Thanks to Alan and Suzanne Whitewood for this update on Isle of Wight sailor, Leigh McMillan’s latest achievements. Ed
Istanbul was the venue for Act 3 of this year’s Extreme Sailing Series and saw two new faces on the start line.
Alain Gautier made his Extreme 40 debut at the helm of Swiss team Alinghi, and Erik Maris returned to the Extreme Sailing Series at the helm of ZouLou having competed in 2008 and 2009 with LUNA.
Istanbul delivered the best racing conditions that the eight boats have sailed in so far this year with blue skies, warm weather and most importantly a great breeze.
Closest finish so far
In the closest finish so far this year, Islander and British Olympian Leigh McMillan and his crew onboard The Wave, Muscat won Act 3.
After four days and 29 races, which saw them in a game of cat and mouse with Roman Hagara and his Austrian Red Bull Sailing Team it was The Wave Muscat which came out on top.
After day one Hagara was on top, day two and it was McMillan. Day three and Hagara was back in pole position. By day four the question everyone was asking was whether Hagara and his men could defend their position at the top of the leaderboard, and win their first ever Extreme Sailing Series Act.
Pennec leapfrogs Hagara
However no one was discounting Pierre Pennec and his all-French team on Groupe Edmond de Rothschild, and a win for the French in the final double-points race was enough for Pennec to leapfrog Hagara to claim second place.
Six races were sailed on the final day in a big breeze with gusts of up to 17 knots and the weather didn’t disappoint. In the strongest breeze the fleet have sailed in all week, it was hull flying, water spraying action as the Extreme 40s charged around the race course in 15 knots of wind, completing each race in less than 14 minutes.
Competition getting tighter and tighter
An elated Leigh commented, “It’s been a really tough week. I am just over the moon with our result here. It’s been a heroic effort from all the guys on the boat, a fantastic performance, we are getting better all the time and learning how each other sail. We are already looking forward to the next Act in Porto.
It is getting very close, so [the competition] is just going to be getting tighter and tighter, and more stressful. We are sure we will be battling it out until the end of the Series.”
Extreme Sailing Series 2012 Overall Series Results after Act 3, Istanbul
Position/Team/Points
1st The Wave, Muscat 29 points
2nd Groupe Edmond de Rothschild 25 points
3rd Red Bull Sailing Team 24 points
4th Oman Air 23 points
5th GAC Pindar 18 points
6th ZouLou 13 points
7th SAP Extreme Sailing Team 13 points
8th Alinghi 11 points
