Extreme Sailing Series™ 2014 Act 5, Cardiff, Wales - Day 1
by Extreme Sailing Series 23 Aug 2014 07:22 BST
22-25 August 2014
Brits stake an early claim on home waters but a night in the pitlane ahead for GAC Pindar, Groupama sailing team and Realteam
The towering masts of the Extreme Sailing Series™ fleet dominated the Cardiff Bay skyline on Friday, as the best of the sailing world took to the water under bright skies and tactically demanding winds, that ended with the home team J.P. Morgan BAR in pole position – but a night of repairs in the pitlane for three teams, ahead of the event officially opening to the public tomorrow as part of the Cardiff Harbour Festival.
Today's series of nine races came in thick and fast, each lasting less than 10 minutes, leaving the sailors muscling the huge sails at the front of the boat physically exhausted, and the tacticians and helms at back mentally drained. The new combination on J.P. Morgan BAR of Paul Campbell-James and Ben Ainslie – helped by some expert coaching from the legendary Kiwi Simon Daubney of the America's Cup hall of fame – were unstoppable, timing the starts perfectly as the fastest boat off the startline according to the SAP sailing analytics, leaving the rest of the fleet in their wake.
Ainslie, who hasn't competed in the UK since winning gold at London 2012, elaborated: "It was a very physical day for our guys and we have been working very hard on the fitness and it is beginning to pay off. We love racing in front of the home fans, we don't often get the opportunity in the UK to race at home, and this is a great venue, so it is very special. It is a tricky course. You really need to get a good start with the shifty conditions." Looking ahead to the rest of the Act Ainslie said: "The goal is more of the same tomorrow. It is one day at a time, a lot happens at times during this Series, it is very tight racing; all the teams are very strong so we just need to keep our heads down and keep working hard to be in the mix for the final day."
By the ninth and final race of the day, the breeze was up and Race Management made the decision to remove guest sailors. Shortly after at the top of the track, GAC Pindar couldn't hold back the pace during a tight mark rounding to keep clear of Groupama sailing team, careering into the side of the French boat on port, going from 10 knots to a standstill in seconds as shown by the SAP analytics, leaving both with a long night ahead.
The Olympic gold medallist at the helm of GAC Pindar, Nathan Wilmot, explained what happened: "There was a group of around five boats coming into the top mark, we tried to go around Groupama sailing team with a few boats to leeward of us and we didn't quite get far enough and we went through the side of them. We have a little damage to our port bow and snapped our pole, so not too bad: just a little bit of a repair to get done. Groupama sailing team had half a bow in the side of their boat so they've got a little more on than us unfortunately."
Groupama sailing team skipper Franck Cammas added: "When we realised that GAC Pindar was trying to pass behind us bearing away, we knew that they were going to crash into us. The damage on the boat is quite substantial, which is a real shame. We are going to do our best to fix the boat on time but we are not sure whether we will be able to race tomorrow."
Nine races saw six different race winners, two of which went to SAP Extreme Sailing Team who were the model of consistency, having perhaps their best day of the year so far and showing the return to form expected from the Danish, to finish the day in second place, eight points behind the Brits. Co-Skipper Rasmus Kostner was thrilled with his team's performance: "We had a good day and we managed to read the pre-start very nicely and came off the line in a good spot. It becomes very difficult if you don't get that part right as it's so difficult to overtake in this racecourse. You just go from one manoeuvre to the next, so everything worked really well for us today."
The Danish are one point ahead of current Series leaders Alinghi, in third place, who showed a momentary uncharacteristic chink in their amour today with three race finishes at the bottom half of the pack.
The Wave, Muscat are a further two points back, with Realteam – who were picked out by commentator and Extreme 40 veteran Nick Moloney as the team to watch this week – in fifth place, but with a night of repairs to a delaminated hull, after a scrap with Gazprom Team Russia. Oman Air, who came out of the blocks scoring a bullet in the opening race in Cardiff, are just behind the Swiss Realteam in sixth place with 44 points.
