Many thanks to Alan and Suzanne Whitewood for their report on the final part of the Extreme Sailing Seriesâ„¢. Ed
Despite coming second in the Singapore round of this year’s Extreme Sailing Series â„¢ The Wave Muscat, skippered by Island born sailor Leigh McMillan, took fourth place overall in the series which has been raced in venues around the world and taken eleven months and 301 races to complete.
Italian team, Luna Rossa, won the final Act of 2011 in emphatic style and were crowned Overall Champions of the Extreme Sailing Seriesâ„¢ 2011.
Max Sirena, Paul Campbell-James, Alister Richardson and Manuel Modena, who have raced together on the Extreme 40 all season, hardly put a foot wrong over the 35 races in Singapore.
56-point lead
They went into the final day with a previously unheard of 56-point lead over their arch rivals, French team of Groupe Edmond de Rothschild. There was little Pierre Pennec’s team could do as Luna Rossa put in another strong performance and after 10 races on the final day, Luna Rossa topped the Act 9 leaderboard with a 45-point margin over 2nd placed The Wave, Muscat.
Going into the final race Leigh McMillan and his crew were only 1 point ahead of Roman Hagara’s Red Bull Sailing Team. These two teams went into match racing mode, rounding the first mark in third and fourth.
Locked in battle
Locked in their own battle they effectively raced each other down the fleet allowing the other teams to get through and finish ahead.
This included Dean Barker’s Emirates Team New Zealand who finished the race in 2nd place as McMillan and Hagara ran out of time to finish within the time limit, scoring zero points. The Wave, Muscat and Emirates Team New Zealand were tied on equal points, the tie broken by The Wave, Muscat’s scoring more first places.
Great to be back on the podium
“It was a pretty dramatic finish to the event for us after a couple of bad events,” said skipper Leigh McMillan, “so it’s great to be back on the podium and finish the season that way.”
Dates for the 2012 series will be announced this week. It will be interesting to see if Cowes is still hosting the UK round.
