Ready to step up as skipper: Adil Khalid

Cup of joy ... Adil Khalid with the 11-ring, aluminium and silver-plated nine-kg trophy. — Supplied photo

Adil Khalid will turn 27 this October, but he may as well have aged after twin sojourns across five continents on a boat.

The Emirati was all smiles, but there was definitely a marked difference about him to the one back in January 2011, when he was short-listed from 120 candidates to be part of Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (ADOR) team in the Volvo Ocean Race.

On Tuesday, Khalid was still hung over from an excruciating and gruelling journey of nine months and close to 39,000 nautical miles, which culminated in the team winning the Volvo Ocean Race, on their second attempt.
The weariness was still visible.

But holding aloft the 11-ring, aluminium and silver-plated nine-kilo trophy in Gothenburg, Sweden, on Saturday and in Abu Dhabi, on Monday, was still fresh in his mind.

And he was grinning from ear to ear just like he did when he was announced as the lone Emirati sailor on that day in 2011. But he was much calmer, much more at peace with himself and much more mature. Maybe it is the sea that does that to you. When you are at sea for almost nine months, the waves, the winds, the clouds are your companions, your alternate life.

And Khalid admitted that it did give his life a new meaning.

“Yeah, I have probably grown a few years older,” Khalid giggled as he spoke with Khaleej Times during an interview.

“You sail with the old guys who are 45 years or more and you learn from them. They have probably sailed five or six times around the world and you can learn from their experience. Every day is a new lesson and every day you are learning about the sea, about the boat, how to react to the waves, the clouds, the winds, how to live a normal life with the people. This is the great thing about the Volvo Ocean Race. It changes your life,” said Khalid, who is the first Arab and first Emirati to win the iconic race, dubbed the ‘Everest of Sailing’ or the ‘Formula One of Sailing.’

“It is a great thing to go into the sea and test yourself, test your body and see how strong you are. It also helps you to be patient. It also calms you down. Just to give an example of a scenario, if there are people shouting around you, you are a very calm person. You listen and then you smile. You try to fix things because even if anything happens, there is a solution for it. In life, you go through a lot of doors and sometimes, you knock it but it is closed. But then, there is another door which opens for you. You have to keep trying to get there,” he added.

And Khalid likened the triumph to representing the UAE at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. “It was such a great feeling as it reminded me of how I felt when I represented UAE in the Olympics. To get the taste of winning and to learn that all your hard work has paid off after five years. The feeling that you did it for the country is special,” said Khalid.

Khalid said he had a gut feeling of what was to unfold after Leg 1 from Alicante in Spain to Cape Town in South Africa. ADOR won Leg 1 and then went on to win Leg 5 apart from being on the podium in all the legs barring two. They finished fifth in Leg 7 and Leg 9.

“I remember the start in Alicante. We had good success as we finished third in the in-port race and we won the first leg. From then on, I felt like we could win the Volvo Ocean Race. We were always right on the podium and we were pushing hard. We have a good management and sponsors who have backed us and we have been able to bring the trophy back home,” said Khalid who is the Trimmer and Helmsman of the nine-member crew onboard the boat ‘Azzam,’ which means ‘determined’.

Having been part of two editions of the race, Khalid feels he is ready to step up to the role of skipper in the future and take over from two-time Olympic silver medallist Ian Walker.

“It is something similar to life. You grow up, you get married, you have kids and so you have to take responsibility,” said Khalid.

“When I told him (Walker) I will be skipper, he was shocked and he said, ‘How can you be skipper?’ I told him why not? Anything can happen in this world. I, as a person, I have to dream and I know I have to work hard for it. I don’t think it is too early. Now, I have sailed around the world and we have won it,” he added.

But Khalid was quick to give credit to Walker, who has been the whole and soul of ADOR. “He is a very motivated guy and very hungry for the win. He has been there for around 10 years and he was working on it for a long time. I was watching him closely and there was a lot that I learnt from him,” he said.

But whether Khalid gets the opportunity to skipper the team remains to be seen with there being a question mark on ADOR’s participation for the next edition beginning in 2017.

Khalid though was hopeful that they will take part. “I think we will participate as we have won the race. It is Ramadan now and things are pretty slow right now. I think they (Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority, TCA Abu Dhabi) will decide once Ramadan is over or in a few months. It is not an easy decision to make. It is a big budget race and not a dinghy race. You also have to understand there are other projects as well.

“From what I understand, we want to move forward after this success and five years of hard work and I’m surely looking towards going forward,” felt Khalid.

For now though, Khalid, who also took part in the Asian Games in 2010, is looking forward to qualification in the Laser, Finn, 49ers and Nacra categories for the Rio Olympics in 2016.

Today, sitting in the plush office of the Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi), life had indeed come a full circle for Khalid.

Back in 2011, he came through a gruelling test where he was pushed to the limit over three months, which included being grilled by a three-member jury, psycho-metric tests, training and a journey of blood, sweat and tears. He beat out 120 other Emirati hopefuls to earn the right to fly the UAE flag over the waters.

james@khaleejtimes.com