MUSCAT: Team Adelasia di Torres from Sardinia in Italy has been announced as a brand new entry in the 2017 edition of EFG Sailing Arabia – The Tour, which starts from Muscat from February 14 to March 1. The team has been put together by Costa-based Renato Azara, a keen sailor who after many years as managing director of Sardinia Yacht Services, the world-renowned yacht management agency on the Emerald Coast, has decided to go racing. In his first season with Adelasia di Torres, he won the Formenton Trophy Regatta in the racing division, took a class win in the Rolex Middle Sea Race and a third place overall in the ORC group.
But now he says he is stepping up the game to be on the start line of the seventh edition of EFG Sailing Arabia – The Tour.
“EFG Sailing Arabia – The Tour will be an exciting adventure,” he said. “My work in the international sphere has led me to develop a lot of contacts and friends in the Middle East and this high-level competition, which takes us from the Sultanate to Abu Dhabi, Doha and Dubai, will allow us to discover the area from a different perspective.”
Azara will be joined by Duccio Colombi, founder and owner of Phi!Number and winner of 11 Italian Championships in different sailing categories, two European Championships and four World Championships, all with non-professional crews.
Caterina Nitto will also be on hand bringing 20 years of experience as a long-distance sailor, sailing instructor and captain of ships, sailboats and motorboats to bear on the exciting Team Adelasia di Torres campaign.
“Along with Caterina Nitto and Duccio Colombi, we hope to do well at our first EFG Sailing Arabia – The Tour, although we know that there are some very strong teams racing and we have yet to learn the boat — we are looking forward to it!”
EFG Sailing Arabia – The Tour is the only annual race of its type, with a mix of long offshore legs and intense in port racing, in the world and since it was first established in 2011, has become the most prestigious race in the Middle East with a reach and appeal that extends with each edition, among both recreational and professional sailors.
The teams race in identical Farr 30 boats and are in competition for around two weeks, completing more than 700 racing miles and stopping off at five different ports, which showcase the Gulf region to new sailors and to fans who follow the action online or via television images around the world.
In 2017, competition starts in Muscat with the first in-port races before the fleet heads north to Sohar and round the tip of the Musandam Peninsula to Khasab.
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