Extreme Sailing Series™ Act 3 Qingdao 'Double Star Mingren' Cup - Day 1
by Extreme Sailing Series 1 May 2014 16:42 BST
1-4 May 2014
Testing light winds in Qingdao on day one, as the home team make best ever debut by an invitational entry
Start line collision between Oman Air and GAC Pindar see the Omani team knocked out before racing even begun and with a long night of repairs in the pitlane ahead
Racing began in China's Olympic sailing city today at the Land Rover, Extreme Sailing Series™ Act 3 Qingdao, for the 'Double Star Mingren' Cup, where 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 and strong tide, to edge ahead on the leaderboard at the end of day. But it was the local boat, Team Extreme Qingdao, who will be grabbing the headlines tonight after an outstanding debut performance sees the team in third place at the end of day one – the best ever performance by a home nation invitational team.
Unfortunately for Oman Air, their 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 left the team with severe damage to their port hull, forcing them back to the pit lane. Rob Greenhalgh, skipper of Oman Air – who has welcomed the talents of America's Cup winner Kyle Langford to the team this week – explained what happened: "Just after the start of the first race, GAC Pindar tacked onto port and misjudged the dip on us and T-boned us pretty hard – we have a pretty big hole in the side of the boat. These things happen unfortunately. The shore guys will work hard tonight and get the boat ready for racing tomorrow. We will lick our wounds and be back. It's a disappointment – we were pumped to race." The team will be given a redress and will likely be awarded average points from their races over the next two days by the international jury.
The local boat Team Extreme Qingdao, is being led by co-skippers Mitch Booth and Zhang Yiran this week, and today the duo certainly had the golden touch. The team – who has only come together for this Act – posted a string of consistent results, keeping a cool head under the pressure, and even taught the more seasoned teams a few tricks, winning the fourth race of the day. Team Extreme Qingdao finish the day in third place, and a thrilled Booth commented: "It was a great day for us. We started really well, and our objective was to try and keep clear of everybody else, and not get into the traffic or into any situations that would put pressure on the guys. I think that strategy worked pretty well. We started well, had some clean lanes and overall, it was a great day of racing." The local boat are just three points behind the defending champions – of both the Qingdao Act and the Series – The Wave, Muscat.
The Swiss light wind lake specialists Realteam were also impressive, showing a return to the form they demonstrated at Act 1 Singapore, and finish the day tied on points with Team Extreme Qingdao. Skipper Jérôme Clerc commented: "We are really happy with today. The crew did a great job and our performance was better than in Oman where we struggled at the beginning – and now we're in the game from the start. I think the crew are on fire."
After damaging their forestay in the first race of the day, and making a 'quick fix' on the water, the Austrian Red Bull Sailing Team did well to continue putting points on the leaderboard, and a win in race six helped them on their way to sixth place overall. Their double Olympic gold medal winning skipper, Roman Hagara, commented: "It's a tough game, you have to be right on the spot at the start and if not, it's really hard to fight in amongst the fleet. In the last two races we didn't manage to get good starts, which hurt. It was really good to get our first race win today – it's much easier to sail at the front of the fleet – it was the perfect race for us." The Austrian team are five points behind Emirates Team New Zealand, and one point ahead of the French Groupama sailing team, who posted a mixed bag of results that included two second places but also three finishes in the bottom three. The Russian team are a further one point behind Groupama sailing team in eighth place.
By anyone's standards, two race wins on the Extreme 40 racecourse is no mean feat, but even that wasn't enough for SAP Extreme Sailing Team to make it into the top half of the fleet today, who more often than not, found themselves trailing at the back of the pack and settling for ninth place overall. Co-Skipper Rasmus Køster explained what they need to change tomorrow: "We're not too surprised to see that we are in ninth position. More or less anybody can win a race, but you need to be consistent. We didn't achieve that today, we struggled at times to get off the line, but when we could, we posted some good results – it's difficult as everybody is doing well out there. We're not happy with ninth, but we are with the two race wins, so we will review the analytics and see what we can do tomorrow in stadium racing."
J.P. Morgan BAR struggled on the Olympic waters their skipper Ben Ainslie and crew Paul Goodison and Pippa Wilson – all gold medallists from Beijing 2008 – know so well, finishing the day in tenth place, as did GAC Pindar who struggled to compose themselves after their race one collision. With plenty of races still to come, the teams will be assessing their performance on the water today and planning their moves as Act 3 goes into the stadium tomorrow.
