Extreme Sailing Series™ Act 3 Qingdao 'Double Star Mingren' Cup - Day 3
by Extreme Sailing Series 3 May 2014 17:37 BST
1-4 May 2014
Swiss dominate as Alinghi and Realteam lead the charge ahead of the final Extreme Sailing Series™ Qingdao showdown
On a packed-eight race day at Act 3 of the Extreme Sailing Series™ in Qingdao, the battle lines were drawn between the 12 competing international Extreme 40 teams ahead of tomorrow's final showdown on the compact stadium racecourse, which at times resulted in a few near misses, protest flags being pulled, a man overboard for SAP Extreme Sailing Team and a collision in the final race of the day between GAC Pindar and Team Extreme Qingdao, that will see the Aussie team with a night of repairs ahead. Alinghi – the team who have led the Act since race one – managed to cling onto a 10-point advantage at the close of play, but it was their fellow Swiss country men Realteam who had their strategy sorted, strengthening their hand with each race, including a win in the day's opener, to head into tomorrow's final showdown in China's Olympic Sailing City in second place, to the delight of skipper Jérôme Clerc. "We started in fourth place today and we are now second so we are very happy. It shows that our strategy is working. We have stayed conservative all day and didn't take too many risks, but at the same time have had good starts and our tactics were spot on. Tomorrow we will be happy if we manage to keep Alinghi behind us." The defending Series champions The Wave, Muscat are just two points behind Realteam, and with up to 90 points for the taking tomorrow, and huge gusts up to 28 knots set to return, the Land Rover Extreme Sailing Series Act 3, Qingdao is set to go down to the wire.
The first four races were played out in around eight knots of wind, and executing the starting procedure well was crucial, with decisions made in the pre-start often dictating the outcome of the race. On the short start line the fleet struggled to get away cleanly, with the on-water referees dishing out starting penalties including two general recalls, before the third attempt saw nine of the 12 boat fleet red flagged. After five races, there was a change in tempo, and a building southerly breeze outside the harbour brought with it big swell, that saw the teams punching through the waves in 12 knots of breeze. One team to relish the conditions was Emirates Team New Zealand, who finished the day strongly with two back-to back-wins, leaving them trailing the defending Series champions by just one point in fourth place. 22-year old Pete Burling, who has taken the tiller from Dean Barker this week said: "We started the day a little slow, but in the last three races of the day we really got off the start-line well which is the first time all week we have really managed to do that. I think the level is really high right now, we're slowly getting better each day, and we're happy with the boat speed and hopefully we'll be able to give it a good crack tomorrow. Tomorrow we'll need to do the same as we did in those last races today – good starts off the line and consistency."
The battle mid-leaderboard is just as intense, with only 25 points separating positions five to eleven at close of play – little more than the difference of tomorrow's final double points race with everything to play for. Red Bull Sailing Team lead the second half of the pack in fifth place with 105 points, with Gazprom Team Russia just nine points behind. Today was an important day for Oman Air, who needed to put points on the leaderboard to cash-in on the average points they were awarded after getting knocked out of racing on day one, and Rob Greenhalgh and his team did just that, winning their first race of the Act.
The Omani team head into tomorrow's final in a solid seventh place, two points ahead of Groupama sailing team, and Kyle Langford, who has joined the team this week as mainsail trimmer, commented: "It was our first proper day's racing (after missing day one following a collision), and it went reasonably well. We had a race win which was good, and it was good to see that we can actually do it, so all in all it was excellent. It was easier for us to get in sync and figure out our manoeuvres. All of the races were the same so we could try to improve from each race. We're constantly working hard and we'll always aim to improve."
Ben Ainslie's J.P. Morgan BAR have not had the return to the 2008 Olympic waters they would have been hoping for at the start of the week, but the British team began to turn that around today, including a win in the sixth race of the day, giving the team a boost up the leaderboard to ninth place.
