Extreme Sailing Series™ 2014 Act 6, Istanbul, Turkey - Day 2
by Extreme Sailing Series 13 Sep 2014 08:08 BST
11-14 September 2014
Day of the underdogs as Oman Air and GAC Pindar prove themselves a force to be reckoned with
Day two at the Extreme Sailing Series™ Act 6 in Istanbul without doubt went to the two Oman Sail teams, with Oman Air clocking up more points then any other boat on the water to climb a massive four places on the leaderboard, and finish the day in third. Oman Air's best day of the season couldn't even be matched by their stablemate and defending champions The Wave, Muscat despite a brilliant showing by Leigh McMillan and the team, which has put a little light between them and Emirates Team New Zealand at the top of the leaderboard. In a day that could be described as the 'day of the underdogs,' GAC Pindar were also hugely impressive, earning the accolade as the quickest boat off the start line according to the SAP sailing analytics, which has shown the Aussie team as a real contender heading into tomorrow's penultimate day in fourth place. Watch the day's highlights video here.
Oman Air's skipper Rob Greenhalgh, who won the first ever Extreme Sailing Series back in 2007, was thrilled with his teams' performance. "We had a really good day today. We made some good improvements on boat speed, we made just a few little changes to the boat set-up, which made a big difference, we started well and got some good results out of it. We're really happy with today, but there's still two days left of the regatta, plenty to work on still and plenty more improvements to be made."
Their fellow Omani compatriots on The Wave, Muscat have been criticised this year for being slow starters, but in Istanbul they've found another gear, hitting the ground running and quashing that reputation. Their tactician and double Olympic champion Sarah Ayton spoke about the team's focus onboard: "The first thing is, it's really close and lots of teams have upped their game so it really isn't going to be over until that final race on Sunday. But today we had a good day. We approached it with high-energy, and it was a case of doing the basics well. I think overall that's what we did and it put us in good shape. We're really focusing on the tempo on the boat, getting good starts and all of those things we've been working on throughout the year are all kind of gelling together."
It was a physically demanding day for the fleet with eight fast-paced races, in breeze that steadily built throughout the afternoon to 18 knots, making every manoeuvre and decision during the reaching starts and short windward-leeward legs critical. For the second day in a row, the SAP sailing analytics show Emirates Team New Zealand as the fastest average team on the water, and if it hadn't been for a starting penalty during the eighth and final race of the day, the Kiwi's may well be in pole position. Instead, the team finish the day in second place, three points behind The Wave, Muscat – but with a whole lot of races and points still up for the taking over the next two days.
For Olympic champion Nathan Wilmot and the team on GAC Pindar, Istanbul has so far been a real turning point for them, drawing a line in the sand after a conservative start to the year, to really give the more experienced teams a run for their money. After racing Wilmot was modest about his team's performance despite being in fourth place. "We had a few bad races to start off with and we were over the line in the first two, so we tried to change things around a bit. Then after that we got the starts right, and began to race ahead of the fleet from then onwards. It was really hard out there today. There were some big holes in the breeze and generally tricky conditions all around. Some of the boats had a really good day and we just tried to stick in there and do the best we could. It was really close on the course, especially at the gate. It was good, really good close racing."
The local invitational entry, TeamTurx, gave the home crowd something to celebrate today, with a win in race two followed up by two fourths, in a real Cinderella moment. Their skipper Edhem Diravana, who has been instrumental in the formation of the team, was ecstatic about the team's performance – and eager for more! "It was such a fantastic feeling. We've been working hard for this race for such a long time and as a wildcard entry, we're not favourites. We won a race against some of the best sailors in the world, and to come here for our first time and get a race win, we're just over the moon. Hopefully this is just the start, and it will get our national crowds excited about this great sailing experience and then hopefully we can continue and have a team for a whole Series!"
