Extreme Sailing Series™ 2014 Act 7, Nice, France - Day 1
by Extreme Sailing Series 2 Oct 2014 21:22 BST
3-5 October 2014
Change in the air as Realteam, Gazprom Team Russia and Groupama sailing team excel in Nice
Light winds dominated the opening day of Act 7 of the Extreme Sailing Series™ in Nice, France calling for pin-point precision from the teams as the battle at the penultimate Act of the 2014 global tour began on the sparkling Mediterranean waters. There was change in the air with the newer teams on the circuit calling the shots and Realteam had all the right tactics and boat speed as the fastest average team according to the SAP sailing analytics. The Swiss team scored two first and two seconds places finishing the end of day one in pole position, and skipper Jérôme Clerc commented: "With these light wind conditions, it is even harder to be ahead all the time but I think we have been able to find a good strategy for the day. I think we have to continue with this spirit and try to limit the bad races."
Despite not scoring in race two after sailing the wrong course whilst leading, Gazprom Team Russia sailed an impressive day, scoring two race wins to claim second place overall, on equal points with the all-French fixture on Groupama sailing team skippered by Franck Cammas at the close of play. Team Russia's skipper Phil Robertson, who only took over the tiller at Act 5 Cardiff, spoke about 'fine-tuning' their Extreme 40 for light wind racing. "Your whole set up changes with your rig tuning and speed wise, the whole balance of the boat changes. We talk about these factors after every race, whether we need to make any changes or not and as a whole, chat about what we can improve on. That was really good today and the boys put in a big effort to make sure we were going fast. The trick now is just to keep that rolling. The hard part is having another day like this over the next three days, and keep as consistent as possible when we're not having such a great day so that's the key."
The Aussie team GAC Pindar, led by Olympic gold medallist Nathan Wilmot had their best start to a regatta this year, coming out of the blocks quickly and sailing consistently to finish the day in fourth place. Cool as ever, Wilmot commented: "We just kept plugging some good races in now and then, and in the lighter air you have a little more time to think about what's going on. We just tried to sail the boat fast around the course and stay out of trouble with everyone and it seems to have worked well today. It's pretty hard out there and it can be frustrating so it's quite hard on the brain when trying to figure out where to go, but if we can keep the boat going around the course nicely we'll be there doing alright at the end."
Ben Ainslie and the British on J.P. Morgan BAR made the right sort of waves in the opening races, and looked to be in imperious form, but a penalty in the third race followed by a start line collision with Alinghi in the fourth cost them valuable points. The Brits finish the day in a credible fifth place, tied with Emirates Team New Zealand, helmed here by Pete Burling, fresh from a successful defense of the World 49er title in Spain. J.P. Morgan BAR's bowman Matt Cornwell explained what it was like on the course. "It was very tricky, very light and very easy to put yourself in situations where you're looking to be in the top three, and then very quickly you can be in the bottom three, so it's very hard to get those calls right. I think it was the same for everyone and there's a lot of teams out there that looked frustrated with today's racing but actually I think we're all on similar points and it's all very tight."
It wasn't such a pretty story for the current Series leader Alinghi, and their long-standing dueling partners The Wave, Muscat who both found themselves in the bottom half of the fleet more than the top today. The pair finish the day tied on 39 points in seventh place, leaving themselves with a bit of work to do over the next three days.
Despite managing to finish a handful of races in the top three between them, Oman Air, Red Bull Sailing Team and SAP Extreme Sailing Team all struggled in the light airs finishing the day in ninth to eleventh respectively. The opening day is just a shakedown of what is to come over the next three days here in Nice, and expect plenty more twists and turns on the leaderboard. Watch tomorrow's racing live from 1530 local time, (GMT+2) on the YachtsandYachting.com homepage and at www.extremesailingseries.com.
Standings after Day 1: (8 races)
1st Realteam by Realstone (SUI) Jérôme Clerc, Arnaud Psarofaghis, Bruno Barbarin, Bryan Mettraux, Thierry Wassem 51pts
2nd Gazprom Team Russia (RUS) Igor Lisovenko, Phil Robertson, Matt Adams, Pete Cumming, Aleksey Kulakov 48pts
3rd Groupama sailing team (FRA) Franck Cammas, Tanguy Cariou, Valentin Bellet, Arnaud Jarlegan, Devan Le Bihan 48pts
4th GAC Pindar (AUS) Nathan Wilmot, Seve Jarvin, Hugh Styles, Tyson Lamond, James Wierzbowski 45pts
5th J.P. Morgan BAR (GBR) Ben Ainslie, Nick Hutton, Paul Campbell-James, Bleddyn Mon, Matt Cornwell 44pts
6th Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL) Peter Burling, Glenn Ashby, Blair Tuke, Jeremy Lomas, Edwin Delaat 44pts
7th Alinghi (SUI) Morgan Larson, Anna Tunnicliffe, Pierre-Yves Jorand, Nils Frei, Yves Detrey 39pts
8th The Wave, Muscat (OMA) Leigh McMillan, Sarah Ayton, Pete Greenhalgh, Kinley Fowler, Nasser Al Mashari 39pts
9th Oman Air (OMA) Rob Greenhalgh, Ted Hackney, Kyle Langford, Hashim Al Rashdi, Musab Al Hadi 33pts
10th Red Bull Sailing Team (AUT) Roman Hagara, Hans-Peter Steinacher, Mark Bulkeley, Shaun Mason, Stewart Dodson 30pts
11th SAP Extreme Sailing Team (DEN) Jes Gram-Hansen, Rasmus Køstner, Thierry Douillard, Christian Kamp, Brad Farrand 26pts
GAC Pindar start Day 1 on the front foot in Nice (from GAC Pindar)
GAC Pindar has got off to a storming start on Day 1 of Act 7 of the Extreme Sailing Series in Nice, France. Following a second place finish in the first race of the day and two more podium finishes throughout the day, GAC Pindar currently sit in fourth position in the leader board.
