2015 Extreme Sailing Series - Impressive Day 2 for The Wave, Muscat

by Oman Sail on 22 Aug 2015 The Wave, Muscat fought their way to the top of the Extreme Sailing Series leaderboard in St Petersburg with five podium places from seven races while Oman Air hit form late in the day to claim two more.

The second day of action on the River Neva was a repeat of day one with the light winds and strong current combining to upset the best laid plans.

But Leigh McMillan and his team on The Wave, Muscat were by their own admission feeling more relaxed and reeled off a string of impressive results.

They posted back-to-back wins then added another for good measure to lift them above Red Bull in the rankings with a five point cushion and two days remaining.

According to Nasser Al Mashari, the Omani bowman and a key member of this double championship winning crew, everyone settled in to their roles quickly today and were extra watchful to make sure they stayed on top of the shifts.

“We felt quite relaxed today and it showed in our performance because we were thinking ahead and focussing more on our boat handling,” said Al Mashari, referring to his teammates Sarah Ayton, Pete Greenhalgh, Ed Smyth and of course his skipper.

“That was our aim after our debrief on Thursday night and everyone worked hard to make it happen. There are still two days to go so our next aim is to keep up the momentum.”

Skipper McMillan was delighted by today’s scoreline but cautioned against getting overexcited sicne there were still two days to go and plenty of hard work ahead to defend their lead.

“It was a pretty good day with conditions similar to Thursday and we were successful in putting into practice the things we learned on the first day,” he said.

“There was a good tempo among the crew and we had a reasonable handle on the conditions and reacted well to every situation. It was a good all round performance and it felt really good.”

Oman Air wrestled with adversity in the early races of the day, suffering technical issues with the boat and attracting a couple of penalties from the umpires. But they battled back and scored two second places in the last three races which earned the crew high praise from skipper Stevie Morrison.

“It was a frustrating day for us but for the guys to come back at the end to post those results was a real testimony to their patience and teamwork.

“We all stayed calm through all the difficulties and managed to finish the day well. When we are good, we are very good and when the chips are down, there is a very strong team bond. When things are happening fast, our communication loops get a bit blurred so we have to work on that.

“But we are on the right track as those two back to back seconds showed and we will be looking to build on that over the next two days.”

Racing in St Petersburg continues through to Sunday August 23 and can be followed on the Extreme Sailing Series website with live video, live streaming of the SAP analytics and dynamic leaderboards.

Results:

Rank	Team	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	R9	R10	R11	R12	R13	R14	R15	∑
1	The Wave, Muscat	6	10	5	4	8	10	9	8	10	10	7	10	7	9	7	120
2	Red Bull Sailing Team	8	9	8	10	5	8	10	9	5	6	9	8	8	5	6	114
3	Lino Sonego Team Italia	3	4	10	8	7	9	8	4	7	5	10	7	3	6	10	101
4	SAP Extreme Sailing Team	7	5	9	3	9	7	6	6	6	8	8	4	10	10	3	101
5	Gazprom Team Russia	9	8	6	6	6	4	7	5	8	9	6	6	6	8	5	99
6	Oman Air	10	7	4	7	4	5	5	3	4	7	3	9	9	3	9	89
7	GAC Pindar	5	3	7	9	10	3	4	7	3	4	5	3	4	4	8	79
8	Team Turx	4	6	3	5	DNF	6	3	10	9	3	4	5	5	7	4	74