Extreme Sailing Series™ 2014 Act 1, Singapore - Day 3
by Extreme Sailing Series 22 Feb 2014 13:17 GMT
20-23 February 2014
Biggest gust of the day sees Team Aberdeen Singapore plough into the back of Groupama sailing team – full video sequence to follow!
The penultimate day's racing in Singapore delivered possibly one of the most dramatic moments in the eight-year history of Extreme Sailing Series™. In winds that were varying from 5 to 23 knots across the racecourse, Team Aberdeen Singapore caught one of the biggest gusts of the day as they came into the finish line struggling to hold off the pace and ploughing into the back of France's Groupama sailing team. The Extreme 40 pitlane, built on part of Singapore's F1 track, is busy tonight with Groupama fully expecting to be back on the racetrack with a new mast. However, the damage assessment is not yet complete on Team Aberdeen Singapore. A full update will be available within the next two hours.
Groupama sailing team skipper, Franck Cammas, explained what happened: "We had big gusts and as we were finishing a gybe we saw Aberdeen come really fast from behind and that's the moment when they came over us breaking the mast. Besides the broken mast the damage is not too serious and it is mainly on the mast, the mainsail, the jib and a hole on the trampoline so I think we will be able to race tomorrow with another mast. Tanguy Cariou is the only crew member hurt but it's only superficial injuries. He was in the middle of the trampoline where the boat fell, which was the worst spot. Three crew members jumped off the boat. It's the risk of racing. What is tricky here is that the wind is quite strong and very gusty which is difficult to anticipate. It's not easy."
Six races were sailed that saw Leigh McMillan's team The Wave, Muscat up their game, winning 50% of the days races, and locking their sights on current event leaders, Alinghi. "Everything is going so fast, as you can see from the shore with the few clashes out there, and it's all about improving communication," commented McMillan. "The dynamics on the boat every race, every day, is coming together very nicely. It's a great performance and we're happy that we're putting in good results. We're fighting for podium spot, which is exactly where we want to be. We want to keep doing the same thing, finding how to work as a team. Overall great performance from everyone today and we'll keep going to get that spot."
Alinghi will lead the fleet going into the final day, having sat in pole position since race nine, but despite a 31-point cushion at the top of the leaderboard, helm Morgan Larson is all to aware how quickly things can change on the Stadium Racecourse. "We're never fully confident with sailors of this calibre! But we're happy with the way we're sailing right now. It was a magical day. We put ourselves in a few risky situations and nearly collided with Emirates Team New Zealand but the guys did an amazing job on our boat and let the sails out to try and keep behind, flying our hull right over. That is the kind of teamwork that has gotten us where we are and we hope that tomorrow we can keep sailing this way and stay out of trouble."
Team Aberdeen Singapore are currently assessing the damage, and a full update as to whether they will be back on the racetrack tomorrow will be available at approximately 2200 local time in Singapore.
Standings after Day 3: (21 races)
1st Alinghi (SUI) Morgan Larson, Stuart Pollard, Pierre-Yves Jorand, Nils Frei, Yves Detrey 163pts
2nd The Wave, Muscat (OMA) Leigh McMillan, Sarah Ayton, Pete Greenhalgh, Kinley Fowler, Nasser Al Mashari 132pts
3rd Realstone (SUI) Jérôme Clerc, Arnaud Psarofaghis, Bruno Barbarin, Thierry Wassem, Sebastien Stephant 130pts
4th Red Bull Sailing Team (AUT) Roman Hagara, Hans-Peter Steinacher, Mark Bulkeley, Nick Blackman, Haylee Outteridge 117pts
5th Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL) Dean Barker, Glenn Ashby, James Dagg, Jeremy Lomas, Edwin Delaat 117pts
6th Groupama sailing team (FRA) Franck Cammas, Sophie de Turckheim, Tanguy Cariou, Thierry Fouchier, Devan Le Bihan 104pts
7th J.P. Morgan BAR (GBR) Ben Ainslie, Nick Hutton, Paul Goodison, Pippa Wilson, Matt Cornwell 103pts
8th SAP Extreme Sailing Team (DEN) Jes Gram-Hansen, Rasmus Køstner, Thierry Douillard, Peter Wibroe, Nicolai Sehested 95pts
9th Gazprom Team Russia (RUS) Igor Lisovenko, Paul Campbell-James, Alister Richardson, Pete Cumming, Aleksey Kulakov 89pts
10th Oman Air (OMA) Rob Greenhalgh, Tom Johnson, Will Howden, Hashim Al Rashdi, Musab Al Hadi 88pts
11th GAC Pindar (AUS) Seve Jarvin, Troy Tindill, Ed Smyth, Sam Newton, Alexandra South 49pts
12th Team Aberdeen Singapore (SIN) Nick Moloney, Adam Beashel, Scott Glen Sydney, Tom Dawson, Justin Wong 47pts
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The Wave, Muscat move into second place on a dramatic day at Extreme Sailing Series Singapore while Oman Air continue to progress (from Oman Sail)
Cool heads on board The Wave, Muscat allowed the defending champions to stay on top of their game at the 2014 Extreme Sailing Series Singapore as the day's racing was dominated by one of the worst crashes in the history of the event.
