Oman & The Americas Cup

A quick brief for those that don't know what the Americas Cup is. It's essentially the Formula 1 of the boat racing without going into too much detail. It attracts a lot of well monied people to the event.

The winner of the Americas Cup gets to say where they will hold the next race. In 2003 the team SNG Alinghi, from Switzerland challenged the then-cup holders (New Zealand) and won. They then successfully defended their title in 2007 in Valencia, Spain. So the obvious problem being that SNG Alinghi, being based in Switzerland, can not really stage the prestigious event in their own country - no suitable areas.

So again the search was on for a location to hold this prestigious race, and Oman was seriously considered. Sources tell me that negotiations and planing was ongoing as late as June this year to hold the event at The Wave in early 2010. The Government of Oman would of been required to front up about RO 2,500,000 for core services, and the teams would have invested the rest of the money required for their requirements for the race.

Even more confusingly, SNG Alinghi have rather notoriously won a court case allowing them to race a multi-hulled boat (it was all single-hull stuff before). This incensed a lot of the contenders, but the main Challenger still wants to race, and this event is very, very prestigious. Hotels get filled from an event like this. There is also the rather handy tie-in with Oman Sail, which is being bank-rolled by the Government to go out and compete in international events, and when the chance to hold a very big event right here in Oman comes along, they said no. It doesn't quite compute.


So Oman had the chance to host a sailing event, which was double hulled, of which they sponsor their own team to compete in various races around the world, all for "only" RO 2,500,000 - and they said no.

Oh well, our neighbours, Ras Al Khaimah have now successfully won the bid and are to be the host nation of the 33rd America's Cup between Feb 8th and 12th next year.

It would seem that Oman have just missed a trick. Significant advertisement for the country, filled hotels, increased tourist spending, near-free development of a Marina and the opportunity to promote it's own sailing team.

le fin