Extreme Sailling Series - Weather conditions extend advantage

by Sarah Branson on 4 Oct 2013 At the Extreme Sailling Series 2013, the crew of the SAP Extreme Sailing Team got stuck into the penultimate Act today, knowing that the weather conditions would play a large part in their success in Nice.

With the conditions described as ‘testing’, co-skipper Jes Gram-Hansen commented ahead of racing: 'The weather forecast is showing that we can expect everything this weekend, so we should see some varied conditions! It’s not only the big breeze we need to watch, but also the movement of the waves, which is due to set a challenge for the whole fleet'

Mikkel Rossberg added, 'We kicked off with 20 knots of today, there were some strong gusts and we handled them well, and took some smart decisions on the race course securing great results in the first races. In race three we took a nose dive and damaged the bow sprit which forced us back to the harbour to carry out repairs which was frustrating after a great performance in the initial races, second across the line in both race one and two. I’m impressed with how everyone on board stayed calm, confident and pulled together to make the repairs to make a great comeback, with us reappearing to compete on the race course. To be blighted by more onboard damage was tough to swallow'

'Every race counts and never more so than here in Nice so when we started off by leading round the first mark and scoring two second position finishes so early on in the days racing we were feeling really confident. The damage is a minor set back and our meticulous shore crew soon had us bouncing back. Bring on tomorrows racing.' concludes co-skipper Rasmus Kostner.
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