With a start line just 300 metres wide and set just off the shore, the pre-start strategy was essential, with 11 boats jostling to find the best spot, hunt out clean air and trying to stay clear of the dog fight mid fleet. Emirates Team New Zealand found themselves deeper in the pack then they would have wanted for most of the day, but a late surge and a race win in race seven salvaged some valuable points. "It was tough today and I felt a little rusty as I haven't raced in the Series since Oman so I can see some of the other teams are at a really high level", admitted skipper Dean Barker. "As a team we've got to eliminate some of the mistakes. We didn't get off of the start line as well as we'd have liked in a couple of the races, and just made a few little mistakes around the course which adds up at the end of the day. We found ourselves as a bit of a deficit to the leading group but it's early days so there's still a lot of opportunity to gain back."
With gusts of up to 20 knots forecast for tomorrow's racing, the Extreme 40 teams and are bracing themselves for an action-packed, hull flyer of a day, with plenty more races to be sailed, and plenty more work to do. Online fans can watch the racing live from 1530 BST / 1430 GMT, at www.extremesailingseries.com.
Standings after Day 1: (nine races)
1st J.P. Morgan BAR (GBR) Ben Ainslie, Nick Hutton, Paul Campbell-James, Bleddyn Mon, Matt Cornwell 70pts
2nd SAP Extreme Sailing Team (DEN) Jes Gram-Hansen, Rasmus Køstner, Thierry Douillard, Jonas Hviid-Nielsen, Brad Farrand, Nicolai Sehested 62pts
3rd Alinghi (SUI) Morgan Larson, Anna Tunnicliffe, Pierre-Yves Jorand, Nils Frei, Yves Detrey 61pts
4th The Wave, Muscat (OMA) Leigh McMillan, Sarah Ayton, Pete Greenhalgh, Kinley Fowler, Nasser Al Mashari 58pts
5th Realteam by Realstone (SUI) Jérôme Clerc, Arnaud Psarofaghis, Bruno Barbarin, Bryan Mettraux, Thierry Wassem 56pts
6th Oman Air (OMA) Rob Greenhalgh, Ted Hackney, Kyle Langford, Hashim Al Rashdi, Musab Al Hadi 44pts
7th Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL) Dean Barker, Ray Davies, James Dagg, Jeremy Lomas, Edwin Delaat 37pts
8th Red Bull Sailing Team (AUT) Roman Hagara, Hans-Peter Steinacher, Mark Bulkeley, Shaun Mason, Stewart Dodson 33pts
9th Groupama sailing team (FRA) Franck Cammas, Romain Motteau, Tanguy Cariou, Thierry Fouchier, Devan Le Bihan 33pts
10th Gazprom Team Russia (RUS) Igor Lisovenko, Phil Robertson, Matt Adams, Pete Cumming, Aleksey Kulakov 26pts
11th GAC Pindar (AUS) Nathan Wilmot, Hugh Styles, Ed Smyth, Seve Jarvin, James Wierzbowski 21pts
extremesailingseries.com
Back to back race win victory for J.P. Morgan BAR (from Sarah Alexander, J.P. Morgan BAR)
The second half of the 2014 Extreme Sailing Series kicked off in Cardiff Bay today, the only UK leg of the global racing circuit. J.P. Morgan BAR delivered their best day of the season so far, claiming two consecutive wins to leave them in first place on 70 points, eight points clear of second place SAP Extreme Sailing Series.
A record nine races were completed by the 11 Extreme 40 teams and the British entry did well to read the breeze on the start line, relishing Cardiff Bay's tricky demands. A new venue for the majority of the team and for J.P. Morgan BAR Skipper, Ben Ainslie, it's the first time he has raced on home waters since the 2012 Olympic Games.
Commenting on the home racing, "It was a really physical day for our guys and we have been working very hard on the fitness recently and it is beginning to pay off.
