Adil Khalid eager to fly UAE colours with Azzam in Volvo Ocean Race

Azzam skipper Ian Walker, left, and Emirati sailor Adil Khalid receive their prize for finishing second in the Volvo Ocean Race in-port race in Alicante, Spain, on October 4, 2014. Ian Roman / Abu DhaShow more

When he was 11, Adil Khalid could not have imagined how his life would work out.

A year later, the quiet boy took up sailing at Dubai International Marine Club and has grown up to become the UAE’s leading ­yachtsman.

His early dream was to represent his country at the 2008 Olympics. He did, in the Laser class. He wanted to win regional sailing championships. He did that, too.

Then along came Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (ADOR) and the greatest race in global sailing.

Now the 26-year-old Emirati is the living symbol, as well as a vital member, of an international racing team set to depart Saturday on the round-the-world Volvo Ocean Race (VOR).

"We're very fortunate to have Adil Khalid in the team," said Ian Walker, the skipper of Abu Dhabi's Azzam boat.

"He is the face of this team. I'm not the face of ADOR, Adil is, and that is how it should be.

“Other teams don’t have the luxury of having someone like Adil who is such a big attraction in the host country.

“He earned everybody’s respect on board in the last race. He now has all that experience, and with hard work he should grow into a senior team member.”

Khalid is set to take his second seaborne lap of the planet. He has conceded that, at times, he struggled during the 2011/12 version of the race, when he was chosen from 120 Emirati candidates to join the Azzam crew. His experience as a blue-water sailor was limited.

He recalled that three years ago he was often so exhausted by his four-hour watch on deck that he would go directly to his bunk.

The team twice thought he would drop out of the race, the second time when they were docked in Sanya, China, and Khalid flew home to Dubai.

But he stuck it out. He rejoined the team in time for the leg to New Zealand, followed by the near-disastrous leg from New Zealand to Brazil, when Azzam sprung a leak in the depths of the Southern Ocean.

Somewhere between New Zealand and South America, Khalid grew into his role. By the time Azzam reached Miami, Walker was effusive in his praise of the Emirati, declaring him one of the great success stories of the race.

Things have progressed, and even more is expected from Khalid in this VOR. He is a helmsman and trimmer in a crew reduced from 10 sailors to eight.

“Our aims today are to win,” he said ahead of the race’s first leg, from Alicante to Cape Town, South Africa.

“It’s all going well. Our teamwork has been excellent. This has given us the confidence and the belief that we will be successful in all of the coming legs of the race.”

At the weekend, ADOR finished second in the Alicante in-port race. Three years ago, Khalid and his colleagues were first, but that finish was not a good omen; a few days later, the boat's mast broke on the first night of Leg 1.

Looking back, Khalid said that persistent technical faults in Azzam were behind their fifth-place finish in the six-boat field.

“I thought we had the best crew back then. Unfortunately, the boat did not live up to expectations,” he said. “From the second race, we knew that we could not win. Of course, we still tried our best.”

This time, there will be no such excuses as the playing field, at least in terms of boats, has been levelled.

“In 2011/12, every team could design their boat, but now Volvo provides identically designed boats – all ready,” he said.

“You cannot shorten a rope by 100 millimetres, or change a single bolt; it’s illegal. So the decisive factor in the race is the crew. How you maximise your speed, all depends on the skill and teamwork of the crew.”

It is a crew Khalid gets on with well. He dismissed suggestions that different cultural backgrounds were an obstacle in the past.

“It was never an issue. I’ve been travelling the world since I was a child and I raced in Europe as well,” he said. “When I was racing for the Olympics, for about two years I was constantly moving from one city to another.

“I had a close group of friends, about 15 people, that I was hanging out with. I used to train with them, so already I’ve lived in that sort of atmosphere.

“Even when I was a kid in Dubai, when I was 13 we used to mix with the expats and this gave me the tools to get along with others wherever I was.”

As the only Emirati in the team, he is fiercely proud of representing his country. The UAE will get a closer look at him and his teammates when the VOR comes to Abu Dhabi in December.

“Not just in Abu Dhabi, I am hoping we can achieve success in all the other legs, too,” he said. “On a personal level, I hope to raise the UAE banner at every stop, and to win everywhere. I want to show people what we can do, and hopefully attract others to represent the UAE at sailing events.”

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