Both Alinghi and Groupama sailing team were back in the water today with new rigs, after learning the limits the hard way and breaking their masts in isolated incidents during yesterday's racing. Alinghi were slow out of the blocks, sailing conservatively before make a late surge to salvage some points and positions to finish the day in sixth place, while Groupama sailing team struggled to find their rhythm, bringing up the tail end of the leaderboard.
Tomorrow the day will begin with a race on the Bosphorus strait, before the fleet head back to the stadium for the penultimate days racing. Watch live from 1630 local time (GMT +3) on the YachtsandYachting.com homepage.
Standings after Day 2: (15 races)
1st The Wave, Muscat (OMA) Leigh McMillan, Sarah Ayton, Pete Greenhalgh, Kinley Fowler, Nasser Al Mashari 95pts
2nd Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL) Dean Barker, Glenn Ashby, James Dagg, Jeremy Lomas, Edwin Delaat 92
3rd Oman Air (OMA) Rob Greenhalgh, Ted Hackney, Kyle Langford, Hashim Al Rashdi, Musab Al Hadi 87pts
4th GAC Pindar (AUS) Nathan Wilmot, Jack Macartney, Ed Smyth, Seve Jarvin, Tyson Lamond 75pts
5th SAP Extreme Sailing Team (DEN) Jes Gram-Hansen, Rasmus Køstner, Thierry Douillard, Christian Kamp, Brad Farrand 74pts
6th Alinghi (SUI) Morgan Larson, Stuart Pollard, Pierre-Yves Jorand, Nils Frei, Yves Detrey 70pts
7th Red Bull Sailing Team (AUT) Roman Hagara, Hans-Peter Steinacher, Mark Bulkeley, Shaun Mason, Stewart Dodson 68pts
8th Gazprom Team Russia (RUS) Igor Lisovenko, Phil Robertson, Matt Adams, Pete Cumming, Aleksey Kulakov 66pts
9th J.P. Morgan BAR (GBR) Ben Ainslie, Nick Hutton, Paul Goodison, Bleddyn Mon, Matt Cornwell 65pts
10th TeamTurx (TUR) Mitch Booth, Edhem Dirvana, Selim Kakış, Ateş Çinar, Anıl Berk Baki 56pts
11th Realteam by Realstone (SUI) Jérôme Clerc, Arnaud Psarofaghis, Bruno Barbarin, Cédric Schmidt, Thierry Wassem 54pts
12th Groupama sailing team (FRA) Tanguy Cariou, François Morvan, Romain Motteau, Thierry Fouchier, Devan Le Bihan 48pts
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Blistering day in Istanbul as Oman Sail's The Wave, Muscat and Oman Air claim two of the three podium spots (from Oman Sail)
If Oman Sail's Extreme 40 teams The Wave, Muscat and Oman Air could pack up the Istanbul racetrack and stash it away in their kitbags, they surely would, after a blistering day that saw them claim two of the three podium places on the Extreme Sailing Series Act 6 leaderboard.
Both teams enjoyed some fine performances on the second day of the Extreme Sailing Series with Leigh McMillan and his crew on The Wave, Muscat mixing back to back wins with some more modest results and Rob Greenhalgh's Oman Air posting an impressive string of podium places in their most improved day of the season so far.
By the end, Greenhalgh and his crew of Ted Hackney, Kyle Langford, Hashim Al Rashdi and Musab Al Hadi had jumped a whopping four places on the leaderboard to third while The Wave, Muscat shrugged off Emirates Team New Zealand as co-leaders to take sole occupancy of the summit, establishing a slim three point lead.
"It was good today," said a delighted Greenhalgh who has predicted from the outset that Oman Air would be competing for podium places once they had formed a team bond.
"We have improved our boat speed and finding our feet has taken a bit of time. These things don't happen overnight but now I think as a team, we are more in tune with each other so our manoeuvres are getting better.
"Everyone is working together well and enjoying it and the results are getting better."
Like Greenhalgh, Musab Al Hadi came off the water at the end of the 15th race with a smile on his face.
