Extreme Sailing Series™ 2014 Act 6, Istanbul, Turkey - Overall
by Extreme Sailing Series 15 Sep 2014 08:18 BST
11-14 September 2014
Emirates Team New Zealand break Alinghi and The Wave, Muscat's dominance
Kiwis clinch their first Act win of the year – the first time a team other then Alinghi or The Wave, Muscat have won an Act since 2012
In some of the best conditions the fleet have raced in all year, you couldn't have scripted a better final to the Extreme Sailing Series™ Act 6 in Istanbul, and the fans on shore and following around the world were rewarded with a nail bitingly close, down to the wire shoot out after 31 races. The 12 Extreme 40s blasted around the track in 20-23 knots, reefs in their mainsails, with the lead changing hands in almost every race. As fortunes swung one way, and then another, Dean Barker and the crew on Emirates Team New Zealand needed to put two boats between them and The Wave, Muscat in the final race to take the win – and they did just that, clinching their first Act win of the year – the first time a team other then Alinghi or The Wave, Muscat have won an Act since 2012. "It's always good to get on the plane after a good one rather than a bad one, so I'm just really happy with the way the guys have just responded after what was a really tough result in Cardiff (where the team came last) and every now and then it's good to get a good kick up the backside to make you realise you have to work hard for these. We've improved each day and it was just a really close, hard event," Barker commented.
Heading into the final race, mathematically Alinghi could have taken the Act win, but with their eyes on the 2014 season prize, their focus was locked on The Wave, Muscat and keeping them off the top spot. The Swiss had done their maths and knew exactly where they wanted their season rivals to finish, working hard to force them deep into the pack and out of contention for the Act win. Morgan Larson elaborated "We had an outside chance to win that last race and we did one lap of the race still trying to win, not knowing what could still happen. Then we got to the final lap and it was clear that if we continued to win the race with Emirates Team New Zealand second, then The Wave, Muscat may have won this Act. So we were thinking of the overall Series, we just had to let the Kiwis go, and then go back and hold The Wave, Muscat back a little bit because they were coming out strong. They're such a good team, picking off boats one by one and so we just had to try and block them back and make it so we got second."
Despite missing out on top prize in Istanbul, McMillan and the team on The Wave, Muscat did what they came here to do: beat Alinghi and narrow the gap on the 2014 rankings. However, that gave little solace to McMillan, who explained: "It was close points between us and Emirates Team New Zealand, but unfortunately Alinghi obviously didn't want us to win and so they got in the way during the race and made our life pretty difficult. We're frustrated, the last two days we've sailed really well. There are two more Acts, and we've beaten Morgan Larson at the last two, and that's what we've got to keep doing. Second or first at this event, it doesn't make any difference really because it can come down to Sydney and that's what we're focused on."
Rob Greenhalgh's Oman Air finished the regatta in fourth place, their strongest performance of the season, going better than their pre-Act target of sixth place, as Greenhalgh commented: "It has been a tough event as usual but we have finished fourth, which we are happy with. It has been hard work for everyone. The crew have worked really hard and have done a very good job. We are improving and refining the details and everyone wants to do better so they get upset when there are mistakes but that's what happens when expectations improve. Hopefully we can keep the momentum going and put a good performance in Nice."
It was a good day for SAP Extreme Sailing Team, all the time making steady progress and narrowing the points gap to finish in a solid fifth place after starting in the day in eighth. Just six points behind is Groupama sailing team – a season's best for the French under the guidance of skipper for this Act, Tanguy Cariou. Racing at this level, as one of the very best teams in the world, things don't always go to plan, as the French found out on the opening day, when they dismasted. Missing four races and languishing in last place, the team still managed to bounce back to finish sixth overall, and their persistence, commitment, and performance on the water, earned them the Land Rover Above and Beyond Award (see full story below).
With the penultimate Act of 2014 in Nice, France just over two weeks away (2-5 October), there will be many lessons learnt here and rivalries are burning stronger than ever. Alinghi hang onto the overall lead with 55 points but their advantage over The Wave, Muscat has been narrowed to just one point. Looking ahead Larson summarised: "It's a fresh event and we'll have to come out strong, try to have some great results – it will all be on. If we have some good results and things go our way, it will be nice going into Sydney but it's going to be close and with double points in the final event I'm sure it will come down to the last race".
