Sailing Arabia appeals to Gulf’s seafaring heritage

An Arabian Gulf yacht racing series, backed by some heavyweight sponsors, is helping Abu Dhabi and the wider GCC expand its appeal as a top destination for competitive sailing.

The fourth edition of EFG Sailing Arabia – The Tour has produced a stronger level of competition. Above, the boats during their stop in Abu Dhabi. Lloyd Images

Oman Sail was set up in 2008 with a government grant to create a round-the-world, Muscat-to-Muscat sailing race and build a sailing school for young Omanis.

The organisation now operates sailing schools in Oman and stages Sailing Arabia — The Tour yacht race.

Here, Oman Sail’s chief executive David Graham and the business development director Bryan Winning talk about the company’s objectives, its achievements so far and where they plan to go from here.

How does Oman Sail work?

David Graham: Oman Sail has three objectives. One is branding the country as a tourist destination. Another is having a sports programme that has Olympic and offshore aspirations, and another objective is helping start marine businesses. All our objectives are underpinned by job creation and development of young Omanis. In our company there are 220 people now and we are 80 per cent Omanised. It's a high percentage and it runs through the core of what we do. All our sailing instructors are Omani and they've all been through rigorous courses. We've got an unblemished safety record which we are very proud of and you won't see an Oman Sail boat on the water without an Omani on it.

And of course, the country does have a seafaring heritage, which probably makes sailing a good fit with its image?

Mr Graham: Traditionally, Oman had a very strong sailing culture and it's a past that the country is very, very proud of. One of our objectives is to reignite the maritime eminence that the country once had. Dean Barker, who sailed with the Americas Cup, his quote was perhaps the most fitting: he said that Oman is as good as it gets in the world as a sailing venue; there is a huge and varied coastline and it has near-to-perfect sailing conditions.

Oman Sail gets a government grant. But you are also looking at other ways to raise money, correct?

Bryan Winning: We are a non-profit organisation supported by the ministry of tourism in Oman. We get a government grant to develop sailing activities across Oman. But to be able to do more, we look to commercialise [some] things we are doing, find sponsorship money and create new projects so we can teach more children and make the effect go further.

Mr Graham: We’ve started a small yacht charter business. We are running events which in time will be commercially sustainable. We are running a marina in Musandam on a commercial basis. While the primary objective of the sailing school — of which we now have four — is to get the kids into the sport of sailing and teaching Omani sailing instructors, we are using the shoulder period to sell sailing courses. We are free for young Omanis but an Omani family or an expat family that would like to go on a sailing course — we are offering that and that is generating reasonably significant revenues now. It’s early in the planning stages but we are looking at manufacturing racing boats.

Mr Winning: We just launched a personal development programme. We are working with the youth of Oman at the moment but potentially that will be available regionally and will use training and land-based activities to bring out their employability skills. A number of [young people] are unemployed and we want to use what we are doing to give them greater skills and then develop from that into offering corporates the chance to develop their staff.

Why do more sponsors want to get involved?

Mr Winning: Our broad remit is sport for the development of the Omani people so a lot of the organisations that we work with are supporting the project to be able to provide training, life experience and skills to Omani youth. We have other organisations that are Omani that want to portray themselves internationally. The Wave, Muscat is a big development project here and it is very keen to be in the high end of the market in Europe. So does OmanAir, which is trying to seek an international audience. One of the reasons that sailing has been chosen is that Oman is positioning itself as an upmarket tourist destination and sailing very much fits with that. We are targeting the markets that are important to Omani organisations. Sailing is popular in the UK and France, which are important markets for OmanAir.

What kind of sponsorship opportunities are available?

Mr Winning: An organisation that is looking to make a genuine effect by serving the community can get involved that way. Then, we've just finished the Sailing Arabia race from Bahrain to Doha and the UAE, and EFG Bank sponsors that. It gives them an engagement platform in each of those markets. All of the boats are branded with their logo and that event generates over Dh10 million worth of media value.

Which part of an organisation’s budget does the sponsorship money typically come from?

Mr Winning: A lot of the larger organisations such as Omantel and Bank Muscat are combining budgets. They will say, 'This has a large CSR [corporate social responsibility] element so the CSR department is going to fund an element of it. And we are going to use this in the Omantel stores or in the bank's branches and so marketing spend will be put against it. Then, we have a business-to-business element as well where we can entertain our clients, engage our clients, sell new business and therefore our business development team are going to contribute.' So the budget is coming from a number of different areas.

What kind of media coverage do you get?

Mr Winning: The Extreme Sailing Series [TV show makers] are making spectator-friendly, high-octane programmes featuring two of our boats — Oman Air and The Wave, Muscat — and that is a strong media package. Then we've got a 50ft trimaran and the races it participates in are televised. We started a women's programme which is tasked with developing their sporting capabilities. Culturally that's sensitive but that's also grabbing the headlines.

Mr Graham: Sailing Arabia — The Tour has got a profile that goes beyond this. It's a really nice way of showing off the beautiful coastline; we'll make a lovely film and we'll get that on the airline, on global television.

Do you track whether what you are delivering offers a good return to sponsors’ investment?

Mr Graham: We report annually to all of our partners our results and very strict key performance indicators so they can manage their return on their investment.

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