Extreme Sailing Series Act 2 Chinese challenge for Alinghi

by Alinghi on 13 Apr 2011 Extreme Sailing Series Act 2 Swiss team Alinghi has travelled all the way to China aiming to improve on their results at the opening round of the circuit in Oman.

For the next five days on the challenging waters of Qingdao, the team will battle it out with 10 other teams with the goal of improving on the sixth position achieved in Oman. The first stage of competition proved to be a mixed bag for Alinghi, with some promising open-water performances and some disappointing shore line 'stadium' racing results.

'The team has had a pretty good reaction after the first regatta in Oman,' says Pierre-Yves Jorand, the team coach. 'During these past few days of training we have changed quite a bit and have been working out how to adjust to the conditions and handle the boat, we have also worked out how to check our speed when going edge to edge with other boats. The results are encouraging. Today the conditions here in Qingdao were quite specific with a breeze that was struggling to settle. We competed in three small training races with six other boats. My first impressions are very positive, we had very good starts and have won one of the practice races so the team are in good spirits and morale is up!'

Known as the ‘City of Sailing’ since staging the sailing programme of the 2008 Olympic Games, Qingdao is China’s fourth largest manufacturing port. The schedule for Act 2 of the Extreme Sailing Series includes two days of ‘open water’ racing with upwind and downwind courses, and three days of ‘stadium’ sailing format, with the 11-boat fleet racing right in front of the spectators. Alinghi website