Extreme Sailing Series- Emirates Team NZ advances to second overall

by Warren Douglas, Emirates Team NZ on 4 Oct 2014

Emirates Team New Zealand, Race start on day two of the Extreme Sailing Series at Nice. 3/10/2014 Chris Cameron/ETNZ http://www.chriscameron.co.nz

The breeze was light again on the second day of the Extreme Sailing Series seventh round at Nice.

Seven races were sailed and once again the 4-7 knot breeze gave teams mixed results. By the end of the day, no clear pattern had emerged and the fleet was still tightly bunched with less than 20 points separating the top eight teams.

Emirates Team New Zealand advanced to second overall from its overnight fifth equal.

That came as something of a surprise for New Zealand helm Peter Burling. He explains: ' We started the day relatively well, but slipped a little towards the end. We all felt that the day could have gone much better.

'I was surprised to learn when we came ashore that we were second on the board. I didn’t think we had had such a great day and thought we would be a bit further back on the scoreboard. We’re only a few points off the lead, so we’re really happy to be in touch and to still be improving how we’re sailing.'

Team SAP, Emirates Team New Zealand and Oman Air. Day two of the Extreme Sailing Series at Nice. 3/10/2014 © Chris Cameron/ETNZ http://www.chriscameron.co.nz

Realteam on 92 points retains the lead, with Emirates Team New Zealand eight behind on 84. Gazprom Team Russia is third on 82. In the quick-fire format of the Extreme Sailing Series, margins like that can evaporate in a couple of races.

For Burling and the crew – Glenn Ashby, Jeremy Lomas, Blair Tuke and Edwin Delaat – there’s another debrief ahead to fine-tune tactics for the persistent light conditions.

Tomorrow’s racing will be streamed live from 1530 local time, (GMT +2) extremesailingseries.com.

Emirates Team New Zealand. Day two of the Extreme Sailing Series at Nice. 3/10/2014 © Chris Cameron/ETNZ http://www.chriscameron.co.nz

Extreme Sailing Series Nice standings after Day 2, 15 races (3.10.14)

1st Realteam by Realstone (SUI) 92 points.
2nd Emirates Team New Zealand 84 points.
3rd Gazprom Team Russia (RUS) 82 points.
4th Alinghi (SUI) 81 points.
5th J.P. Morgan BAR (GBR) 75 points.
6th GAC Pindar (AUS) 75 points.
7th The Wave, Muscat (OMA) 74 points.
8th Oman Air (OMA) 73 points.
9th Groupama sailing team (FRA) 71 points.
10th SAP Extreme Sailing Team (DEN) 66 points.
11th Red Bull Sailing Team (AUT) 66 Website