Teams look ahead to Extreme Sailing Series finale in Sydney

Ben Ainslie during training © Harry Kenney-Herbert

J.P. Morgan BAR looks ahead to Australian Extreme Sailing Series finale

For the first time ever in the history of the Extreme Sailing Series, the global circuit heads to Sydney, Australia for the season finale. The final event promises to be an Act to remember for British entry, J.P. Morgan BAR – with double points on offer and plenty of potential movement in the overall points standings.

The race course is backed by the city's iconic Harbour Bridge and the Opera House, and offers the quintessentially fast, tight stadium racing that epitomises the Extreme Sailing Series. With so many points at stake, it's fair to expect plenty of action for both sailors and spectators.

Team Skipper, Ben Ainslie, has good memories of racing in Sydney – the city where he claimed his first Olympic gold medal, back in 2000. "Personally Sydney is one of my favourite sailing venues and it's a great place to end the series. We are all looking forward to good conditions and some solid racing against such a stunning backdrop.

"It's a complex sport and we are still learning a lot about this style of racing, but we have built up through the series and as a team we are pleased with our position overall going into the final Act. Things have really come together for us, we have made good progress and hope to finish the Series overall in the top half of the fleet."

After their podium finish in Nice, just over two months ago, the Brits head into the last event in fifth place overall, with 37 points. Team Tactician, Paul 'CJ' Campbell-James, a two-times Extreme Sailing Series Champion, commented on the team's ambitions for the week, "It's clear that as a team we have steadily improved and built on our race performances and we will work hard to push on to maintain the momentum from Nice.

"The double points will be interesting and ultimately, we would like to go out there and claim a podium finish in Sydney and if everything goes right for us, hopefully a podium finish on the overall circuit. Five teams are in the running for this, efficiency is going to be crucial this week."

With a mid-fleet battle on their hands and 15 knots or more forecast for each day, the final four days of racing will be a challenge. Bowman, Matt Cornwell, spoke on the sailing conditions, "Condition wise, the forecast is looking fairly fresh, we should see some higher end wind strengths over the weekend – which is a positive for us and certainly mixing things up a little bit.

"We can certainly jump up a place or two in the rankings, today we spent some time on the water, getting used to the course and the current out there, but there's still a bit more local knowledge to figure out over our first few days."

Full J.P. Morgan BAR Act 8, Sydney, Team list:

Skipper – Ben Ainslie
Tactician – Paul Campbell-James
Bowman – Matt Cornwell
Trimmer – Nick Hutton
Fifth Man – Bleddyn Mon
Richy O'Farrell
Ian McCabe
Simon Daubney
Alex Hopson

Groupama: Sydney forever

Aboard Groupama 40, Franck Cammas and his crew will be attempting to turn the experience acquired over the first seven events to good account by moving up the leaderboard and even set its sights on the top five.

The Extreme Sailing Series championship is original in more ways than one: it gathers together the very best teams aboard powerful, spectacular catamarans over short courses set within direct contact of the spectators.

Gone are the monohulls helmed by skippers dressed in white shirts and now it's over to multihulls piloted by helmeted athletes. Whether they go by the name of Ben Ainslie, Dean Barker, Leigh MacMillan or Morgan Larson, these top-flight racers haven't taken long to master the subtleties of the close-contact racing, in which opportunism often gets the upper hand over the tactics learned in their youth from sailing manuals.

Unstoppable at this little game, the team of double America's Cup champion Ernesto Bertarelli is likely to make the most of this final Australian leg to take victory in the championship. Indeed, the Swiss team currently boasts an eight-point lead over The Wave Muscat. As such, despite the coefficient two applied here to add to the suspense, if The Wave secures a leg win here then the Swiss team mustn't finish shy of fifth place overall to retain its title. Suffice to say then that Bertarelli's men have some room for manoeuvre, their worst result since the start of the season being a third place...

Behind these two leaders, the battle for third place sadly won't be as hotly contested as originally thought in Sydney, Indeed, close as it is, Team New Zealand has announced that it won't be coming to Sydney as it is keen to focus on the 35th America's Cup, which will be organised in Bermuda in 2017.

As such, it's highly likely that the current fourth placed boat overall, Swiss boat Realstone, will snatch the third step of the podium.

A little further down the overall leaderboard, Groupama will be going all out to get the upper hand over the Russians on Gazprom and Oman Air: "For this final leg, we have a new crew member. Remaining in France for the birth of his child, Devan Le Bihan has been replaced by Hervé Cuningham, who has previously sailed with the Gitana team"explains the on-board tactician, Tanguy Cariou over the phone.

"We're sailing just a hundred metres or so from Sydney Opera House. It's fabulous. You just have to make sure you properly adhere to the exclusion zones intended for the numerous ferries. Other than that it's pretty similar to the other race zones with the wind disturbed by the city environment".

More at ease in the breeze rather than the light airs, Groupama sailing team should be spoilt for choice by the weather forecast for the area. Indeed from Thursday, the first day of racing, there will be 20 knots of wind on the race zone, gusting to 30:: "It's going to be full-on but we're ready for it. That said, we could definitely do with a bit of sunshine as it's been raining constantly. It's pouring," concludes Tanguy Cariou.

Could this finally be the winning recipe for Groupama?

The crew of Groupama 40 in Sydney:

Franck Cammas, skipper
Tanguy Cariou, tactician
Thierry Fouchier, trimmer
Hervé Cuningham, trimmer
Romain Moteau, bowman

Extreme Sailing Series™ standings going into the event:

1st Alinghi (SUI) 65 points.
2nd The Wave, Muscat (OMA) 57 points.
3rd Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL) 49 points.
4th Realteam by Realstone (SUI) 45 points.
5th J.P. Morgan BAR (GBR) 37 points.
6th Red Bull Sailing Team (AUT) 30 points.
7th SAP Extreme Sailing Team (DEN) 28 points.
8th Oman Air (OMA) 24 points.
9th Gazprom Team Russia (RUS) 24 points.
10th Groupama sailing team (FRA) 22 points.
11th GAC Pindar (AUS) 11 points.

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