In the final race of a tumultuous day, Leigh McMillan and his crew swept to their third and final win, making it seven out of 21 races so far in this remarkable contest. It also moved them into second place behind Alinghi and came just moments after a spectacular pile-up at the end of Race 20 where Aberdeen Asset Management, powered up by a sudden gust, landed on top of Franck Cammas' Groupama causing a dismast – the crew leapt into the water.
No one was injured and safety boats were soon disentangling the two vessels, which were quickly craned out to be repaired – hopefully in time to resume racing on Sunday.
"We could feel the conditions getting fruity and were massively relieved to have got through the finish line," McMillan said afterwards.
"The wind was coming in so fast and there was this bottleneck with nowhere for the boats to go. When these gusts hit, you lose control and there is nothing you can do. We were extremely concerned about everyone's safety and were very happy to hear that everyone was ok. Even in the last race there were plenty of close moments on the race course when things could have gone horribly wrong, there has got to be some consideration for the safety of the crew." The results reflect an evolving team that is bonding by the day and is determined to go from strength to strength, McMillan added.
"It's a new team and we knew it would take a few races to get to the stage where we have an unquestioning understanding of what needs to be done.
"Things happen so quickly in these races, as everyone saw today, and there is no time for discussion. Every race sees an improvement in the communications and dynamic in the team and when you see who else is in the line up this year - it's a tough field to be beating - we are pretty happy to be putting in some good results."
Sarah Ayton, the British Olympic gold medallist who is making her debut on The Wave, Muscat this year, is taking the dramas in her stride, grateful that there is so much experience on board their boat.
"It was a really tough day in terms of the changing wind strength – going from 8 knots to gusts of 18 knots," she said.
"But these were conditions that rewarded experience and we were lucky to have so much experience in our boat. I felt in very good hands and what the guys were doing in terms of boat handling and positioning was impressive." After racing, Ayton then went to talk about her own experiences with The Wave, Muscat and her career as an Olympic sailor with more than 60 children from Singapore Sailing Federation as part of a "Chat With Champions" event at the Extreme Club in Singapore.
Two-time Extreme champion McMillan has spent years refining a template for success in Extreme 40 racing with consistency always featuring high in his priorities and Rob Greenhalgh is on that same learning curve with his new crew on Oman Air.
One podium place and a fourth were mixed in with some lower placings that put Oman Air in 10th place overall but according to Omani crew Musab Al Hadi, communications on board are improving race by race and after such a dramatic day, they were thankful to finish in one piece.
"We think we are improving all the time, making progress towards working as a team" he said. "Our communication is getting better onboard. With the breeze so up and down we have seen a few crashes this week, ourselves included. When I saw the crash between Aberdeen and Groupama, it was a big reminder that we have to be very, very careful and keep a close eye on everything on the race course – we are just very thankful that everyone onboard is unhurt."
Hit by Aberdeen in Singapore, Groupama isn't giving up (from Groupama Sailing Team)
The third day of racing in the Extreme Sailing Series had in fact started off well with a fine second place for Groupama. However, the latter part of the day was to prove less favourable as one of Groupama's rivals collided into her just metres from the finish line. A slightly injured crewman, a broken mast and torn sails won't be enough to cause Franck Cammas and his team give up though.
Approaching the finish line, Groupama gybed onto starboard tack to respect the priority she was obliged to give her rival. Unfortunately Aberdeen went out of control in a violent gust and slammed into Groupama, which was powerless to avoid it.
Aberdeen's windward float, hydroplaning wildly, broke Groupama's mast after knocking Tanguy Cariou over, slightly damaging his head in the process, whilst three of the other four crew jumped into the water to avoid injury.
