I actually just read a very interesting book on Arab sailing - "Arab Seafaring" by Hourani. I don't know that they had any particular skills other than the triangular sails. They took elevation with their hands (ie no astrolabe) and didn't have anything like the kind of incredibly detailed system of star navigation that the Polynesians do. Polynesians could - and in fact still can - sail from Hawaii to New Zealand without a compass, which is like finding half a needle in an extremely large haystack. Arabs mostly stuck to the coasts - the main exception being crossing directly from Oman to southern India - but they regularly sailed from southern Iraq to Guangzhou in China, which is unbelievable. They also sailed boats that had been stitched together with coconut fibers, because nails were too expensive, so I think we can add tremendous bravery to the list.

Also aside from the obvious fact that they favored single hull canoes with outriggers I don't think there is any link between India and the Polynesians. Their sails were totally different - Indias used Arab sails - and the navigation system is pretty clearly something the Polynesians invented while sailing around the Pacific.