Extreme Sailing Series™ Act 6, Saint Petersburg - Day 1
by Extreme Sailing Series 20 Aug 2015 22:19 BST
20-23 August 2015
Russia delivered a glittering opening to the Extreme Sailing Series™ Act 6, Saint Petersburg presented by SAP, with Red Bull Sailing Team staking an early claim, winning the day against the golden backdrop of the Peter and Paul Fortress.
Back in the driving seat after a break from the helm and his skipper duties due to injury, double Olympic gold medallist Roman Hagara was back on fighting form. The Austrian showed impressive consistency, posting six podium results from the seven races sailed during a competitive day's sailing, that saw five different race winners emerge.
Hagara commented on his return: "Sometimes it's hard to see what you're doing wrong when it is right in front of you. It certainly helped taking a step away and seeing it from the outside. We know the water in Saint Petersburg from last year, along with the secret spots and where you should stick to in this wind direction. If the team can be well prepared and perform as they did today it will show in our results."
Graced by unbroken sunshine, 10 knots of sea breeze and two knots of tide, the Austrian team mastered the River Neva conditions to finish the day on 58 points, topping the overnight leaderboard and holding a valuable six-point buffer over The Wave, Muscat in second place skippered by Britain's Leigh McMillan.
A surprise presence on the overnight podium comes in the form of Lino Sonego Team Italia. Feeling the benefit of their mid-season crew change, new skipper Enrico Zennaro and helm Arnaud Psarofaghis, who competed in the 2014 Extreme Sailing Series with Realteam, led the Italians to their highest scoring day so far this season. With one race win and two seconds they finished the day in third.
In the hunt for the podium, home team Gazprom Team Russia and SAP Extreme Sailing Team lead the chasing pack, just three points adrift and tied on 46 points each. But as Gazprom Team Russia's helm Phil Robertson explained, the crews will really have to focus on consistency this week if they hope to stay in touch with the podium: "We had a really good start and got our head around the conditions quickly but we lost our way later in the day. The course is really hard, it's narrow and you are battling a lot of current. The other teams looked like they were struggling too".
Of the remaining fleet Oman Air and GAC Pindar both took convincing race wins after well-positioned starts, but struggled with consistency in the strong tide to finish the day in sixth and seventh respectively. Unfortunately for Team Turx in the fifth race of the day the ambitious crew, in an attempt to get out of the tide, cut too close to the shore and run aground in the shallows of the beach on the finish line – adding a costly zero points to their score line for not finishing the race.
Racing continues tomorrow with live coverage of the racing available at www.extremesailingseries.com/live and on the YachtsandYachting.com homepage.
Results after Day 1, 7 races:
1st Red Bull Sailing Team (AUT) Roman Hagara, Hans-Peter Steinacher, Shaun Mason, Stewart Dodson, Kate Macgregor 58 points.
2nd The Wave, Muscat (OMA) Leigh McMillan, Sarah Ayton, Pete Greenhalgh, Ed Smyth, Nasser Al Mashari 52 points.
3rd Lino Sonego Team Italia (ITA) Enrico Zennaro, Arnaud Psarofaghis, Bryan Mettraux, Nevio Sabadin, Tom Buggy 49 points.
4th Gazprom Team Russia (RUS) Igor Lisovenko, Phil Robertson, Garth Ellingham, Alexander Bozhko, Aleksey Kulakov 46 points.
5th SAP Extreme Sailing Team (DEN) Jes Gram-Hansen, Rasmus Køstner, Thierry Douillard, Mads Emil Stephensen, Brad Farrand 46 points.
6th Oman Air (OMA) Stevie Morrison, Nic Asher, Ted Hackney, Ed Powys, Ali Al Balashi 42 points.
7th GAC Pindar (GBR) Adam Minoprio, Seve Jarvin, Joel Turner, James Wierzbowski, Adam Piggot 41 points.
8th Team Turx (TUR) Mitch Booth, Tom Dawson, Diogo Cayolla, Can Bayülken, Henry Bomby 27 points.
Update from Oman Sail
Regarded as one of the most difficult venues on the Extreme Sailing Series circuit, St Petersburg delivered the customary wind-against-tide challenge for the fleet with a strong current taking any punch out of a shifty 10-knot breeze.
It all took a while to get used to, said Leigh McMillan, skipper of The Wave, Muscat.
"We set off quite well and won the second race but couldn't get our strategy right so had a bit of inconsistency in the middle races.
"But then things started to come together so we are not despondent at all. The racing was pretty tight and going downwind against the tide, the fleet started to concertina. Everyone was so close."
In seven races, The Wave, Muscat recorded two outright wins plus two further podium places, rising to finish the day in second place overall with 52 points, six points behind leaders Red Bull.
Lying second, with three days of racing remaining was an encouraging position, added The Wave, Muscat bowman Nasser Al Mashari.
"It's a great course here on the River Neva and the conditions have been nice but the wind is so shifty, you can never take anything for granted," he said.
"So we are happy to be second. Our teamwork is good and that is really important on these tricky courses."
Oman Air made a fiery debut in St Petersburg by winning the opening race but then the welcome cooled as the testing conditions took their toll and by the close, Stevie Morrison's team were lying in sixth place.
But with just eight points separating the third and seventh placed teams in the fleet, there was everything to play for, Morrison said.
"We had some good races and some bad races so if I had to describe our day, I would say it was up and down. But we were always in the mix which was promising. We have never sailed here before but the course was what we expected – incredibly challenging!
"The points are close so we will go away tonight and talk about what we did well and where we could improve and come back tomorrow and try and do better."
The forecast for the second day of racing is similar to day one with sunny blue skies and a light breeze which is expected again to be variable.
Update from GAC Pindar
It was an up and down day for GAC Pindar on the first day of racing in St Petersburg, with a strong set of results during the middle section of racing, including a first and second place finish, bookended by some rather more frustrating results at the start and finish.
Despite finishing in seventh position on the leaderboard, GAC Pindar's inconsistency was mirrored by the majority of the fleet, leaving them just 11 points off second position, with everything to play for on day two.
The team got off to a slow start with sixth and eighth place finishes in their first two races. However, new helmsman Adam Minoprio then showed exactly why he was the youngest ever winner of the World Match Racing Tour with a succession of strong results, finishing fourth, second and then first in a tightly contested fifth race.
This propelled GAC Pindar into second place on the leaderboard, with every chance of finishing the day in top spot with strong results in the final two races. However, the crew were unable to maintain their consistency, with eighth and seventh place race finishes to end the day, leaving them in seventh position overall.
New GAC Pindar helmsman, Adam Minoprio commented: "It was a frustrating day for us out there. We showed in that middle sector what we are really capable of and it's just a shame we weren't able to keep up those levels through to the end. However, the leaderboard is so tight that it can all change after one race, so we go into tomorrow looking to emulate those middle races, maintain a level of consistency and move back up towards the top of the leaderboard."