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Abu Dhabi, April 17, 2024: The Abu Dhabi Marine Sports Club announced the opening of registration to participate in the Delma Race for 60-foot sailboats, the most important and prominent event in the historic Delma Race Festival, which is in its seventh edition and is held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Representative of the Ruler in the Al Dhafra Region, organized by the Abu Dhabi Heritage Authority and the Abu Dhabi Marine Sports Club.

The race activities will be held from April 26 until May 5 on Dalma Island in the Al Dhafra region in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.

The organizing committee announced yesterday that the Delma Historical Race is the longest, with a distance of 80 nautical miles, or 125 km, and that its prizes are the most expensive among all marine races, amounting to more than 32 million dirhams, distributed among all races, including the Delma Heritage Rowing Boat Race. The Dalma Stand-Up Paddleboarding Race, the Dalma Shaari Fishing Championship, bicycle, running, and swimming races, football, beach volleyball, carrom, and domino tournaments, cooking competitions, folk games, and children’s traditional competitions, in addition to entertainment events.
The race is expected to witness large participation, as this category is the largest among sailboats, and its races are considered the most exciting in terms of the challenges facing the participants in terms of the length of the distance. The desire to be crowned with a race that has all the elements of creativity and excellence. More than 3,000 sailors and crews participated in the sixth edition of the race, carrying more than 3,000 sailors and sailors on board. They performed a traditional marine epic during 7 hours of surfing from Dalma Island, passing through the islands of Sir Bani Yas, Ghasha, Umm al-Kurkum, Al-Fatayir, Al-Bazm, Al-Fayai, and Marawah, arriving. To Jinana Island before anchoring on the beach of Mughira.
Majid Ateeq Al Muhairi, Director of the Marine Sports Department at the Abu Dhabi Marine Sports Club, praised the wise leadership’s support for efforts to preserve the Emirati heritage in general, and marine heritage in particular, through festivals and traditional sailing and sailboat races on many occasions, appreciating the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed. Al Nahyan, the ruler’s representative in the Al Dhafra region of the festival, gives the event additional momentum and motivation for participants, organizers, and followers.
He said: “Participating in the Delma Race for 60-foot sailboats represents the most important stop for sailors, owners, captains, and sailors, as it is linked to an occasion that has national connotations, and to the name of the ancient island of Dalma, with its history and maritime heritage, during which the grandfathers and fathers presented wonderful epics recorded in letters of light.”
He added: "It is expected that the seventh edition race will witness record participation, as the first day of opening registration witnessed a rush of owners and owners to register and confirm participation, and to complete the procedures to devote themselves to technical preparations for the bearings in preparation for competing in the big race."