Sailing: Oman Airports by Oman Sail geared up for the final push

Muscat: Oman Airports by Oman Sail will be pulling out all the stops in the closing stages of the 2016 Tour de France a la Voile in their bid to finish in the top five overall, a podium place in today’s Coastal Raid in Hyeres set firmly in their sights.
Lying sixth, following an impressive fourth place in the Coastal Race in Marseilles earlier this week, co-skipper Stevie Morrison is hopeful of going at least one better in Hyeres especially since they will be welcoming back co-skipper Thierry Douillard to the Oman Airports by Oman Sail Diam 24 team following a back injury that forced him to miss the recent racing.
“He won’t be able to sail but he will be a huge addition to our planning and preparation and the boys are all fired up,” said Morrison.
“We need a good performance to get closer to a top 5 overall. Conditions in the Med change very quickly and quite dramatically so you can’t focus on just one other boat too much or you could lose three or four miles in one move, which we don’t want so we will be sticking with our normal plan.
“We have shown some good consistency over the Tour and have grown strong as a team as the results in Marseilles show. The Tour’s standards have gone up a level since last year but we have done quite well in the coastal races as a rule – so we are happy with that.”
Morrison has been rotating his crew of Ali Al Balushi and Abdulhaman Al Mashari from Oman and France’s Pierre Leboucher throughout the 8 Acts of coastal and stadium racing but the absence of Douillard has increased their workload and tested their stamina. “We have had a lot of challenges in this race which have highlighted the importance of communications but we said in the beginning we want to be in the top 5 and we are close with this stage and a last one in Nice to go at the weekend.”
Coastal Raid in Hyeres in the South of France will be followed by a series of short nautical Stadium Races which Morrison, who has raced 49ers in 12 Olympic Class sailing regattas at Hyeres, is looking forward to.
“Pierre has also done a lot of racing at the Olympic class events in Hyeres so we should do OK but you never know – the standards this year are so much higher than last but there has been quite a lot of inconsistency so we know we could finish on the podium here.”
Tour de France a la Voile Route: Act 8 at Hyeres and Act 9 at Nice.