Extreme Sailing Series™ 2014 Act 4, Saint Petersburg, Russia - Day 1
by Extreme Sailing Series 26 Jun 2014 20:44 BST
26-29 June 2014
Testing conditions in Saint Petersburg
Set against a city backdrop instantly recognisable the world over, the Neva River provided the playground for the first day of Stadium Racing at Act 4 of the Extreme Sailing Series™ in Saint Petersburg, presented by Land Rover, where some teams thrived and others suffered within the confines of the tight stadium racecourse, which is just 300 metres wide at its narrowest point. Testing conditions saw the crews battle massive wind shifts and a four-knot current across the racecourse, but Morgan Larson and the team on Alinghi were impressive as ever – the picture of consistency as the average fastest boat downwind and the quickest off the startline according to the SAP Sailing Analytics – that saw them stake an early nine point lead. "We were pretty terrible yesterday in the practice, so today we came out with a little different attitude. We had decent starts, we tried to stay on the opposite side of the racetrack to the rest of the boats so that every time we split from the group we had cleaner air and finally, a little bit of luck went our way and things worked out for us. It's a challenging venue and it's going to keep being challenging throughout the week."
Four races were sailed before an increasing current and decreasing breeze shut proceedings down, forcing Race Management to abandon the racing. Race Director Phil Lawrence explained: "Today was incredibly challenging for the sailors and they did a great job. We managed to get four reasonable races in, but I was forced to abandon the fifth race when the wind stopped, which was a shame but it was the right thing to do. We attempted to start a sixth race but by then the wind was just too light."
Three race winners emerged from the four races, with Alinghi taking two and the Swiss Realteam and Gazprom Team Russia one-a-piece. Realteam's skipper Jérôme Clerc – who won the penultimate race of the day and is gunning for the team's third podium finish of the season in Russia this week – spoke about the key to winning on this brand new racecourse. "I think good starts are essential, and we did some good starts to be ahead of the game. You then have to be on the right shift at the right moment – if you take the shift at the right time, you can really jump ahead to the front. If you're in the front at the first mark, it's pretty easy afterwards. I wouldn't say this racecourse is any more difficult to anywhere else we've been, but the current made the racing really different. We just have to stay consistent, sail well as a team and then the points will follow."
Saint Petersburg marks the halfway stage of the 2014 global tour, and the teams are really starting to feel the pressure as the Series moves into the 'business end'. At this morning's press conference, which officially opened Act 4, defending champion Leigh McMillan described the level of competition in the Series as "getting tougher and tougher each year," but the Omani team, who is currently second on the overall Series leaderboard, were cool as ice today, keeping it consistent with three third places to finish the day in second place – two points ahead of Realteam.
Another point back in fourth place is Emirates Team New Zealand, and the new combination of Ray Davies calling tactics and Peter Burling on the helm, were unphased by both the fickle breeze and strong current, steadily improving their results throughout the day to finish in fourth. Olympic silver medallist Burling commented: "It's been a pretty good battle out here, we're happy with our starts and we've got off the line pretty clean. The crew is doing a great job trimming the sails, and getting us around the course into some good lines."
Over 100 national and international media turned out to watch the elite level teams compete and to support their national sailors onboard the two home boats, the invitational team RussianFirst and Gazprom Team Russia. Igor Lisovenko and Paul Campbell-James have both set their sights on Team Russia's first podium result on their home waters, and everything seemed on track with a win in the second race of the day, before a disappointing 11th and 12th in the day's final races left the team frustrated after racing, having to settle for eighth place, a point behind Groupama sailing team. "It was very tricky. We started the day with a little bit of breeze, and by the end we were barely making it up the tide," explained Campbell-James. "We got good starts on all bar one race, but we still didn't manage to convert them into good results, which was extremely frustrating. We did win a race today, so we know we can do it. We just need to have more good races and perform better – avoid the big snakes and try and get a few more ladders."
Olympic champion Nathan Wilmot made his debut on the stadium racecourse today after only stepping onboard the GAC Pindar Extreme 40 for the first time yesterday, and impressed with two fifth places, at times getting the better of the more experienced crews. Reflecting on his first day in charge, Wilmot commented: "It was interesting out there today, really shifty and hard conditions, but it was good fun. This is only my ninth day of steering a catamaran ever, so we're just trying to build our experience, get a good team together, create a platform and try and build on from it from there." The Australian-outfit finish the day in ninth place, a point behind Gazprom Team Russia, in what is shaping up to be an extremely close, and hard fought week of Stadium Racing."
Despite the difficult sailing conditions that saw the positions changing with every race, all the crews were in agreement that this is a spectacular racecourse, and before racing, the Land Rover Extreme Sailing Team and SAP Extreme Sailing Team took advantage of the 'White Nights' in the heart of Saint Petersburg, sailing in the early hours of the morning, against a spectacular cityscape. Tomorrow, the racing will be streamed live on the official event website and on the YachtsandYachting.com homepage from 1600 local time/1200 GMT / 1400 CET, with expert commentary and analytics by Technical Partner and Saint Petersburg Host Venue Partner, SAP. Follow at www.extremesailingseries.com.