Overall Results: (31 races)
1st Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL) Dean Barker, Glenn Ashby, James Dagg, Jeremy Lomas, Edwin Delaat 210pts
2nd The Wave, Muscat (OMA) Leigh McMillan, Sarah Ayton, Pete Greenhalgh, Kinley Fowler, Nasser Al Mashari 204pts
3rd Alinghi (SUI) Morgan Larson, Stuart Pollard, Pierre-Yves Jorand, Nils Frei, Yves Detrey 188pts
4th Oman Air (OMA) Rob Greenhalgh, Ted Hackney, Kyle Langford, Hashim Al Rashdi, Musab Al Hadi 169pts
5th SAP Extreme Sailing Team (DEN) Jes Gram-Hansen, Rasmus Køstner, Thierry Douillard, Christian Kamp, Brad Farrand 154pts
6th Groupama sailing team (FRA) Tanguy Cariou, François Morvan, Romain Motteau, Thierry Fouchier, Devan Le Bihan 148pts
7th J.P. Morgan BAR (GBR) Ben Ainslie, Nick Hutton, Paul Goodison, Bleddyn Mon, Matt Cornwell 143pts
8th Red Bull Sailing Team (AUT) Roman Hagara, Nick Blackman, Mark Bulkeley, Shaun Mason, Stewart Dodson 142pts
9th Realteam by Realstone (SUI) Jérôme Clerc, Arnaud Psarofaghis, Bruno Barbarin, Cédric Schmidt, Thierry Wassem 135pts
10th GAC Pindar (AUS) Nathan Wilmot, Jack Macartney, Ed Smyth, Seve Jarvin, Tyson Lamond 130pts
11th Gazprom Team Russia (RUS) Igor Lisovenko, Phil Robertson, Matt Adams, Pete Cumming, Aleksey Kulakov 126pts
12th TeamTurx (TUR) Mitch Booth, Can Bayülken, Selim Kakış, Deniz Çinar, Anıl Berk Baki 85pts
Extreme Sailing Series™ 2014 overall standings: (after Act 6)
1st Alinghi (SUI) 55pts
2nd The Wave, Muscat (OMA) 54pts
3rd Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL) 43pts
4th Realteam by Realstone (SUI) 36pts
5th J.P. Morgan BAR (GBR) 29pts
6th SAP Extreme Sailing Team (DEN) 24pts
7th Oman Air (OMA) 23pts
8th Gazprom Team Russia (RUS) 23pts
9th Red Bull Sailing Team (AUT) 23pts
10th Groupama sailing team (FRA) 20pts
11th GAC Pindar (AUS) 6pts
Oman Air switch on turbojets in Turkey and The Wave, Muscat edge closer to the top (from Oman Sail)
Oman Air switched on the turbojets in Istanbul to finish in fourth place, their best performance of the 2014 Extreme Sailing Series so far, while The Wave, Muscat edged closer to the top of the overall leaderboard after some searing final day action.
The biggest breeze of the week was saved for last as gusts reached in excess of 25 knots pushing boats and crews to the limit and inevitably forcing errors and high risk tactics across the fleet.
This included the defending champions on The Wave, Muscat who won the first race of the day, then were over the line at the start of the second, putting rivals Emirates Team New Zealand back at the top of the leaderboard. All day the two teams swapped places at the top and going into the final double points race, Leigh McMillan and his crew were in pole position but were ultimately outplayed by the Kiwis and their biggest rival for the season title, Swiss team Alinghi, to have victory snatched from their clutches in what was the most thrilling and contentious racing of the series so far.
"The points were really close between us and New Zealand – they have been sailing really well all weekend – it was a great battle with them and it would have been nice to have been able to have a clean one on one with them in the last race," said McMillan, racing with Sarah Ayton, Pete Greenhalgh, Kinley Fowler and Oman's Nasser Al Mashari.
"But Alinghi did not want us to win so made life difficult for us! It happens – coming second or first in this event makes no real difference in terms of the big picture. There are two events left in Nice and Sydney and we are now focussing on them."
Nasser Al Mashari added: "Today we were at the top all the way to the double-points race. We were blocked in the very final moments, but at the end of the day, this is sport and everybody wants to win using different techniques".
Their second place in Istanbul lifted The Wave, Muscat one point on the overall leaderboard to close the gap between them and leaders Alinghi to a single point going into the penultimate event of the season. Oman Air are now in 7th place having finished fourth, their best result in six Acts.
It had been tough, said skipper Rob Greenhalgh but Oman Air's crew of Ted Hackney, Kyle Langford, Hashim Al Rashdi and Musab Al Hadi were getting better with every event.
"It's been a tough event as per usual but we finished fourth which we are very happy with," he said.
"The crew have worked particularly hard and have done a really good job. We are improving and people are getting more refined with the details. Our expectations have increased and we all want to do better.
