Extreme Sailing Series™ 2014 Act 7, Nice, France - Day 3
by Extreme Sailing Series 4 Oct 2014 21:54 BST
3-5 October 2014
Damage limitation for The Wave, Muscat tomorrow after a day to forget while the Swiss teams rule
The third day of racing on the French Riviera for the Extreme 40s could prove to be one of the most defining days of the whole 2014 season, with the leaderboard well and truly blown open. There were plenty of movers and shakers in the rankings, but the most significant moves came from Alinghi, who came to Nice with a slender one-point lead in the Series rankings, between them and the team challenging them for the season title, The Wave, Muscat. The Swiss took an impressive 54 points from a possible 70, while the Omanis could only add 21 to their tally, and the result: Alinghi lead, The Wave, Muscat last going into tomorrow's final showdown, leaving The Wave, Muscat now planning their damage limitation strategy.
Explaining what worked for them today, Morgan Larson commented: "Sometimes in the light air, if you just focus on your positioning, your tactics and your starts and ignore the other boats – it works. That was our strategy this morning; ignore the other boats. I know I keep my loose eye on The Wave, Muscat all the time, and the team remind me to just sail the boat well, and we did that – which in turn will put the pressure on them. It's working, but there's still a lot of races to go."
For the defending champions from Oman it was a day of sailing they will want to forget. But while the team are down, they are by no means out and when the pressure is on, Leigh McMillan has more then enough ability to rise to the challenge and bounce back, which the team's tactician Sarah Ayton was positive about: "It was a really tough day – the conditions were such that if you had a good start then you could lead either into the left or into the right and that's were the gains were. As a team we are solid, our roles, routines, the synergy on the boat is good – so we'll just take a bit of time to reflect on our performance and have another go tomorrow."
Realteam, who have led the regatta since day one, did well to maintain their podium position and head into tomorrow in second place, just 10 points behind Alinghi, and three ahead of Emirates Team New Zealand, somewhat to the relief of Skipper Jérôme Clerc. "It was a tough day for us, we are surprised by the overall standings because we didn't think we had a good day. The plan of attack for tomorrow is to continue to navigate as we did the first few days, it is quite regular and strategy work. The mindset will also play a role tomorrow because it is going to be complicated; everyone will want to attack and be on the podium."
Seven races were sailed, and with so much at stake, the teams took plenty of risks in the light conditions, often rolling the dice and trying to break away from the pack to make gains. On the tight and congested racetrack, mistakes were punished hard; misjudge the start and there was no coming back, find yourself stuck in a hole in the wind and sufferer the consequences. Those who could minimise mistakes and stay out of trouble rose to the top, and it was a great day of racing for Rob Greenhalgh and the team from the Sultanate of Oman, Oman Air, scoring two race wins to upgrade their overnight position from eighth to fourth at the close of play. "It was a difficult day, we didn't start off brilliantly but then we had a string of reasonable results all the way through," said Greenhalgh "We were good downwind and made some good decisions. We will go out tomorrow and do the best we can – the team has made excellent progress and we hope to continue to."
Behind them is J.P. Morgan BAR who had a consistently inconsistent day like much of the fleet, currently in fifth place and leading the middle of the pack. Just one point behind are the new boys from Down Under on GAC Pindar, and while it has been a steep learning curve this season the team are getting better Act by Act, as skipper Nathan Wilmot explained: "I think we've learnt a lot over the last couple of regattas. Generally we are being more consistent although we had a couple of bad races today. I think we are learning a lot and up there fighting at the top of the fleet in a lot of the races, so we've just got to try and keep it up and hopefully we'll keep doing it come Sydney."
Gazprom Team Russia tumbled a few places on the leaderboard, and finish the day tied on points with Red Bull Sailing Team in seventh place. Roman Hagara and his crew had a much better day, making the right sort of waves to move up from eleventh to eighth at the close of play and their double Olympic champion skipper Roman Hagara explained what was different: "We sat down as a team yesterday and tried to analyse all of the things we did that were both bad and good, and then came up with a plan for today. So we've continuously improved over the last three days, and that's what we'll try and do tomorrow."