"We love racing in front of the home fans, we don't often get the opportunity to race at home, and this is a great venue; so it is very special. It is a tricky course. You really need to get a good start with the shifty conditions."
"The goal is more of the same tomorrow and it is one day at a time. A lot happens during this series, it is very tight racing; all the teams are very strong so we just need to keep our heads down and keep working hard and to be in the mix for the final day."
The teams used good tactical awareness to drag race from one side of the bay to the other, entertaining the spectators with the edge-of-the-seat racing. Trimmer Nick Hutton continued, "It has been a great day for us today, things clicked and we felt it really came together.
"As Ben said, it is great to be here on home waters, I have never raced on Cardiff Bay before and it is exciting to be in the UK, competing in front of a local crowd.
"We are expecting similar racing for the rest of the week so hopefully there will be more of the same from us. We have had a bit of a battle in the series but we now feel like we have a good base."
Oman Air opens Cardiff campaign with a bang while The Wave, Muscat takes things step-by-step after challenging first day (from Oman Sail)
Oman Air wasted no time in getting points on the board when they opened their Cardiff campaign with an outright win while conditions on the first day of Act 5 in the Extreme Sailing Series drew Leigh McMillan into a 'step by step' plan for The Wave, Muscat's defence of the season championship crown.
The fresh breeze in Cardiff Bay remained stable throughout most of the nine races that were held yet there were six different race winners, a crash – but no injuries - and a familiar place in the rankings for McMillan and his crew of Sarah Ayton, Nasser Al Mashari, Pete Greenhalgh and Kinley Fowler, lying just three points behind rivals Alinghi of Switzerland.
"We didn't set the world on fire but we were pretty consistent and had some solid results," said McMillan.
"There is plenty to improve on but the important thing is we are in the running at the end of the first day with very few points in it so we are happy. We are doing a lot of things really well but there are a couple of things we can improve on like the starts and our communication and then we will be off."
The Wave, Muscat is lying in fourth place to Alinghi's third but it was Sir Ben Ainslie's BAR team that caused the biggest upset of the day, McMillan said, to earn their place at the top of the leaderboard.
"BAR had an amazing day – it was only a matter of time before they started putting those sorts of results together. It is going to be difficult to beat them this week."
In all, Oman Sail's two Extreme 40s achieved an auspicious four podium places on the first day, including a stunning first for Rob Greenhalgh on Oman Air, which gave his crew, especially new crewmember Ted Hackney from Australia, a major confidence boost.
After nine races, they were in sixth place and according to Oman's Hashim Al Rashdi, everyone was delighted with their performance.
"It was our first time here in Cardiff and we made a great start by winning the first race," he said.
"The addition of Ted to our crew worked right away and we were very happy with what we did today to be sitting in sixth place.
"In this strong fleet, with some of the best sailors in the world, sixth is good so we are looking forward to the next few days and getting a good result here."
Oman Air has two Omanis on board with Musab Al Hadi and Al Rashdi on the bow and with Kyle Langford and now Hackney on the team, there are now two Australians, who are both relishing their Extreme 40 experience.
"We started with a bang," enthused Hackney who has added to Oman Air's sense of ambition.
"Then we were battling around mid-fleet but it was pretty tough out there, with lots of passing lanes so it was pretty exciting.
"I didn't expect it to be so fast. You finish one manoeuvre and are straight into another – everything I thought it would be, only faster. Sixth is a good starting point for us and it is interesting to see how consistent some of the other teams are. That is what we are aiming for.
"By the end of the series, we want everyone to be afraid of the mighty Oman Air but we need
to give no quarter out on the racecourse!"
Cardiff Bay, where the Extreme 40 fleet race close to shore from 22 to 25 August, provides a superb viewing platform for "Stadium Racing" and in addition, there will be live music, street and open-air theatre, children's entertainment and sporting and food events since Act 5 is one of the highlights of the 2014 Cardiff Harbour Festival.