Old and New

Last weekend we had a regatta and I crewed for a colleague in an RS400. Lots of fun and we did get a third place.  A few good spinnaker sets and a few not so good.  Those asymmetrical spinnaker reaches are a blast.   One OCS.

But the best part of the weekend was after the regatta finished.  We were sailing back and also sailing back were about 10 dhows which had just finished a regatta of their own. They were in a single file line heading to go past a reviewing stand where I assume some local sheikh was passing them in review.

It was a lovely sight with their voluptuous white sails set on a broad reach.

We passed one and the crew was singing, accompanied by a man playing a hand-held drum.

When they had passed the reviewing stand, each one dropped its sails and then a chase boat brought them their anchor.

As explained in an earlier post, the dhows start the race with sails down and raise them at the starting signal. They leave their anchors to be picked up by an attendant motor boat and then at the end of the race they head into the wind and drop their sail. The motor boat then comes up alongside and heaves the anchor overboard and throws the anchor rope onto the dhow.