Superb end of season for Realteam at Extreme Sailing Series in Brazil
by Extreme Sailing Series 18 Nov 2013 22:49 GMT
14-17 November 2013
After four days and 26 races in glorious conditions, the Swiss crew on Realteam finished in style posting two firsts and two second places on the final day of Act 8 of the Extreme Sailing Series in Florianopolis. In keeping with the ongoing crew rotation policy, Realteam had a new helmsman on the Extreme 40 catamaran for the ultimate Act of the season – Arnaud Psarofaghis. "It took us a bit of time to settle in to the new configuration," explained Psarofaghis. "And losing Cédric Schmidt mid-regatta to an injured finger when he went overboard didn't help! But on the other hand, the team adapted very well to my style of helming and we were really happy with the results on the final day – everything went our way!"
The 2013 season was Realteam's first on an Extreme 40, so a fifth place in the Extreme Sailing Series Championship is a very respectable result. "The whole team should be proud of what we have achieved in our first season," said skipper Jérôme Clerc. "Particularly as we finished just behind the four most experienced teams on the circuit.
"This year was a transition period for us and we have been able to test all sorts of different crew configurations and we know which areas we need to work on this winter. We will start training again at the beginning of December with ambitious goals for next year!"
Realteam set out this year to establish a squad of high performing sailing professionals and has achieved this objective with some good results and good learning along the way. This project was made possible thanks to a number of partners, who Jérôme Clerc was quick to credit for the team's success: "I would like to thank our main partners: Esteban Garcia, of Realstone and Philippe Rey-Gorrez of TeamWork. Both are helping Realteam's young Swiss sailors to race at the highest level of international sailing."
Extreme Sailing Series 2013 overall ranking
1. The Wave, Muscat (OMA) 74 points
2. Alinghi (SUI) 74 points
3. Red Bull Sailing Team (AUT) 61 points
4. SAP Extreme Sailing Team (DEN) 51 points
5. Realteam (SUI) 49 points
6. GAC Pindar (NZL) 42 points
7. Team X Invitational 34 points
8. Team Korea (KOR) 16 points