As is the way in Extreme Sailing Series, the final double points race can be a shoot-out that always has twists and turns, and expect tomorrow to be no different, with any team mathematically capable of a top three finish at the close of play. Watch live from 1530 local time (GMT+2) on the YachtsandYachting.com homepage and at extremesailingseries.com This is not one you want to miss!
Standings after Day 3: (22 races)
1st Alinghi (SUI) Morgan Larson, Anna Tunnicliffe, Pierre-Yves Jorand, Nils Frei, Yves Detrey 135pts
2nd Realteam by Realstone (SUI) Jérôme Clerc, Arnaud Psarofaghis, Bruno Barbarin, Bryan Mettraux, Thierry Wasem 125pts
3rd Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL) Peter Burling, Glenn Ashby, Blair Tuke, Jeremy Lomas, Edwin Delaat 122pts
4th Oman Air (OMA) Rob Greenhalgh, Ted Hackney, Kyle Langford, Hashim Al Rashdi, Musab Al Hadi 120pts
5th J.P. Morgan BAR (GBR) Ben Ainslie, Nick Hutton, Paul Campbell-James, Bleddyn Mon, Matt Cornwell 110pts
6th GAC Pindar (AUS) Nathan Wilmot, Seve Jarvin, Hugh Styles, Tyson Lamond, James Wierzbowski 109pts
7th Gazprom Team Russia (RUS) Igor Lisovenko, Phil Robertson, Garth Ellingham, Pete Cumming, Aleksey Kulakov 106pts
8th Red Bull Sailing Team (AUT) Roman Hagara, Hans-Peter Steinacher, Mark Bulkeley, Thomas Cjakgak, Stewart Dodson 106pts
9th Groupama sailing team (FRA) Franck Cammas, Tanguy Cariou, Valentin Bellet, Arnaud Jarlegan, Devan Le Bihan 105pts
10th SAP Extreme Sailing Team (DEN) Jes Gram-Hansen, Rasmus Køstner, Thierry Douillard, Christian Kamp, Brad Farrand 98pts
11th The Wave, Muscat (OMA) Leigh McMillan, Sarah Ayton, Pete Greenhalgh, Kinley Fowler, Nasser Al Mashari 95pts
Another Trying Day in Nice Leads to More Erratic Results (from J.P. Morgan BAR)
Trying, testing... day three, the penultimate of the final European event, was both in equal measures. So far, the Extreme Sailing Series' annual visit to Nice has delivered the predicted set of light conditions. And today, a patchy, unstable sea breeze left J.P. Morgan BAR struggling to improve on yesterday's performance.
The Race Management held seven races, taking it to a total of 22 sailed in the French Riviera. After a couple of difficult openers, the British team claimed another race win, their third of the event, and remain in fifth place as they head into tomorrow's final – the position they have held since the opening day
Paul Campbell-James, team tactician, gave his thoughts on the tricky racing, "We started the day quite badly, but we fought back and managed to turn it around to work in our favour and finish well. It was frustrating at times, but on the whole we can be reasonably happy with our racing."
Trimmer, Nick Hutton, continued; "It was hard racing today. Our strength was holding at the pin-end and we were trying to get off the start line fast because ultimately that's what was going to win the race.
"But, a couple of times it didn't work for us, we got taken out by boats trying to get underneath us and it cost us and them a bad start. So that didn't help us get the results we wanted – which was frustrating."
The final day of racing will continue tomorrow [Sunday] from 14:00 local time with a further eight races expected. Bleddyn Mon, the team's 5th man commented on the team's performance so far, "It's obviously been light all week, but we are confident with our speed in these conditions and our starting has been good. It's just been a bit unlucky at times which has knocked us back a little.
"As a team there are always things for us to learn. From this event it's a case of a day by day learning curve and we are always working towards getting better and better.
"Tomorrow, we need more good starts and to stay out of trouble – then we can look to score some solid points and hopefully a podium finish."