Series Main Partner Land Rover also announced today the new Above and Beyond Award for competitors of the Series – a reward that recognises their sportsmanship, strength of mind and team spirit. The award has been established to reward the finest demonstration of going Above and Beyond – the ethos that lies at the heart of the Land Rover brand. At the end of the season an ultimate trophy will be presented to honour the most inspiring example of going Above and Beyond and the team will be rewarded with the use of a Land Rover in their home country in the following year. Read more here.
Tomorrow the game changes as the twelve boat Extreme 40 fleet move into the stadium inside the breakwater and with the breeze expected to build overnight, tomorrow is expected to be a full pressure day. Despite his early lead, American Morgan Larson and Alinghi will be taking nothing for granted. "It will be different tomorrow. With more wind there could be potential for more collisions and more action. So tomorrow we will aim to stay out of trouble and focus on not getting into any wrecks, but in this field you have to push a little harder at the same time."
Standings after Day 1: (eight races)
1st Alinghi (SUI) Morgan Larson, Anna Tunnicliffe, Pierre-Yves Jorand, Nils Frei, Yves Detrey 64pts
2nd The Wave, Muscat (OMA) Leigh McMillan, Sarah Ayton, Pete Greenhalgh, Kinley Fowler, Nasser Al Mashari 50pts
3rd Team Extreme Qingdao (CHN) Mitch Booth, Zhang Yiran, Liu Xue, Nick Moloney, Freddie White 47pts
4th Realteam by Realstone (SUI) Jérôme Clerc, Arnaud Psarofaghis, Denis Girardet, Bryan Mettraux, Thierry Wassem 47pts
5th Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL) Peter Burling, Glenn Ashby, Blair Tuke, Jeremy Lomas, Edwin Delaat 45pts
6th Red Bull Sailing Team (AUT) Roman Hagara, Hans-Peter Steinacher, Mark Bulkeley, Nick Blackman, Stewart Dodson 40pts
7th Groupama sailing team (FRA) Franck Cammas, Sophie de Turckheim, Tanguy Cariou, Thierry Fouchier, Devan Le Bihan 39pts
8th Gazprom Team Russia (RUS) Igor Lisovenko, Paul Campbell-James, Alister Richardson, Pete Cumming, Aleksey Kulakov 37pts
9th SAP Extreme Sailing Team (DEN) Jes Gram-Hansen, Rasmus Køstner, Thierry Douillard, Peter Wibroe, Nicolai Sehested 33pts
10th J.P. Morgan BAR (GBR) Ben Ainslie, Nick Hutton, Paul Goodison, Pippa Wilson, Matt Cornwell 29pts
11th GAC Pindar (AUS) David Gilmour, Troy Tindill, Ed Smyth, Sam Newton, Alexandra South 17pts
12th Oman Air (OMA) Rob Greenhalgh, Tom Johnson, Kyle Langford, Hashim Al Rashdi, Musab Al Hadi 0pts
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Sarah Ayton brings Olympic gold record to bear in positive day for The Wave, Muscat while Oman Air is forced to retire (from Oman Sail)
A return to Qingdao with vivid memories of winning Olympic gold proved inspiring for The Wave, Muscat's Sarah Ayton while a collision at the start of the Extreme Sailing Series Act 3 when GAC Pindar ploughed into Oman Air just 30 seconds after the gun has given the team a heavy workload to contend with over the next three days.
Oman Sail's day of mixed fortunes was dominated by another impressive display from Leigh McMillan's crew on The Wave, Muscat who recorded two podium places including a win to take second place overnight behind their Swiss rivals Alinghi.
For Ayton, who was making her first trip back to China in six years after winning a sailing gold medal in the Yngling class at the Beijing 2008 Olympics, the return to familiar waters in Qingdao brought back some good memories.
"It's been a few years and although Qingdao has changed, the sailing conditions remain similar – quite light and very tidal so pretty tough," she said.
"At the Olympics we were racing more offshore so it was more about tide and the wind was more stable but it is still as I remember it... tricky!!
"Each leg on the Yngling took about 15 minutes whereas on the Extreme 40 it takes around four so it couldn't be more different. But I'm really enjoying the Extremes. This is our third event and each time we gel more and more.