Questioned about the incident on his return to shore, the skipper of Groupama explained: "I had absolutely no idea it was coming, other than a shadow. We'd just finished our gybe and were powering along towards the finish line when it happened. Nick Moloney regretted the incident, but wasn't able to bear away (alter his course) due to his gennaker, which was flapping in a strong gust of wind. His windward float was very high and it hit our mast, which subsequently snapped in half with the impact. Together with Sophie (de Turckheim) and Thierry (Fouchier), we jumped overboard to avoid being injured. Tanguy Cariou, who was in the middle of the boat, on the net, took a body blow from the incoming boat and got knocked on the head. He went to hospital but fortunately it wasn't anything serious. As for Devan Le Bihan, he was unhurt."
Disappointed but very calm, Franck Cammas was of a mind to quickly effect repairs to Groupama so as to be in a position to sail tomorrow. Assisted by his sailing team and his shore crew, he immediately set to work and will step a spare mast tomorrow morning after switching Groupama's torn trampoline for that of Aberdeen's, which is too badly damaged to race tomorrow.
It now remains to be seen if Tanguy Cariou will be able to take up his post as tactician: "I'm back from hospital. They gave me a few stitches above the eye, but my back's killing me, my right shoulder is a mess and I really took quite a knock. At the present time, I find it hard to envisage returning to my post aboard the boat tomorrow. Franck and I will discuss the matter," he explained.
We will see how things pan out at the jury hearing scheduled for 0900 hours tomorrow morning (0100 GMT), which will study the protest lodged against Aberdeen by Groupama.
Extreme racing delivered in Singapore for new team J.P. Morgan BAR (from J.P. Morgan BAR)
Day three of the Extreme Sailing Series Act 1, Singapore and Ainslie and his British team mates endured the ultimate testing conditions on the water. Day two personified, the gusts were flukier and conditions even sketchier for all the elite teams, proving that the talent of the ESS competitors needs to be high, in order to manage and manoeuvre the 40 foot boats in such a tight spot.
"It was a really tough day; we didn't really sail very well and struggled to call the wind right. Every part of the course was a bit of a struggle for us but we still learnt throughout the day so whilst the results weren't what we wanted we still worked out a few things to improve on our performance longer term.
But, that's the nature of this competition for us, you just have to keep improving and while the results might not show it we are just working on things each day, to keep getting our overall performance better." reflected Ainslie.
Naturally the geographical location of the venue, in built up Marina Bay, makes it hard and challenging to call the shots. J.P. Morgan BAR tactician, gold medallist, Paul Goodison on reading the course;
"It's pretty hard out there, you look out at the racecourse and you make your play, you know where you want to go and quite often you have a good start but it's almost as similar as everyone else's so you can't get to where you want to. So, it is very tough and it didn't quite go our way today.
"The team is coming together, but sometimes we have 15 knots and sometimes five and our roles and responsibly in a lighter breeze are very different to our roles in 15, so we are still a little bit lost about who is doing what, where and when in these transitions. We are such a new team but it will come together, it's about learning from our mistakes."
Race six, the penultimate of the day, offered the most dramatic of the event with two teams enduring an epic crash in a quest to the finish. J.P. Morgan BAR were ahead, missing the action, Ainslie commented;
"Quite a big gust came through and it was a very close race, all the boats were finishing at the same time - there just wasn't enough room for the boats catching up effectively. When it's that windy there's no time for delayed reaction - that's when things can take a turn for the worst and it goes wrong, which I guess is one of the dangers of racing is this confined venue. All of the teams here are fantastic competitors, to control these boats in such a compact space the quality has to high, but even at this level mistakes do still happen."
For all the latest J.P. Morgan BAR news and updates follow at www.jpmorganbarblog.com
GAC Pindar Claim Podium Finish in Singapore (from Adam Tanous)
Following two challenging days on the water, the all-Aussie crew of GAC Pindar claimed their first podium finish of the week, finishing third in race 19.
The penultimate day of racing also saw one of the most dramatic collisions in Extreme Sailing Series history between Team Aberdeen Singapore and Groupama sailing team. While Groupama is expected to return to racing tomorrow, the damage for Team Aberdeen Singapore is not yet confirmed.
Commenting on today's events, Seve Jarvin said, "it is going to take time for it all to come together for GAC Pindar, as we are a brand new crew, but we are very satisfied with today's improvements."
GAC end the day 11th in the standings with 49 points.