Extreme Sailing Series Act 4 - Realteam holds its own in St Petersburg

by Bernard Schopfer on 1 Jul 2014 The Swiss crew onboard Realteam by Realstone fought valiantly in very light conditions at the inaugural Extreme Sailing Series event in the famous city of St Petersburg, Russia, to finish fifth out of a fleet of 12 multihulls at Act 4. This result puts them in fourth place on the season championship leaderboard, just four points off the podium.

Realteam by Realstone flew the Swiss flag with pride at the heart of St Petersburg last weekend (26-29 June) at Act 4 of the Extreme Sailing Series, finishing fifth overall after 22 races on the ever-challenging River Neva, behind Alinghi in first place, The Wave, Muscat in second and Emirates Team New Zealand in third. This result puts Realteam, helmed by Arnaud Psarofaghis, in fourth place overall on the season championship leaderboard, just four points off the podium.

Realteam excelled on the first two days of the event, which were plagued by very light conditions, and were ranked third overall going into the weekend, but Saturday and Sunday proved to be more testing for the Swiss team: 'We made a mistake with the course and were out of phase with the wind and the race format,' described helmsman Arnaud Psarofaghis. 'We lost points with silly mistakes, but regrouped after racing, had a good debrief and came out strong again for the final day,' he added.

The Swiss team had a good final day on Sunday with a win in the slightly stronger 5-12 knot breeze. 'It was a very positive final day and a good way to end the event,' said team manager Bruno Barbarin. 'It was great to see the team regroup and come back strong.'

The St Petersburg racecourse was a pleasant surprise for the crew who hadn’t raced in the city before: 'The show that the fleet put on for the last two days was absolutely magnificent,' Barbarin continued. Racing 40-foot catamarans on a narrow stretch of very tidal river is no mean feat. 'The legs were very short and overtaking opportunities were extremely rare,' explained Psarofaghis. 'You had to be very aggressive to stay in the mix.'

Throughout the first half of the Extreme racing season, the team, skippered by Jerome Clerc, has consistently finished at the top of the leaderboard against some of the world’s elite racing teams. Currently ranked fourth overall for the season championship, just four points behind Emirates Team New Zealand, Realteam’s sights remain set on a podium result. 'There is still everything to play for during the second half of the season – we will have to fight right to the very end,' said Realteam founder, Esteban Garcia, who raced onboard the boat in Russia as a guest.

Next stop for Realteam will be Act 5 of the Extreme Sailing Series in Cardiff, UK, from the 22-25 August, but before then the team plans to take a short break before getting back into some summer training!

Extreme Sailing Series Act 4 St Petersburg – results
1 Alinghi 160
2 The Wave, Muscat 148
3 Emirates Team New Zealand 146
4 J.P. Morgan BAR 120
5 Realteam by Realstone 117
6 SAP Extreme Sailing Team 113
7 Gazprom Team Russia 97
8 Oman Air 96
9 Red Bull Sailing Team 95
10 GAC Pindar 88
11 Groupama sailing team 88
12 RussianFirst 40

Extreme Sailing Series season championship ranking after four Acts:
1 Alinghi 38
2 The Wave, Muscat 35
3 Emirates Team New Zealand 32
4 Realteam by Realstone 28
5 Gazprom Team Russia 19
6 J.P. Morgan BAR 17
7 SAP Extreme Sailing Team 14
8 Red Bull Sailing Team 13
9 Groupama sailing team 13
10 Oman Air 11
11 GAC Pindar 4

Realteam crew – St Petersburg
Arnaud Psarofaghis – helmsman
Jerome Clerc – skipper/mainsail trimmer
Bryan Mettraux – headsail trimmer
Thierry Wasem – bowman
Denis Girardet – fifth man
Bruno Barbarin – team manager
Etienne David – coach
Jeff Kerleguer and Sebastien Stephant – shore crew