Extreme Sailing Series - Day 1 offers light and tricky conditions

by Sarah Alexander on 2 May 2014 The first day of the Extreme Sailing Series, Act 3 and Qingdao’s 2008 Olympic waters offered light and tricky racing conditions across eight, short, sharp races.

At times, J.P. Morgan BAR struggled with their starting performance, leaving the British team unable to get ahead on the open water track. Fushan Bay’s tidal influence was the biggest test, the team were left caught up in the cluster as the more experienced ESS teams made good pace towards the top mark.

However, it was challenging for the whole Extreme 40 fleet, that's made up of 60 sailors - 37 of them Olympians including J.P. Morgan BAR’s three 2008 Beijing Olympic gold medallists. Throughout the day each of the 12 teams struggled for consistency, with five different winners placed within the eight races.

Reflecting on the day, bowman Matt Cornwell commented 'It was a great day for sailing but, we did struggle a little bit. The conditions were good and it was a nice, steady, building breeze - a little up and down at times - but generally pretty good and off the sea so very stable.

The two main things we didn’t get to grips with were firstly, our starts - we weren’t starting well so we will have a good look at that tonight and go through the SAP analytics to figure out what we were doing wrong with our set up.

Secondly, our first gybe away from the top mark is something we need to work on, so that will be a focus for us tomorrow.'
The Chinese venue is notorious for offering a spectrum of conditions, from none to full on breeze. Although the event has started light, heavier, stronger conditions are already expected to come in and close the Act on Sunday.

Cornwell continued 'Tomorrow will be a very different day with a north-westerly breeze coming in from the City. It could be very shifty and more like the conditions we experienced in Singapore.'

Tomorrow’s format of racing will change to a stadium style, held within the harbour wall. For all the latest J.P. Morgan BAR news and updates from Act 3 in China follow www.jpmorganbarblog.com or on Twitter @JPMorganBAR.

Full J.P. Morgan BAR crew list
Skipper/ Helmsman – Ben Ainslie
Tactician – Paul Goodison
Bowman – Matt Cornwell
Trimmer – Nick Hutton
Trimmer – Pippa Wilson

Extreme Sailing Series 2014 Act 3, Qingdao standings after day one, eight races
1st Alinghi (SUI) 64 points.
2nd The Wave, Muscat (OMA) 50 points.
3rd Team Extreme Qingdao (CHN) 47 points.
4th Realteam (SUI) 47 points.
5th Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL) 45 points.
6th Red Bull Sailing Team (AUT) 40 points.
7th Groupama sailing team (FRA) 39 points.
8th Gazprom Team Russia (RUS) 37 points.
9th SAP Extreme Sailing Team (DEN) 33 points.
10th J.P. Morgan BAR (GBR) 29 points.
11th GAC Pindar (AUS) 17 points.
12th Oman Air (OMA) 0 points.