Pippa Wilson, the team's headsail trimmer who took gold in the Yngling class in 2008 as one of 'three blondes in a boat', commented: "It was a bit of an up and down day, we had a sticky start and then got used to the conditions and got better and better throughout the day. It was a difficult day but we're learning more about the style of racing as it's quite different to anything any of us have ever done before, so it takes a bit of time to get into that and work out the trends of the day. I think we did well to get through the difficult conditions, and pulled out some good results in the middle. I think tomorrow will be quite a different day, it's supposed to be quite breezy, so we will see what we get weather-wise in the morning and take it from there."
The young Aussie team on GAC Pindar are really trying to hone their multihull skills this year and today began to match the more experienced players on the track with their best results of the week. It wasn't all plain sailing for skipper David Gilmour however, and a collision in the final seconds of the final race with Team Extreme Qingdao has left them with a big gash in the stern of their right hull, and a night of repairs in the pitlane.
Gilmour explained: "We were reaching downwind to the finish and we had the pontoon to the left of us, and Team Extreme Qingdao were sailing upwind and side on to us. They had right of way and in the direction they were pointing we would have to either sail into the jetty or into them – so we tried to get in between, hit them and ruined our boat a little bit."
Taking the positives away from the day, Gilmour continued: "Today we had a much better day than the start of the regatta. We're really working together as a team and I'm starting to get used to these boats a bit more – it was really good fun today."
With up to 90 points up for the taking tomorrow, including the often game-changing final double points race, and with so little separation on the leaderboard, tomorrow really is anyone's game. The rhythm is set to change again tomorrow for the fleet, with huge gusts on the forecast as China's Olympic sailing city continues to throw everything at the elite level sailors.
Standings after Day 3: (22 races)
1st Alinghi (SUI) Morgan Larson, Anna Tunnicliffe, Pierre-Yves Jorand, Nils Frei, Yves Detrey 133pts
2nd Realteam by Realstone (SUI) Jérôme Clerc, Arnaud Psarofaghis, Denis Girardet, Bryan Mettraux, Thierry Wassem 123pts
3rd The Wave, Muscat (OMA) Leigh McMillan, Sarah Ayton, Pete Greenhalgh, Kinley Fowler, Nasser Al Mashari 121pts
4th Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL) Peter Burling, Glenn Ashby, Blair Tuke, Jeremy Lomas, Edwin Delaat 120pts
5th Red Bull Sailing Team (AUT) Roman Hagara, Hans-Peter Steinacher, Mark Bulkeley, Nick Blackman, Stewart Dodson 105pts
6th Gazprom Team Russia (RUS) Igor Lisovenko, Paul Campbell-James, Alister Richardson, Pete Cumming, Aleksey Kulakov 96pts
7th Oman Air (OMA) Rob Greenhalgh, Tom Johnson, Kyle Langford, Hashim Al Rashdi, Musab Al Hadi 92pts
8th Groupama sailing team (FRA) Franck Cammas, Sophie de Turckheim, Tanguy Cariou, Thierry Fouchier, Devan Le Bihan 90pts
9th J.P. Morgan BAR (GBR) Ben Ainslie, Nick Hutton, Paul Goodison, Pippa Wilson, Matt Cornwell 85pts
10th SAP Extreme Sailing Team (DEN) Jes Gram-Hansen, Rasmus Køstner, Thierry Douillard, Peter Wibroe, Nicolai Sehested 81pts
11th Team Extreme Qingdao (CHN) Mitch Booth, Zhang Yiran, Liu Xue, Nick Moloney, Freddie White 80pts
12th GAC Pindar (AUS) David Gilmour, Troy Tindill, Ed Smyth, Sam Newton, Alexandra South 66pts
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The Wave, Muscat and Oman Air both claim podium finishes and edge closer to their goals after a roller coaster day in Qingdao (from Oman Sail)
Six different winners from eight races told a story of tricky conditions at Extreme Sailing Series Act 3 Qingdao today but Oman Sail's The Wave, Muscat and Oman Air both edged closer to achieving their ultimate goals ahead of the final day's racing.
