The Saudi team, which took off to a good start in the ongoing Sailing Arabia race, appeared to be losing momentum when it finished last on the third leg of the competition in Ras Al-Khaimah, the United Arab Emirates, recently. Constantly changing conditions meant there was always going to be winners and losers on the back of major shifts. The race started in fast 20-knot downwind conditions and it was again tour leader Daniel Souben and his professional French crew sailing Courrier Dunkerque that rounded the windward start mark ahead of countrymen Bertrand Pace on Team Commercialbank and Cedric Pouligny on Team BAE Systems. With masthead spinnakers set, Team Commercialbank and Team BAE Systems were able to eat into Courrier Dunkerque's lead and sailed clear for the initial stages of the 30-mile run to the first gate. However, Courrier Dunkerque were not going to go easy on them, and fought back hard to pass through the gate two minutes and two seconds ahead of Team Commercialbank and four minutes, 19 seconds ahead of Team BAE Systems. Team Commercialbank continued to heap on the pressure and narrowed the gap on Courrier Dunkerque to 1 minute 55 seconds, but for all Pace's match-racing pedigree he could not find a way through, eventually crossing the line two minutes, 29 seconds behind Souben and Courrier Dunkerque. Pouligny's Team BAE Systems held onto to third and finished a further 7min 7sec behind second-placed Team Commercialbank. After the race, Pace said while turning in his best result to date, he was realistic that it would be difficult to snatch a win from Souben's professional French crew. The battle for fourth and fifth was equally intense with just a 14-minute finishing deficit between the UK's Dee Caffari and her all-women Al-Thuraya BankMuscat crew and local Omani skipper Ahmed Al-Mamari and his all-Omani crewed Team Renaissance. The award for most improved performance definitely goes to Team Ras Al-Khaimah and skipper John Curran who brought his yacht home in sixth place ahead of Team Bahrain, Team Muscat 2012 and Team Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. While thanking his countrymen for their support, Saudi sailor Ishaq Mohammed Al-Helal, asked for their prayers to bring the Saudi team back into better ranking.
