The Jewel Of Muscat, a project we talked about during launch back in October, has now set course bound to Singapore. The journey, part of a multi-lateral plan to increase cooperations between the two countries.

The project, inspired by the Belitung Tang Shipwreck,  is the fruit of an idea of reconstructing a 9th century style Arabic dhow similar to those used by Omani sailors throughout history. Work on the project began on January 2008 where since it has undergone numerous developments until yesterday’s landmark one, which coincided with the first day of the Muscat stage of the Extreme Sailing Series Asia.

Captain Saleh bin Said Al Jabri of Shabab Oman expertise, will be commanding the ship to Singapore stopping on the way in India, Sri Lanka and Malaysia in a voyage expected to take 4 months.

True to it’s form, the voyage will attempt authentic replication of what the 9th century ship experience would have been. The contrsuction, for example, is completely without nails and instead uses construction mechanisms available during the 9th century. The journey will also rely only on the navigational techniques and tools available at the time.

Progress of the journey will be available on the Jewel Of Muscat website, and through a twitter account they will be using (@jewelofmuscat). The website has a multitude of resources and information about the project, as well as a number of photos and video of the development of the project.

We will be posting developments as they come.

More photos after the break.

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