It will be used to transport cargo between UAE to Indian Ocean rim countries
Named ‘Obaid’, in a reference to Obaid Jumaa Bin Majid Al Falasi, an Emirati shipbuilder who began an apprenticeship at the age of nine in the mid-1940s, the largest wooden Arabic dhow in the world was recently verified by Guinness World Records in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
The majestic dhow measures 91.47m long and 20.41m wide. To visualize this, it is the length and almost half the width of a standard American football field, floating over the Indian Ocean. Hypothetically speaking, balancing this huge structure on either its bow or stern vertically would make this dhow stand almost as tall as the Big Ben in London.
The dhow stands at a height of 11.229m, and it weighs 2500 tonnes. It has been constructed from material sourced both locally and abroad and will have an estimated load capacity of up to 6,000 tonnes. It took 1700 tonnes of wood and 800 tonnes of steel to construct the dhow. The wood was brought from Africa.
The dhow is powered by two 1850 HP engines and will used to transport cargo from the UAE to Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Egypt, Kenya, Pakistan, India, and Iraq.