"Hopefully we can keep the momentum going and put in a good performance in Nice. It is close throughout the fleet and every place has to be fought for."
After six events, with 182 races since January, The Wave, Muscat have earned 67 podium places with 28 wins while Oman Air have 9 wins and 38 podium places with around 60 races from the two events in Nice and Sydney remaining.
Rising sharply (from Groupama sailing team)
For the sixth event of the Extreme Sailing Series circuit contested on the Bosphorus in Istanbul, the crew of Groupama 40 has secured a very honourable sixth place despite suffering a dismasting on the first day, which deprived them of 4 of the 31 races run.
For the first time this season, it was Emirates Team New Zealand, skippered by Dean Barker, who won the event ahead of The Wave Muscat and Alinghi.
Fifth in the provisional overall ranking as they attacked the final day of racing, Tanguy Cariou and his crew had a tough start to the day, on a race zone swept by a good 20 knots of breeze, which prompted the Race Committee to call for the catamarans to race with one reef in the mainsail.
"We found it hard to get into the swing of things, resulting in poor starts, penalties and little tactical inspiration. At one point, we even slipped down to ninth place in the overall ranking. Fortunately, we got things back on track in the last three races, including the last one, which scores double points. We've finished ahead of Ben Ainslie, who was really in with a shot of the win in Cardiff. So, it's all good, and our progress is echoed in our solid result. We now need to continue with this same approach," says the skipper of Groupama 40 in the absence of Franck Cammas, who begins the World Nacra 17 Championships in Santander on Monday.
Yes indeed, so with regards to François Morvan's arrival on the helm, what changes are afoot?
"He was just discovering the series and didn't make any changes in principle. He was highly receptive to our advice and to the recommendations of Bertrand Pacé, who was coaching us. Given his sporting background, François is also more aggressive with steering the boat and he's more 'pedal to the metal'. The same is true in the starts, though there's more progress to be made there. In any case, it was interesting for the whole team, as we need to develop this sort of aggressiveness in our way of sailing," Tanguy explains.
Mathematically, if we were to allocate the average number of points obtained by Groupama 40 in the 27 races, compared with the thirty-one for the others, Tanguy Cariou and his crew would move up a place in the overall ranking, just a point shy of fourth. This sixth place remains outstanding though as testified by the fact that the organisers of the event awarded them the "Land Rover Above and Beyond Award", which rewards the mental strength expressed by an individual or a group during the championship.
See you in Nice for the next event in the Extreme Sailing Series circuit, where Franck Cammas will be back at the helm of Groupama 40.
Boat and crew tested leaving a frustrating finale in Istanbul (from J.P. Morgan BAR)
A tense and tough final day completed four days of racing in Istanbul, leaving J.P. Morgan BAR frustrated and disappointed with their performance at the finale of Act 6. Seven races were sailed, the final of the day acting as a double pointer, taking it to 31 in total in Turkey's iconic and largest city.
Despite good racing conditions, a series of incidents of boat damage and gear failure left the team unable to piece together the performance they needed, and the Brits struggled to deliver on the racecourse. Skipper, Ben Ainslie summarised, "It was just a really frustrating day, between the gear failure, damage with the other boats and not sailing particularly well, it was one of our worst days of the series.
"But, the only thing you can do on days like this is put your head down and work out what's best to do and how to move forward and improve."
The team's Extreme 40 craned out of the water, ready for the shore team to repair the damage
Tactician, Paul Goodison, added, "Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. We missed a race because we had a problem with the sail, so it was frustrating to sit out, then we had another boat go into the back of us, which punched a hole, leaving us taking on water for the rest of the day."
However, the team kept their calm and managed to claw themselves a couple of places up the leaderboard, using the final double pointer to it's full potential to leave them in 7th place overall, on 143 points. Goodison continued, "We fought ourselves out of some tough situations, the last race we were over the line [at the start] but we dug in and worked our way back and had a fairly solid final race. So, it was a tough day but we really did keep fighting until the end."
The British entry will now come together to reflect on the Act and look ahead to the next stop of the global series, Act 7, Nice, in less than three weeks. "As a team we are naturally disappointed with how we ended up, we had a great result in Cardiff and we actually feel like now we have gone back a little bit.
"But, we have enjoyed Istanbul, it's a great racing venue and gave us some of the best conditions so far. It's a shame we couldn't nail it at this one but when we get back to the UK we will have a good debrief and review what went wrong and work on what we can put right for the next event to come back fighting in Nice," concluded bowman, Matt Cornwell.