The day's racing was dominated by incredibly light winds, with some races taking place in winds of less than four knots. However, GAC Pindar utilised all of the experience of Olympic Gold Medallist Nathan Wilmot to manoeuvre their way successfully around the Nice course.
GAC Pindar skipper Nathan Wilmot commented, "Today was a great start for us. We performed exactly as we knew we could and have put ourselves in a very strong position going into day two."
Light Tricky Conditions keep the Fleet Tight at Act 7 Opener (from J.P. Morgan BAR)
Day one of Act 7 of the penultimate event of the Extreme Sailing Series and J.P. Morgan BAR opened well, winning the first race of the day and finishing third in the second. It was a great start – and while the team struggled to hold that form through the middle of the day in lighter and more fickle conditions – they went on to consolidate, made the gains they needed, and brought it home tidily in the final races.
Bowman, Matt Cornwell, summed up the first day, "It was very tricky, very light and very easy to put yourself in situations where you're looking to be in the top three, and then very quickly you can be in the bottom three, so it's very difficult to get those calls right.
"I think it was the same for everyone and there's a lot of teams out there that looked frustrated with today's racing but actually I think we're all on similar points and it's all very tight, as per normal at these events."
J.P. Morgan BAR 5th Man, Bleddyn Mon, continued "I think the most positive thing was that when we didn't get ourselves into difficult situations we were up there and we had good boat speed. When we kept it simple and made had starts, we were finishing within the top five.
"Tomorrow condition wise it will be quite similar, we got a lot of races in today and that will be the plan tomorrow too. But, there's a long way to go, probably around a quarter of the races done, a lot more to go but we are positive with today's start."
Although the day was consistently light it was still eventful with a penalty in race three, followed by a pre-start collision with Alinghi, which left the team with boat damage and a night of repair work.
After the first day the team sit in fifth over and Sailing Team Manager, Jono Macbeth, is confident there are good opportunities for the team from the rest of the week. "I think it was a really good day and a strong day for us – we were a little up and down and inconsistent with our results, but it paid off in the end.
"Overall the top of the fleet is really tight on points but, it's early days, I think everyone is in there with a shot after day one."
Light airs make for tricky start for The Wave, Muscat and Oman Air on opening day of Extreme Sailing Series in Nice (from Oman Sail)
A soft breeze turned the form guide upside down on the opening day in Nice with Oman Sail's The Wave, Muscat and Oman Air among a cluster of teams to be frustrated in their bid to create an early impression at Act 7 of the Extreme Sailing Series.
After eight races, all sailed on the Baie des Anges on the Cote d'Azur in winds of less than five knots, six points separated the two Omani teams with Leigh McMillan's crew on The Wave, Muscat in eighth place on equal points with championship contenders Alinghi and Oman Air in ninth.
A clutch of three podium places was diluted by smaller returns in the remaining races, explained Oman Air skipper Rob Greenhalgh, with the light airs causing difficulties throughout the fleet.
"It's been a tough first day but it's pretty close on points between everybody with mixed results," he said.
"We had very light airs with sub five knots which were shifty and very puffy so things were very dependent on how well you got off the line and we had mixed fortunes there.
"Everyone is working well but it is hard to make all the decisions correctly all the time. I think the next three days will be light and tricky and we will be making the most of it."
Today's light winds were a far cry from last year when bowman Musab Al Hadi was a member of winning boat The Wave, Muscat and although Oman Air showed a liking for stronger winds in Istanbul last month, coming fourth, they were confident of making improvements.
"This is totally different to last year with not much going on apart from some nice sunshine," he said.
"But our first day wasn't bad. Some good races, some bad but there is a lot to talk about in our debrief and we are sure we can do better tomorrow and the rest of the week.
"Everything is slow in this breeze and we loved Istanbul because we love going fast but this is part and parcel of racing so we will just go with it."
The Wave, Muscat took a few rounds to find their stride and had a generally tricky day with a mixed bag of results, explained Sarah Ayton.
"It doesn't matter how slowly you start, it is how you end up at the finish that counts," she said.
"It was tough on the water with the light winds and starting was important so we made it pretty hard for ourselves but we did a good job at recovering and got a few top five results later in the day.
"But this event will be a close regatta. No one had a brilliant day.
"We are near the end of the whole series and everyone has upped their game. You just can't make mistakes – if you do someone will be there to cash in. Tomorrow we will start again and hopefully we will have a better day."