Thanks to Suzanne and Alan for continuing to keep us informed about Leigh’s progress in the Extreme 40s racing series. Ed
On Day One five different race winners emerged from the eight races sailed, in a day that saw the fleet struggle for consistency and the leaderboard reshuffle after every race. On the open water racecourse, the Swiss team Alinghi dominated in testing light winds with a strong tide, to edge ahead on the leaderboard at the end of day.
However local boat, Team Extreme Qingdao, made the headlines after an outstanding debut performance which saw the team in third place at the end of day one – the best ever performance by a home nation invitational team.
Collision at start line
Unfortunately for Oman Air, the day was over before it had a chance to begin, after a collision with GAC Pindar in the start line tussle of the first race leaving the team with severe damage to their port hull.
Leigh McMillan and his team on The Wave, Muscat kept up their usual good race form and finished the day in second place behind Alinghi. J.P. Morgan BAR struggled on the Olympic waters despite their skipper Ben Ainslie and crew Paul Goodison and Pippa Wilson – all gold medallists from Beijing 2008 – knowing these waters so well. They finished the day in tenth place.
Day Two
After the light winds and open waters for day one it was all change for day two with the stadium racing taking place near to the skyscraper blocks of the city and wind gusting up to 32 knots.
Before racing, Race Management made the call to split the fleet into groups to minimize the chance of collisions on the tight race track.
Leigh McMillan, who is out to defend his title in Qingdao, commented:
“We like it when the breeze is up, today was pretty radical. Gusts and big shifts are quite a handful. But we’re happy to have made it through the day with no big collisions which is great – it was pretty full on out there.”
End of day two
1st Alinghi (SUI) 90 points
2nd The Wave, Muscat (OMA) 76 points
3rd Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL) 73 points
Action-packed day three
Day three saw a packed-eight race day for the 12 competing international Extreme 40 teams. The compact stadium racecourse resulted in a few near misses, protest flags being pulled, a man overboard for SAP Extreme Sailing Team and a collision in the final race of the day between GAC Pindar and Team Extreme Qingdao.
Alinghi, the team who have led the Act since race one, managed to cling onto a 10-point advantage at the end of the day’s racing. Fellow Swiss team Realteam had their strategy sorted, strengthened their hand with each race, including a win in the day’s opener and headed into the final day in second place jumping up from fourth and pushing down Leigh and his team on the The Wave, Muscat to third position.
Gusty day four
Day 4 and a change in race format saw the fleet race in groups of six for safety reasons as there were gusts up to 25 knots blasting across the racecourse. Realteam had been the model of consistency during the event, staying out of trouble to take a well deserved second place.
One of the biggest crashes in the Series’ eight-year history saw Red Bull Sailing Team T-bone Alinghi and knock the Swiss out of racing but this couldn’t stop Morgan Larson, Anna Tunnicliffe, Nils Frei, Pierre-Yves Jorand and Yves Detrey take victory despite watching the final races from the dock. After the international jury had considered the crash they awarded the team on Alinghi a redress, to helmsman Larson’s relief and therefore victory in Act 3.
Emirates Team New Zealand kept in touch with the top of the leaderboard throughout the event and kept a cool head to hold off the defending Series champions The Wave, Muscat to take third place – the Kiwis are now positioned nicely to topple the old order on the overall Series leaderboard.
By most teams standards, a fourth place would be cause for celebration, but Leigh McMillan and The Wave, Muscat team who have been a dominate force in the class for the last two seasons, were left feeling despondent after missing out on the podium by just one point. It was the first time since Singapore in 2013 that the team have not been on the podium meaning that the pressure is now on Leigh when the fleet head to Russia for the next Act. Alinghi now have a two points lead on the overall Series leaderboard.
Result for Act 3
1st Alinghi (SUI) 178 points
2nd Realteam by Realstone (SUI) 168 points
3rd Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL) 160 points
4th The Wave, Muscat (OMA) 159 points
Image: © Lloyd Images