On the overall leaderboard the team still sit in 5th place, with 29 points. The Extreme Sailing Series continues, with the final European stop on the circuit, Act 7, Nice – France, from 2nd – 5th October.
GAC Pindar perform strongly in Istanbul despite crash setback (from GAC Pindar)
GAC Pindar eventually made it back onto the water on day 4 after a long night of repairs for the team. A crash on day 3 with Team Gazprom meant that GAC Pindar had to sit out the first four races on day 4.
The crash put an end to a promising first three days in Turkey for GAC Pindar, in which they had claimed 6 podium finishes, including a victory in race 6 on day 1. The strong and consistent winds seemed to suit GAC Pindar skipper Nathan Wilmot perfectly. Indeed the team sat in fourth position at the end of day 2 and were ready for a big push towards a podium finish on the final day, until their challenge was cut short.
GAC Pindar eventually finished in 10th position, ahead of Gazprom Team Russia and TeamTurx and just five points behind Realteam in ninth. It was a case of what could have been for GAC Pindar, with the average points of four awarded for each race they were unable to compete in making it difficult for them to maintain their position near the top of the leader board.
GAC Pindar skipper, Nathan Wilmot commented: "It was a really great start to the Regatta. Conditions were perfect for fast and exciting sailing and we really made the most of them over the first two and a half days. We really thought we were in a position to push for a podium place until the crash. It stopped our momentum and made maintaining our position on the leader board almost impossible.
However, there were so many positives over the first 3 days that we can take with us to Act 7 in Nice. We will go into that with great confidence off the back of this regatta. Jack McCartney and Tyson Lamond have come in and done brilliantly for us and we will look to continue that momentum in Nice."
GAC Pindar principal, Andrew Pindar added: "This has been a very positive regatta for us. The team performed brilliantly and it was really encouraging to see them in fourth challenging near the top of the leader board after day two. It is such a shame that their challenge was curtailed by the unfortunate crash. The nature of the awarding of average points to teams that can't compete due to a crash means that it becomes impossible to maintain your position on the leader board. However, we'll go to Nice full of confidence knowing that we can compete at the top end of the competition."
Groupama sailing team win Land Rover Above and Beyond Award (from Land Rover Sailing)
As part of its long-term commitment to the sport of sailing, earlier this year in Qingdao, China, Land Rover launched the Above and Beyond Award, recognising the finest examples of skill, sportsmanship and strength of mind from an individual, team or group at each of the Extreme Sailing Series™ Acts in the true spirit of Land Rover's Above and Beyond ethos.
Decided by a Committee chaired by Land Rover Global Brand Ambassador, Hannah White, America's Cup sailor Dave Carr, the Extreme Sailing Series' Phil Lawrence, Race Director, and Andy Tourell, Event Director, there was one clear winner in Istanbul.
Hannah White explained who the Committee had chosen, "Racing at this level, at one of the very best Sailing Series in the world, things don't always go to plan and determination has been a critical attribute across the 31 races we've seen here in Istanbul this weekend. One team has been plagued with misfortune, not only here, but throughout the Series so far, and they have always come back fighting with absolute professionalism, determination and a will to succeed.
"With their regular skipper handing over the helm of his Extreme 40 to a newcomer to the Extreme Sailing Series, one might have thought that this team would have taken time to find their pace on these Stadium racecourses. With a dismasting on Day 1, subsequently missing four races and languishing in last place, this team still managed to bounce back to finish sixth overall.
"For their persistence, commitment, and tactical performance on the water, it was a unanimous decision to present the Land Rover Above and Beyond Award to Groupama sailing team."
Tanguy Cariou, Skipper of Groupama sailing team commented, "We are really proud to have won this Award. This year we have had no luck with a lot of collisions and here [in Istanbul], we started the Act well, with a new helmsman, Francois Morvan and we had a good dynamic but in race four on day one we broke the mast. We worked through the night to be ready the day after that, it was difficult the second day, it was difficult in terms of points, but the way we sailed the boat was quite OK and yesterday we had a good day and today some downs and ups, but we finished on an up.
"You learn so much from your mistakes, but sometimes, when it is not our fault, like the collision, or the mast breaking, it's tough. We love sailing, we love the Extreme Sailing Series and we have to come back and do our best so we can close the gap with the top teams, that's the most important thing."
Following Acts which started in Singapore in February, and passing through China, Russia, The Sultanate of Oman, United Kingdom and Istanbul, the Extreme Sailing Series™ heads back West to the French riviera and Nice, Host Venue to the penultimate Act in two weeks time before the overall Series winner will be decided in Sydney, Australia from 12-15 December 2014.