Resounding victory for Alinghi

As the Extreme Sailing Series Singapore comes to a close

Extreme Sailing Series Singapore lived up to pre-season expectations, with the new teams unable to topple the old order – with three returning teams taking honours.

An estimated 30,000 spectators watched over four days, as Ernesto Bertarelli’s Swiss team Alinghi sailed a near perfect regatta, with Morgan Larson, Stuart Pollard, Pierre Yves Jorand, Nils Frei and Yves Detrey, finishing more than half of the 29 races in the top three. The team had the event wrapped up before the final double-points race – a feat rarely seen on the circuit.

“We couldn’t have dreamed for a better start,” commented an ecstatic Larson. “It was challenging here and with the level of competition a couple of notches higher this season, I think we just carried on from last year and we’re the only team that hasn’t changed any of our crew. We will try and build on from last year and enjoy this victory!”

But who would stand on the podium with the Swiss team was not so clear-cut, with Emirates Team New Zealand, The Wave, Muscat and Realstone all in contention. The Kiwis came flying off the start line in the final race, but it all went wrong for Dean Barker and his team shortly after that, and a penalty on the first beat for a port-starboard incident against The Wave, Muscat, lost them not only second place to the Omani boat, but third place to Realstone.

Barker commented: “It’s the first time we have raced together in five months and our first time back on the circuit since 2011, and for sure we wanted to get a podium here, but couldn’t get away with it. We’re still rusty and have to focus our thoughts, but we’ll get there. We definitely had a great time here in Singapore.”

The reigning champions on The Wave, Muscat have a new line-up this year, including double Olympic gold medallist Sarah Ayton – one of five women competing in Singapore. Skipper Leigh McMillan, who has been a dominate force in the Extreme 40 class for the last two years, looked ahead to what is shaping up to be a fantastic year of competition: “I think it’s great that we are proving the quality of the fleet for the last two years and how competitive it has been. But by no means do we think it will remain that way and we are going to have a lot on our hands in the upcoming events. We are just delighted to finish in second place and kick off the season with a great result.”

Realstone led the regatta after day one and even missing a day's racing after a collision earlier in the week couldn’t stop Jerome Clerc and his crew, with a third place in the final race enough to clinch third place overall. Clerc commented: “This is our best result since our debut on the Extreme Sailing Series. It wasn’t easy at all and we have been through every emotion this week, but we have finished really strongly. It proves that we are working in the right direction, although there are obvious improvements we can make – well done to Alinghi who just dominated over the event.”

While Singapore may have gone to the old-guard, the new teams pushed them the whole way, with eight of the 12 boat fleet sailing to race victories over the course of the last four days.

While some of the new faces struggled for consistency, they all showed moments of winning brilliance, and the battle mid-leaderboard was fierce, with Groupama Sailing Team and Franck Cammas, who last competed in the Series in 2010, clinching fifth place from the experienced hands on Red Bull Sailing, by just four points.

Ben Ainslie’s team, JP Morgan BAR, which includes some of the UK’s top sailing talent, finished the regatta on a high, winning the final double-pointer to come home seventh. Eighth and ninth went to two previous Extreme Sailing Series winning helms, who finish tied on points – Gazprom Team Russia, with two-times winner Paul Campbell-James on the tiller and winner of the inaugural Series, Rob Greenhalgh, with his team Oman Air. The Danish SAP Extreme Sailing Team brought home the event in tenth place.

Ainslie summarised their regatta: “We had a terrible day at the beginning, we couldn’t really do anything right. It was obviously really frustrating for all of us but we are pleased to finish with two really good races and claw back a few points by winning the double point final race.

"It’s been an interesting challenge this week, we’ve learnt a lot about sailing the boats and the competition and look forward to building on what we have learnt here and taking that into the next event in Oman. We are expecting the conditions to be a little steadier in Act 2, which makes for a whole different type of race.”

The local boat Team Aberdeen Singapore, supported by Host Venue Partner Aberdeen Asset Management, made an extraordinary comeback after yesterdays’ huge crash with Groupama Sailing Team, to be back on the race course today, and even upgraded their position on the overall standings to 11th place ahead of GAC Pindar.

Skipper Nick Moloney summed up the atmosphere, and the feeling amongst the fleet this week. “We’ve had an amazing and spectacular time in Singapore. This venue is the encompassment of the stadium format – wind, bumps and scrapes. It’s amazing for spectators and really difficult to sail with all the wind shifts around the buildings. No spot in the world lets us sail like this. For the sailors it was completely full on.”

Singapore will be remembered as one of the most action packed events in the eight-year history of the circuit.

The next stop will be Muscat, Oman – in just over three weeks time.

Results: 

1st Alinghi (SUI) Morgan Larson, Stuart Pollard, Pierre-Yves Jorand, Nils Frei, Yves Detrey 217 points.
2nd The Wave, Muscat (OMA) Leigh McMillan, Sarah Ayton, Pete Greenhalgh, Kinley Fowler, Nasser Al Mashari 193 points.
3rd Realstone (SUI) Jérôme Clerc, Arnaud Psarofaghis, Bruno Barbarin, Thierry Wassem, Sebastien Stephant 178 points.
4th Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL) Dean Barker, Glenn Ashby, James Dagg, Jeremy Lomas, Edwin Delaat 168 points.
5th Groupama sailing team (FRA) Franck Cammas, Sophie de Turckheim, Pierre Leclainche, Thierry Fouchier, Devan Le Bihan 160 points.
6th Red Bull Sailing Team (AUT) Roman Hagara, Hans-Peter Steinacher, Mark Bulkeley, Nick Blackman, Haylee Outteridge 156 points.
7th J.P. Morgan BAR (GBR) Ben Ainslie, Nick Hutton, Paul Goodison, Pippa Wilson, Matt Cornwell 152 points.
8th Gazprom Team Russia (RUS) Igor Lisovenko, Paul Campbell-James, Alister Richardson, Pete Cumming, Aleksey Kulakov 128 points.
9th Oman Air (OMA) Rob Greenhalgh, Tom Johnson, Will Howden, Hashim Al Rashdi, Musab Al Hadi 128 points.
10th SAP Extreme Sailing Team (DEN) Jes Gram-Hansen, Rasmus Køstner, Thierry Douillard, Peter Wibroe, Nicolai Sehested 126 points.
11th Team Aberdeen Singapore (SIN) Nick Moloney, Adam Beashel, Scott Glen Sydney, Tom Dawson, Justin Wong 82 points.
12th GAC Pindar (AUS) Seve Jarvin, Troy Tindill, Ed Smyth, Sam Newton, Alexandra South 59 points.