Extreme Sailing Series - The Wave, Muscat shares top spot in Istanbul

by Oman Sail on 12 Sep 2014 On the opening day of the Extreme Sailing Series in Istanbul, there were wins for both Oman Sail Extreme 40s The Wave, Muscat and Oman Air and the defending champions showed few signs of the pressure building on them to retain their title.

In fact, Leigh McMillan’s team were quick out of the blocks, winning the first race of the event and taking another victory in the fourth to finish the first day as joint leaders with Emirates Team New Zealand.

This time it was Rob Greenhalgh’s Oman Air that proved slow to start, taking things quietly after the drama of the practice day on Wednesday when their boat was damaged by the Kiwis forcing the shore crew to spend all night making repairs. But their caution did not last long and by Race 5 they were racing at full tilt and posting their first win of Act 6 that put them in seventh place on the leaderboard overnight.

For McMillan and his crew of Sarah Ayton, Nasser Al Mashari, Pete Greenhalgh and Kinley Fowler, a day’s racing out on the open water of the Marmara Sea, at the entrance to the Bosphorus Straits, allowed them to get a feel for the 20 knot breeze and ‘glamour’ conditions.

It had taken the practice day to acclimatise, he said. 'We had to remind ourselves about open water racing and what windshifts are – the sorts of things you don’t have time to see in ‘Stadium Racing’. With the changing venues it takes a while to get used to the different conditions but we will keep learning and developing as best we can.

'Our day was a solid one. Not spectacular but solid. The conditions were fantastic and I think everyone enjoyed having a bit of space because it allowed for normal racing. It was brilliant.'

Normal racing was suspended however when Groupama and then Alinghi, The Wave, Muscat’s great challenger for the 2014 Extreme title, both lost their masts in separate incidents and quick succession forcing both off the race course.

'It came from nowhere and it was a shock,' said McMillan.

'We were very close by when Alinghi’s mast came down and I heard the crash and saw it crumble into a bit of mess. It is not nice to see gear failure like that and it is really tough for a team to lose a race in that way. There is nothing you can do about it - some of these masts are older than others but we don’t know exactly what happened.

'These boats have been around for a long time and have taken a lot of beatings. It was not a nice way for Alinghi to lose a race – it was quite upsetting.'

Maryam Al Jadidi, who works as Oman Sail’s Operations Specialist and Project Manager to the Extreme 40 crews, is likely to be at the heart of operations this evening to make sure the boats are up and running in time for racing on Friday as she is currently working with the Oman Sail shore team to learn more about what they do. Her secondment is part of Oman Sail’s aim to give talented team members opportunities to develop skills through new experiences.

Back on the water, both Oman Sail teams were reviewing their performances and looking for opportunities for the remaining three days of racing.

'It was a great first day with a number of good starts,' commented The Wave, Muscat’s Nasser Al Mashari.

'We were able to gain points that distance us from other rivals. We will try to maintain this performance in the coming days.'

On Friday, the fleet will race in the Bosphorus and the event officially opens to the public, with three days of Stadium Racing. Live video starts from 1530 local time (GMT+3).