Patrick Condy shares this latest news about Isle of Wight sailor, Leigh McMillan. Ed
Island-born Olympian, Leigh McMillan, competed in the international Extreme Sailing Series™ in Muscat, Oman recently, where his team finished in fourth position on the event leaderboard.
Leigh, who is helmsman of the British-flagged Land Rover BAR Academy, returned to the circuit for the first time since 2015, the year his Omani-flagged team The Wave, Muscat won the Series championship (his third Series title).
35th America’s Cup
In 2016 he made the move to Sir Ben Ainslie’s British America’s Cup team, Land Rover BAR, who competed in Bermuda last summer during the 35th America’s Cup.
Land Rover BAR Academy is the youth syndicate to Sir Ben Ainslie’s America’s Cup team, and has been put in place to develop some of the UK’s hottest sailing talent, with Leigh taking on a mentoring role within the team.
With an array of strong results in Muscat, the British youth team peppered the leaderboard by the end of racing on day two. With the Academy taking their first race win of the season, finishing third in the two races that followed.
The British squad stole the show on the final day of racing. The team threw their all into the final three races of the day, taking the win in the competitive double points round.
A really solid effort
Leigh reflected on his week with the team,
“It was a really solid effort by all the guys on the Land Rover BAR Academy team to come away with fourth place here in the first event. As a new team, gelling and working through all the little teething issues, it has been a steep learning curve and the guys have done a fantastic job at getting it all up and running in such a quick time.
“To win the last two races was a great finish to the event and just shows what we’ve got in front of us moving forward and to win three races over the course of the four days was a great performance by all the guys in the team.”
The second event of the 2018 season will take place in Lake Garda, Italy, as part of the GC32 World Championship from 24-27 May.
Images: © Lloyd Images
