Second day for the lake racers

Red Bull Sailing Team saunter away at the Extreme Sailing Series in Muscat

With the onset of the Omani weekend, spectators rammed the beach off The Wave, Muscat for the penultimate day of Extreme Sailing Series racing.

For a second day in a row the wind was light, never rising above seven knots before dying completely. However it was enough time for the Extreme 40s to sail eight races.

Unsurprisingly, the lake-like conditions once again favoured the teams from landlocked countries. The Wave, Muscat started today level on points with Red Bull Sailing Team, but the Austrian team led by double Tornado gold medallist, Roman Hagara had an immaculate day, posting four bullets, three seconds and with only one result out of the top three. Red Bull Sailing Team starts tomorrow’s grand finale 15 points ahead, Hagara's crew on track to win their first ever Extreme Sailing Series event after three years on the circuit.

“We had a good day and we’re some points ahead now which is quite nice for the last day," said Hagara. "It will still be a hard day because the final race is double points, so in the end it can always change but we try to stay focused and then do our best for tomorrow. This team deserve to win their first event together, last year we were always close we had really good first days and then one bad day and dropped back so I think its time for our team and just maybe we can do it!”

Ernesto Bertarelli and his Swiss crew aboard Alinghi also had a good day with two bullets, and are now challenging The Wave, Muscat’s position. In fact had it not been for a sour twist at the end of their day team when they were given a penalty for hitting the mark causing them to drop from second to sixth, they are likely to have been second place going into the final day.

Bertarelli commented: “We are happy that we are sailing better then we have in the past and it feels good to be in a podium position. We will see what happens. It is tricky in the light winds but we have a new tactician (Morgan Larson) and he is making some good calls. He won the event here last year and it is working well. The plan is to start ahead, stay ahead and finish first.”

Fortunately for McMillan’s team, their day ended on a high: after a slow to start in the final race, they pulled through the fleet finishing just ahead of their Swiss rivals, to maintain second by three points going into tomorrow’s final races.

By Leigh McMillan’s standards, it was a disappointing day for his team on The Wave, Muscat, not helped when they picked up a penalty in the sixth race.

Team Duqm Oman managed to keep it together today to maintain fourth place despite the tough conditions. “It was very very light today,” confirmed skipper Rob Greenhalgh. “I guess it is about practice in those conditions, but it is the same for everyone - any little mistakes make a big difference. It was enjoyable, tense racing. We hung in there and had our ups and downs as did everyone.”

Considering that the three teams ahead of them come with considerably more experience in the Extreme Sailing Series, Greenhalgh is satisfied with their progress. “They’ve been doing this for years. We have been doing this for one event. I think we can learn a lot and take a lot forward to another event if we get to do one.”

The battle between the new young Kiwi teams aboard Team Korea and GAC Pindar saw Team Korea gaining the upper hand, just. Both had another solid day, their respective skippers Olympic 49er silver medallist Peter Burling, and match racer William Tiller both securing finishes in the top half of the fleet.

Realteam’s skipper Jerome Clerc, despite being another lake expert and the winner of last year's Bol d'Or Mirabaud, unusually has been struggled in the light, as has SAP Extreme Sailing Team. 

So tomorrow the finish day of racing, Red Bull Sailing Team be on course for their first ever Extreme Sailing Series event win, while Alinghi is lining up for her first podium finish since 2011.

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