"Yesterday was long and tough and our communication wasn't as good as we would have liked but we talked about it and worked it out so came back and had a very good consistent day today," he said.
"We are now third overall and having a really good battle with The Wave, Muscat which is fun. There are still a couple of days left and we are looking forward to it."
It was too early to predict where they will end up at the close of racing on Sunday but Greenhalgh was confident the result at Istanbul would accurately reflect their performance.
"We will just try to carry on making progress," he said. "Our progress has not been reflected in our results at events so far this year but here, hopefully it will be."
McMillan paid tribute to his own team on The Wave, Muscat but said Oman Air had been the form boat today.
"It was fantastic to see Oman Air having such a great day," he said. "They won the day and have shown they are getting stronger and stronger.
"We all sailed really well and although we made a few mistakes we made some good decisions. We did not maximise our opportunities completely so have still got a lot of work to do."
"We did the simple things well," double-Olympic Gold medallist and The Wave tactician, Sarah Ayton, added.
"I keep hearing people say 'it's never over until it's over' which is a real sign that the teams are getting better and better so we are expecting the racing to get tighter and more intense in the remaining races."
GAC Pindar storm to fourth place in Istanbul (from GAC Pindar)
Istanbul is quickly becoming a firm favourite for GAC Pindar who mastered the warm Baltic Sea conditions to climb up the leader board of Act 6 in Turkey.
In fine sailing conditions, Nathan Wilmot's crew continued yesterday's promising form with an impressive display of sailing, to finish the second day of racing in fourth position, one point ahead of SAP Extreme Sailing Team. This weekend sees GAC Pindar in contention for a podium position in Turkey, and the crew are hoping to secure their highest finish of the Series to date.
GAC Pindar Principal Andrew Pindar said: "Istanbul is a different style of race arena with a good solid breeze, which allows the boats to get going at speed compared to some other venues. We've done well in Istanbul with Ian Williams previously and our Australian crew are benefiting from the warm seas and strong winds there."
Tight Racing Compresses the Fleet into Penultimate Day of Act 6 (from J.P. Morgan BAR)
It was another series of physically demanding and challenging races for J.P. Morgan BAR, after a gusty breeze developed on a hot day two in Istanbul. The early, light conditions delayed the start, but the wind picked up quickly when it came, and the team went on to claim the first race win of the day, their first of the event.
Eight solid races were completed, taking it to a tally of 15 so far. J.P. Morgan BAR Skipper, Ben Ainslie, summarized the day's racing "It was a slightly better day for us today and we started off really well. We had a few issues in the middle races with a couple of collisions, so that didn't go our way, but I guess that's the nature of this racing.
"We have just got to try and eliminate some of those small mistakes and if we can do that, then I'm confident we can get ourselves up the leaderboard."
The gusts building off the shoreline, along with the big shifts, forced the teams to work hard upwind as well as down. It was essential to keep good boat speed at all times to maintain a solid position within the fleet. The geographically confusing racecourse caught a few Extreme 40 teams out, and the boats that delivered consistently were those who executed the start.
Although not the day they were hoping for overall, the British entry pulled out some punchy moves and when there was opportunity to take places, they did. Bowman, Matt Cornwell continued, "We definitely thought it was an improved day. In terms of results, we are still struggling a little bit but the things we were trying to work on, like our position around the course, were a lot better.
"Unfortunately we had two penalties but I think that without those we would have had a pretty stella day, so overall we are pretty upbeat about the racing."
Half-way through the event the team sit in 9th overall, but positions remain close in the middle and a podium finish is still in reach.
Cornwell concluded, "The leaderboard is pretty tight right now; it's all bunched together so there are a lot of opportunities to make some gains. Tomorrow we will come back fighting."
The team started the day inspiring local youth sailors, joining the Extreme Sailing Series 'Chat with Champions' followed by the J.P. Morgan 'Art of Success'.