Sunday 24 / November / 2024
Muscat: Team Mangold has announced that they will be making their debut in the upcoming edition of Oman Sail’s EFG Sailing Arabia–The Tour which will run from February 15 to 29.
The crew are new to racing in the Arabian Sea but they are hoping their sense of adventure, inspired by tales of Sinbad the Sailor in 1001 Arabian Nights, will reward them with a magical experience.
Skipper Martin Felgenhauer from Vienna heads up a diverse mix of crewmembers who like many of the Sailing Arabia teams, have never sailed together before. They comprise Austrian and Germans, men and women (two married couples), experienced recreational sailors and relative novices who are all taking time out of their busy lives as geo-thermal engineers, ophthalmologists and biologists for a ‘bit of fun’.
Felgenhauer is one of the more seasoned sailors in the team though tactician and navigator Martin Lindner has sailed more than 100,000nms as a skipper, sailing instructor and race official and Helmut Mangold has run the annual Mangold Cup in the Adriatic Sea, a one design contest similar to The Tour, for the past eight years.
“We are doing this just for fun,” said Mangold from Austria who comes from a catamaran sailing background.
“The route looks fantastic so we are expecting a fairy tale journey similar to Sinbad the Sailor – it will be a fantastic journey through the landscape of 1001 Nights though we also know it will be very tough.”
Felgenhauer started sailing dinghies as a teenager and was a professional charter boat skipper for four years in the Mediterranean but it wasn’t long before the bigger ocean going boats captured his imagination and he seized on the opportunity to buy the famous Whitbread yacht Equity & Law after the 1989/90 Round the World race.
He is three times winner of the Mangold Cup, competing against Helmut Mangold, but both sailors are looking forward to combining their skills and passion for the best possible result in the 2016 EFG Sailing Arabia–The Tour.
“Our aim is to win one of the legs or an inshore race but if we do not do that, it will be tough luck. Only three of the crew have done night sailing so we will have to see how we fare but we are really looking forward to it,” said Mangold.
Other crewmembers comprise Mangold’s wife Theresia and Felgenhauer’s wife Maria who are both regular and accomplished sailors along with good friend Doris Ruskovic while Tom Zahalka will add an extra pair of hands to the helming rota.
Team Mangold will line up against identical Farr 30s representing international crews of varying experience levels from complete novices to weathered offshore professionals.
Earlier this month, reigning champions Team EFG Bank Monaco, skippered by Frenchman Sidney Gavignet confirmed that they will be back to the race with eyes to clinch the title once again.
The sixth edition of The Tour will start with an inshore race in Dubai, followed by the first leg to Abu Dhabi where two further inshore contests will be staged before the fleets heads off on a tricky marathon second leg to Doha, then the most demanding leg of them all, the 200 nms passage from Doha to new destination Khasab, Oman's northernmost Governorate which will be a test of skill and patience. From Khasab, they will race back out into the Straits of Hormuz, round the Musandam Peninsula and down the coast of Oman to Sohar, the final stopover before the fifth and final leg to Al Mouj in Muscat, which presents a double points opportunity to seal victory or overhaul the leaderboard.
