi and skippered by Ahmed Rashid Al Suwaidi, was in fact the first to cross the finish line, but a penalty for an infringement at the start saw the dhow being pushed down by five places into sixth position.

That resulted in handing the top place to Al Serb, owned by Rashid Mohammed Khadim Al Muhairi. “The rules governing any competition are supreme and need to be applied across the board. The incident involving Atlas was unfortunate, but the race committee had to abide by the rules and penalise the dhow,” said Sid Bensalah, sports director, DIMC.

Huraiz bin Huraiz, chairman, DIMC Sports Committee was pleased with a smooth running of the final heat for the 60ft dhows.

“Historically, this heat is supposed to be the final warm-up event for ‘Al Gaffal’ race between Sir Bu Naair island and Dubai. We have one final 22ft race next weekend after which we will commence preparations for the season finale,” Huraiz said.

Pre-race favourite Barraq, skipper by Rashid Mohammed Rashid Al Rumaithi finished the race in second place and the Khadim Rashid Al Muhairi-skippered Dahees came in third place.

Al ’Iz, skippered by Sultan Ahmed Khadim Al Muhairi came in fourth position and Emaar skippered by Salim Ali Al Adeedi was placed fifth with Atlas ending in sixth due to the penalty slapped on it.

Ahmed Mohammed Bin Thani, chairman, DIMC Board of Directors, presented the trophies along with board members Ali bin Ghulaitha, Mohammed Hareb, Huraiz and Sid Bensalah.

RESULTS

1. Al Serb: Rashid Mohammed Khadim Al Muhairi (Owner)/Al Hur Rashid Khadim Al Muhairi (skipper)

2. Barraq: Mohammed Rashid Mussabah Al Muhairi (Owner)/ Rashid Mohammed Rashid Al Rumaithi (skipper)

3. Dahees: Khadim Rashid Al Muhairi (Owner)/Khadim Rashid Al Muhairi (skipper)

4. Al ’Iz: Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (Owner)/Sultan Ahmed Khadim Al Muhairi (skipper)

5. Emaar: Shaikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum (Owner)/Salim Ali Al Adeedi (skipper).