Sailing specialist, Rockley Watersports, has become home to the Oman sailing team for six weeks.
Based in the Middle East, Oman Sail is a government initiative created in 2008 in a bid to ignite Oman's strong maritime heritage and inspire a new generation of young Omanis to take part in sailing as a recreational and competitive sport.
Oman Sail's dream is to make sailing accessible to schools and young enthusiasts and develop the infrastructure required to create a sustainable future for sailing in Oman.
In order to achieve their goal they needed to begin training the first groups of Omani sailors who were carefully chosen through a tough selection process. One of the Omani squad who trained in the UK during 2008 became the first Arab to sail around the world non-stop!
The second group of Omanis are now getting expert tuition and training from the staff at Rockley Watersports.
George Rice, the academy principal for Oman Sail said: “It was not easy finding a sailing school that could cater for all of our needs. We needed a place that offered RYA courses from powerboating and dinghy sailing to first aid and safety boat training. As well as all of this we needed accommodation and catering in an interesting location and Dorset-based Rockley Watersports ticked all of those boxes!
“Since we have been at Rockley Watersports we have been hugely impressed by the flexibility of the staff and their accommodating approach to delivering RYA training. The Omanis are currently fasting during sunrise and sunset for Ramadan; Rockley has even taken this in to account and re-structured the training days to make fasting and sailing possible which has been a great help. We wanted to ensure that we gave the team the absolute best and we have definitely achieved this thanks to Rockley Watersports.”
Peter Gordon, managing director of Rockley Watersports commented: “We were delighted when Oman Sail chose to come to Rockley Watersports, they have been an absolute pleasure to teach. We are looking forward to following their progress and hope to continue to support the initiative in the future.”
For more details on Oman Sail visit www.omansail.com or for more details on Rockley's International training scheme visit www.rockleywatersports.com or call 01202 677272.