Results after Day 1: (four races)
1st Alinghi (SUI) Morgan Larson, Stuart Pollard, Pierre-Yves Jorand, Nils Frei, Yves Detrey 37pts
2nd The Wave, Muscat (OMA) Leigh McMillan, Sarah Ayton, Pete Greenhalgh, Kinley Fowler, Nasser Al Mashari 28pts
3rd Realteam by Realstone (SUI) Jérôme Clerc, Arnaud Psarofaghis, Denis Girardet, Bryan Mettraux, Thierry Wassem 26pts
4th Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL) Peter Burling, Ray Davies, Blair Tuke, Jeremy Lomas, Edwin Delaat 25pts
5th SAP Extreme Sailing Team (DEN) Jes Gram-Hansen, Rasmus Køstner, Thierry Douillard, Peter Wibroe, Nicolai Sehested 22pts
6th J.P. Morgan BAR (GBR) Ben Ainslie, Nick Hutton, Paul Goodison, Phil Sparks, Matt Cornwell 20pts
7th Groupama sailing team (FRA) Franck Cammas, Romain Motteau, Tanguy Cariou, Thierry Fouchier, Devan Le Bihan 17pts
8th Gazprom Team Russia (RUS) Igor Lisovenko, Paul Campbell-James, Matt Adams, Pete Cumming, Aleksey Kulakov 16pts
9th GAC Pindar (AUS) Nathan Wilmot, Troy Tindill, Ed Smyth, Sam Newton, James Wierzbowski 15pts
10th Oman Air (OMA) Rob Greenhalgh, Tom Johnson, Kyle Langford, Hashim Al Rashdi, Musab Al Hadi 11pts
11th Red Bull Sailing Team (AUT) Roman Hagara, Hans-Peter Steinacher, Mark Bulkeley, Nick Blackman, Stewart Dodson 7pts
12th RussianFirst (RUS) Georgy Shayduko, Sergey Dzhienbaev, Pavel Kalinchev, Leonid Kazinets, Pavel Karachov 4 pts
www.extremesailingseries.com
Challenging first day in St Petersburg for Oman Sail teams but promising start for The Wave, Muscat (from Oman Sail)
The Wave, Muscat closed their opening day of Extreme Sailing Series Act 4 in St Petersburg in a promising second place with a show of characteristic consistency in tricky conditions while Oman Air toiled hard to gain a foothold.
Despite being new to the circuit, St Petersburg is already being billed as the trickiest sailing venue of the year and possibly of all time due to the challenges posed by a small stadium racecourse on the Neva River where the current is notoriously strong. A forecast for light winds on the opening day coupled with strong currents was greeted cautiously by all 12 crews racing against the spectacular backdrop of the Winter Palace and the Hermitage Bridge.
By the end of four races, defending champion Leigh McMillan and his crew had notched up three podium places, each of them hard fought for in a highly competitive fleet.
"It was a good opening day because they were challenging conditions with lots of current and a shifty wind but we were pretty happy with our performance," said The Wave, Muscat's Sarah Ayton.
"It was patchy but it was the strength of the current when the breeze died that was catching people out so it was especially important to get a good start and our one disappointing result was down to a bad start."
The long running battles with rival Alinghi, the current series leader, resumed immediately the flag went up on the first race but according to bowman Nasser Al Mashari, they refuse to be distracted from their aim to win three ESS championship titles in a row.
"With each and every event, the competition is getting harder but it is very important we focus on our own performances," he said.
"It was our first day in Russia today and apart from the fact that it was really cold, we found the current to be very strong which made it very difficult to sail.
"But we are second at the end of day one and tomorrow we will be aiming to go first so we are feeling positive about our performances."
Rob Greenhalgh and his Oman Air team, who finished the last event in Qingdao on such a high after finishing 5th overall, were also feeling positive about the challenge ahead.
"This is a city centre venue with a strong current and no wind. What wind we did have was very shifty so it wasn't easy and the quick boats came out on top which was down to technique and sail trimming with a little bit of luck and a little bit of skill.
"We felt we were a little bit off the pace today but we will be playing catch up tomorrow, looking for significant improvements so we can work our way through the fleet. It is going to be very hard here for everyone."
Limiting losses on a tricky day in St Petersburg (from J.P. Morgan BAR)
Day one of the Extreme Sailing Series Act 4, Saint Petersburg and J.P. Morgan BAR were set up to expect both a demanding venue and difficult racing conditions from the famous Russian city. The wind was highly inconsistent, extremely light, and it eventually forced officials to abandon sailing after only four races.
The task of managing the ripping Neva River current, while focusing on the demands of the Extreme racing, made it incredibly difficult for all the teams to perform. Across the board, the twelve-strong fleet struggled with consistency, jostling for positions and pushing hard to optimize their boat speed.
Tactician, Paul Goodison summarized the day's racing. "It was a lottery out there and really hard to predict at times. But we expected it to be tough and we learnt some useful things about the venue, the conditions and what our strategy needs to be for the week."
"Overall it was an interesting day with enjoyable racing. The trickiness of it all just means you have to react quickly – the wind drops off and comes back in from quite random spots so you have to act fast."
J.P. Morgan BAR brought home a mixed bag of results, enjoying a clean get-away off the start line in race one to take second place. A ninth place followed in race two, a sixth in race three and the British team finished the day with a fourth, leaving them sixth overall with 20 points on the scoreboard.
Bowman, Matt Cornwell commented, "As a team we are taking small steps forward and making improvements on-board which will help make a big difference in the long run. It is unique racing, we are still learning how each of us works, and together we did a reasonable job of dealing with it all today."
"All in all not a bad opener to the event for us, it's a competitive fleet so it's tough and now there are things for us to build on for tomorrow."
As the series progresses, the pressure builds and the team is looking for a top three finish from the event, to set them up in a good position to head into the next half of the circuit.
Watch the racing action live from: 1200-1330 GMT / 1400-1530 CET / 1600-1730 local time St Petersburg at jpmorganbarblog.com