It's probably not a well known fact that in the 80's Qatar had the largest single class (Class V) Sand & Land Yacht club in the world.
Every February we raced from Dukhan to Rayan (or reverse depending on the wind) in what was internationally knows as the Trans-Q (Trans Qatar).
It was the only land yacht race in the world held on an open public road and attracted teams from: UAE, Oman, UK, USA, France, Bahrain and Saudi together with individual entries from Belgium and even New Zealand.
Sadly the last race (and one in which I was proud to take part) was in the late 80's (I think 1989 but will have to check the photographs). We also in that final year broke the world record for a class V sand yacht hitting speeds of 110kph between Shahaniya and Rayan (where my personal pic was taken). Unfortunately the record wasn't ratified by the Guinness book of records as it wasn't over a measured kilometer. Our only reference was the leading police car who said that he was doing 110 and we were gaining on him. All that and no brakes!
It's probably not a well known fact that in the 80's Qatar had the largest single class (Class V) Sand & Land Yacht club in the world.
Every February we raced from Dukhan to Rayan (or reverse depending on the wind) in what was internationally knows as the Trans-Q (Trans Qatar).
It was the only land yacht race in the world held on an open public road and attracted teams from: UAE, Oman, UK, USA, France, Bahrain and Saudi together with individual entries from Belgium and even New Zealand.
Sadly the last race (and one in which I was proud to take part) was in the late 80's (I think 1989 but will have to check the photographs). We also in that final year broke the world record for a class V sand yacht hitting speeds of 110kph between Shahaniya and Rayan (where my personal pic was taken). Unfortunately the record wasn't ratified by the Guinness book of records as it wasn't over a measured kilometer. Our only reference was the leading police car who said that he was doing 110 and we were gaining on him. All that and no brakes!