GAC Pindar goes into day 4 in contention after a strong start to day 3 (from GAC Pindar)
It was a day of mixed fortunes for GAC Pindar in Nice, on day three of Act 7 of the Extreme Sailing Series, which has left Nathan Wilmot and his GAC Pindar crew in contention for a podium finish on the final day tomorrow.
The days racing got off to a flying start for GAC Pindar with a second place finish in Race 1 and a third place finish in race 2, shooting them up the leader board. It was another day of low winds and GAC Pindar made the most of the tricky conditions early on.
Wilmot and his crew knew that a strong result in the final race of the day would leave them in with a chance on the final day. They duly delivered; getting a great start and holding their ground to claim a second place finish to end day three.
That result leaves GAC Pindar in sixth position in the leader board, just 13 points behind Emirates Team New Zealand in third. A strong day tomorrow could see GAC Pindar claim their first podium finish of the series.
Skipper Nathan Wilmot commented: "It was such a great start to the day for us that it was just a shame we couldn't stay at that level all through the day. Conditions were tricky with another day of low winds so it was tough out there. We're delighted we were able to finish strongly and give ourselves a shot tomorrow."
Oman Air climb the rankings at Extreme Sailing Series Nice while The Wave, Muscat have a tricky day (from Oman Sail)
Thousands of sailing fans gathered on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice to enjoy the warm Mediterranean breeze and a changing of the guard in the Extreme Sailing Series with Oman Air rocketing up the rankings to fourth place and The Wave, Muscat looking to a final day resurgence in defence of their French crown.
For the third day in a row, the Cote d'Azur wind refused to cooperate, the afternoon grew more hazy and the breeze remained light and tricky while the skippers' focus switched from speed to spotting zephyrs.
By the close, Oman Air were just two points off the podium after a windfall day of two resounding wins and two second places from seven races which made Rob Greenhalgh's crew the next best on the water to Alinghi who rose from fourth to first.
"It was a difficult day, we didn't start off brilliantly but then we had a string of reasonable results all the way through," said Greenhalgh who made one change to his crew of Ted Hackney, Kyle Langford and Hashim Al Rashdi with Australian 470 Olympic hopeful, Will Ryan, coming on to replace the injured Musab Al Hadi.
"Will stepped on at the last minute for us and did a great job in the tricky light conditions. We were good downwind and made some good decisions. We will go out tomorrow and do the best we can – the team has made excellent progress and we hope to continue to."
Hashim Al Rashdi was also upbeat about the final day after their performances today: "It was a very good solid day and we finished two points off the podium so we are looking forward to our final day.
"The whole team is happy and we will be fighting to be on the podium tomorrow."
Winner of more Extreme Sailing Series Acts than any other sailor, Leigh McMillan and his crew remained positive about The Wave, Muscat's performances and prospects despite finishing the day with everything to do in Sunday's remaining races to claw back points.
And as the team who in 2014 have won more points on the last day of an event than any other team, they were hopeful of moving off the bottom, said Sarah Ayton despite another challenging day today.
"It was a really tough day - the conditions were such that if you had a good start then you could lead either into the lift or the right and that's where the gains were," said Ayton.
"So if you weren't coming off the line in the front row, then you were getting forced to tack and in these boats in light winds tacking really slows you down.
"But as a team we are solid, our roles, routines, the synergy in the boat is good - so we'll just take a bit of time to reflect on our performance and have another go tomorrow!"
Suleiman Amur Al Manji, a key member of Oman Sail's Extreme 40 shore crew who is normally found cleaning and repairing The Wave, Muscat and Oman Air enjoyed a career highlight today when he was invited to join Emirates Team New Zealand for the day as replacement for a Kiwi crewmember who had fallen sick.
Suleiman, whose ambition is to open a boat building and repair school in Oman to teach people how to fix boats said: "It was my first time ever sailing on an Extreme 40 and imagine my luck at being asked to sail on Emirates Team New Zealand to stand in for one of their sailors who was feeling unwell - I was so happy and so proud!," said a delighted Suleiman. "I am inspired now - next is the America's Cup!" he said with a grin.