Oman Air finally gave a glimpse of their true potential by taking an outright win followed by a second place which marked a significant turnaround in fortunes after their upsetting start to Act 3 on Thursday when they were T-boned 30 seconds into the first race.
As compensation, the jury decided to award them average points on today's (Saturday) results which has now elevated them five places up the leaderboard into seventh with a day still to go. Skipper Rob Greenhalgh was delighted at Oman Air's improved performance which earned them their second outright win of the series.
"This was our first proper day's racing at this event so we are pretty happy with that," he said.
"We are a new team so it is all about learning about each other's strengths and weaknesses and getting our communications going but we are improving all the time and I am sure we will get better event by event.
"Once you are out in front and get away from the pack, it is easier. Starting is key and we made good inroads on our starting manoeuvres today so we have to keep working on that.
"Every team here can win races and everyone can come last so we have to aim at consistency and getting the points where we can."
The southerly 10-15 knot conditions were relatively tricky and a lumpy swell tested the sailors as the day wore on. Hashim Al Rashdi onboard Oman Air who, between Extreme events, goes back to learning the 49er with his crewmate Musab Al Hadi was happy to put some points on the board: "It was good to win today and to get a second it was a very good day. We found our stride a bit more, and the communications and teamwork gelled some more as well."
ESS defending champions The Wave, Muscat, who were also winners of the Qingdao Act in 2013, started the day in terrific form to post two consecutive victories, which closed the gap between them and leaders Alinghi to single digits on the leaderboard temporarily.
By the end of the day, although they had dropped one place overall to third the gap between them and Alinghi was down from 14 points overnight to 12 points which puts them in sight of an overall victory, although they will need to fend off the inevitable challenges from Swiss teams Alinghi and Realteam and Emirates Team New Zealand who will also be in contention when the final day's racing gets underway tomorrow.
"We were going well but the last two races didn't quite go to plan," explained skipper Leigh McMillan.
"We have done a really good job in getting closer to Alinghi in the overalls so hopefully tomorrow conditions will be good enough to get in lots of races and if that is the case, it is still a very level playing field. We will be gunning for the overall victory tomorrow.
"It was hard work today and our efforts were rewarded by those two race wins but conditions were quite tricky. The expected breeze didn't materialise – we could see it offshore but it didn't make it onto the race course which made it gusty and shifty and difficult to sail the boats but it was the same for everyone and we just did our best."
The forecast for tomorrow is for another breezy day and race officers will focus on safety for sailors in the 12 boat fleet as they look to run eight races in the compact stadium racing arena at Fushan Bay.
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Highs and lows on penultimate day in Qingdao (from J.P. Morgan BAR)
Fast, fun and chaotic, three words J.P. Morgan BAR skipper, Ben Ainslie, has used to describe the Extreme Sailing Series and today delivered them all. The full 12 strong Extreme 40 fleet were back racing together after yesterday's split, completing in eight short, compact, stadium races, inside Fushan Bay's harbour.
Although it was a difficult day for the British entry, there were still some highs. The tide was choppy, the wind puffy and both sides of the racecourse were tricky to predict. However, the team delivered, winning their first race of the event in race 20.
Tactician Paul Goodison reflected on the day "Great to win our first race today. We also had a couple of middle place finishes and a few at the back of the fleet, so a mixture of results for us. At the times when you are at the front, you are happy with how you perform. But, obviously when things aren't going quite so well and you find yourself at the back it's a struggle. All in all a bit of a frustrating day but, it was good to win a race so we were able to claw back some points. The series is a big challenge for us as a team, but every day we are learning new skills and taking things in."
Trimmer, Nick Hutton continued "It was a fairly up and down day for us on the water. As the day went on we got used to the conditions and it came together more. It could be quite breezy tomorrow so we will have to see what that brings but hopefully we will have more of the same conditions. We will just keep working on the things that will help us improve."
For all the latest J.P. Morgan BAR news and updates from Act 3 in China follow www.jpmorganbarblog.com or on Twitter @JPMorganBAR.