2015 Bullitt GC32 Racing Tour – Final day

by Oman Sail on 3 Aug 2015 2015 Bullitt GC32 Racing Tour – Oman Sail’s GC32 Sultanate of Oman finished Sailing Cup Kiel in Germany on a high to maintain their overall lead in the season ranking, achieving their success in front of record crowds.

By the end of the final day’s racing, which once more was curtailed by a lack of wind in the morning, Leigh McMillan’s crew had notched up a string of podium positions including an impressive win in the last race which kept them in third place, 20 points behind runaway winners Alinghi.

But their strength in the first two events of the series, with a win in Austria and a runners up place in Cowes, has meant their overall lead was preserved, albeit reduced to a single point over their Swiss rivals.

It was a good day, said McMillan who on Wednesday had to manage a last minute change of crew when Pete Greenhalgh became ill and Paul Campbell James, who stood in for Leigh at the end of the Cowes Cup and for the Round the Island Race, stepped in.

“We kept it pretty positive as we always try to do, looking to the next day or the one after. We were determined to finish on a high note though knew there was a lot to do to move up on the leaderboard, especially with the lack of racing.

“So we wanted to finish off with some decent results and I feel we did that. It’s a shame it was the last day!

“It was really good on the boat today. We were starting to figure it out as a new team and working better on our communications, discussing things through, getting our heads out of the boat so it was a step forward. We had some good starts and managed to convert them into good results.”

The GC32 fleet has competed all week in front of massive crowds, as the Extreme 40s did last week in Hamburg which demonstrates a substantial appetite for watching sailing in Germany. Many of them were cheering for Oman said Sultanate of Oman’s bowman Nasser Al Mashari.

“It was great to see so many people coming down to watch and really nice to hear them cheering – for us I am sure!” he said.

“There were also a lot of crowds in Hamburg at the Extreme 40s and many of them were cheering for Oman. Germany makes up the second biggest number of our tourist visitors to Oman which I think is why so many of them came down to the boat to see us and support us.”

After the challenges posed by crew changes and the disruptions for weather, a third place in Kiel was entirely satisfactory, Al Mashari added.

“We are happy with third place bearing in mind the conditions and if there had been more races, we could have finished in second but we lost one full day and quite a few races today and yesterday. Some you win, some you lose but overall, we are happy.”

It has been an intensive two weeks for McMillan and his crew with the Hamburg and Kiel events but now there is a short break before they travel to St Petersburg in Russia for the next round of Extreme Sailing Series before the fourth Bullitt GC32 Racing Tour kicks off in Rome, Italy, on Thursday 27 August.