"The first couple of days is about being consistent, getting top five results and trying not to have any shockers. But we have had an OK day and will go out tomorrow and try and have another OK day!"
The Wave, Muscat skipper Leigh McMillan, another British Olympian who campaigned the Beijing 2008 Olympics on the Tornado agreed that familiarity with the waters was a bonus but that other Extreme crewmembers, notably Anna Tunnicliffe on Alinghi who won Olympic gold in the Laser Radial class in 2008, were also putting their experience to good use.
"Having experience in the venues is good because it gives you an idea what to expect – for sure we are in a good position to draw on the lessons we learned in 2008 and try to make them work for us.
"The wind today was a little bit lighter than forecast. It was a pretty tough day but we will keep pushing hard and are looking forward to the next few days."
The other team in the Oman Sail family racing in China did not fair so well, just 30 seconds into the start of Race 1, the crew onboard Oman Air that for the first time included America's Cup winner Kyle Langford, was forced to retire after GAC Pindar ran out of space as they bore away and ploughed into the port side of them, holing the boat and making it a long night for the three-man shore crew of Joe Lees, Hilal Al Zadjali and Suleiman Al Manji.
According to Oman's Musab Al Hadi who was on the bow when the boats collided, it was an unfortunate incident but would not prevent Oman Air from returning to the racetrack tomorrow.
"GAC Pindar couldn't bear away. There was not enough room in the fleet," he explained. "By the time we saw them under the boom, there was nothing more we could have done and for them it was just an error. It was one of those things.
"We came here to race and not being able to race is upsetting. We were hoping to get into it – to use the start of the regatta to build and develop and now we are missing out on a day of sailing so it is a big disadvantage. We are keen to get into it tomorrow."
Oman Air was craned out of the water and the shore crew immediately set about making repairs, a task that was set to take all night.
"Thankfully no one was hurt, that was the main thing so we will get back on the water tomorrow and lick our wounds," explained skipper Rob Greenhalgh who is very keen to get some good racing in and spent the rest of the afternoon watching the fleet race with his crewmates.
"These things happen unfortunately but being in the right, hopefully we should get some average points for it once we get some racing in."
The ESS Act 3 Qingdao has been enthusiastically supported by the Chinese media with over 80 media organisations attending the pre-race press conference. Thousands of spectators are expected to watch the Extreme 40s in action from the free public Race Village in Fushan Bay over the three days of public Stadium Racing starting tomorrow.
Testing light winds on Qingdao's ESS open water racecourse (from J.P. Morgan BAR)
Day one of the Extreme Sailing Series, Act 3 and Qingdao's 2008 Olympic waters offered light and tricky racing conditions across eight, short, sharp races.
At times, J.P. Morgan BAR struggled with their starting performance, leaving the British team unable to get ahead on the open water track. Fushan Bay's tidal influence was the biggest test, the team were left caught up in the cluster as the more experienced ESS teams made good pace towards the top mark.
However, it was challenging for the whole Extreme 40 fleet, that's made up of 60 sailors - 37 of them Olympians including J.P. Morgan BAR's three 2008 Beijing Olympic gold medallists. Throughout the day each of the 12 teams struggled for consistency, with five different winners placed within the eight races.
Reflecting on the day, bowman Matt Cornwell commented "It was a great day for sailing but, we did struggle a little bit. The conditions were good and it was a nice, steady, building breeze - a little up and down at times - but generally pretty good and off the sea so very stable.
The two main things we didn't get to grips with were firstly, our starts - we weren't starting well so we will have a good look at that tonight and go through the SAP analytics to figure out what we were doing wrong with our set up.
Secondly, our first gybe away from the top mark is something we need to work on, so that will be a focus for us tomorrow."
The Chinese venue is notorious for offering a spectrum of conditions, from none to full on breeze. Although the event has started light, heavier, stronger conditions are already expected to come in and close the Act on Sunday.
Cornwell continued "Tomorrow will be a very different day with a north-westerly breeze coming in from the City. It could be very shifty and more like the conditions we experienced in Singapore."
Tomorrow's format of racing will change to a stadium style, held within the harbour wall. For all the latest J.P. Morgan BAR news and updates from Act 3 in China follow www.jpmorganbarblog.com or on Twitter @JPMorganBAR.