Alinghi wins out on lake racing day

As The Wave, Muscat and Red Bull are tied in first place at the Extreme Sailing Series in Oman

Hatches were being battened down and reefs put in as the forecast indicated powerful winds exceeding 20 knots for day two of the Extreme Sailing Series held off The Wave, Muscat. This, plus today’s scheduled change to the stadium sailing racing format, caused crews to leave the dock with trepidation, anticipating a hair raising day ahead.

Unfortunately it wasn’t to be... As Team Duqm Oman skipper Rob Greenhalgh described it: "It started off breezy and we put the reef in, but then during the first race the wind died and in the second race we were reefed in very light conditions and then after that it just dropped down to sub-5 knots, and two or three knots and then to zero wind. So it was not very easy at all - a very different day to yesterday."

Proceedings were canned after race six today as a mill pond prevailed off The Wave. Team Duqm Oman was one of the boats to finish outside of the time limit. Yet despite both this and being penalised in another, following a port-starboard with Alinghi "converting a third to a last", Greenhalgh felt their performance remained good enough compared to the opposite to hang on to fourth place overall. "We had a good day except for a couple of mistakes, otherwise our results were alright - I can’t complain."

Going out on to the race course expecting an afternoon of breezy sailing only for it to drop so dramatically put strain on in the inexperienced crews. Fortunately Greenhalgh, sailing with Will Howden and Nasser Al Mashari who were on this boat last year when it was Oman Air and former GAC Pindar helm Andrew Walsh between them have great experience even if it has been only brought together at this regatta for the first time.

Star players today were the lake racing specialsts on Alinghi, Ernesto Bertarelli claiming bullets in three races, causing them to hold third place overall but close on the leaders. Being OCS in the fifth race was a slight hindrance in their stride. Their new tactician, Morgan Larson, who won this regatta last year as skipper of Oman Air, commented: “Winning the starts are everything and we just jumped the line and we finished last – but it wasn’t by much. Ernesto did a really nice job focusing on the starts and he got aggressive and it obviously worked so we’re pretty happy. The communication is solid and the team make it loose and light and fun. I guess when you’re doing well it seems to come easy!"

However in the bigger picture, the dust-up for victory remains between the Roman Hagara-steered Red Bull Racing Team and 2012 series winner The Wave, Muscat. 

"It was a bit of a surprise - we were expecting the wind to hold for the day, but it became a bit of a light and drifty day in the end," commented McMillan of today's conditions. "And it left a nasty chop on one side of the course. When we poked our heads out of the bay there was a nasty seaway and it was pretty frustrating getting stuck in those big waves.

"We caused ourselves a few issues today and we didn’t quite execute as we had hoped in a few situations and that cost us some points. But it wasn’t a complete disaster, it just wasn’t as good as we should have performed, given how we were sailing in certain situations."

As to Alinghi's performance today, McMillan commented: "They were going very well - they have obviously got Morgan on there and they were going for the big starts and absolutely nailed it a few times and they did a great job and it has gone very well. They are becoming quite a major threat coming into the next few days..."

Team Korea, with the London 2012 49er silver medal winning duo of Kiwis Peter Burling and Blair Tuke, stepped up and made an impact from the first start gun today in the stadium, winning the first race of the day, and more impressively, their first race on the stadium style race course. Dockside, some are saying this team has the potential to take the title in their first year, as they begin to find their place in the Extreme 40 fleet. “It is pretty exciting to get out of the blocks,” commented Burling. “We had a pretty bad day yesterday so it was good to get a good position in the first race and it gave us some confidence for the rest of the day. We are just trying to do as well as we can, we’ve only really done four days together as a crew but the lighter winds today gave us more time to communicate the manoeuvres and work together – so I think now we will be a lot more solid if we get another breezy day tomorrow.”

Tied on points with Team Korea is another team of young Kiwis aboard GAC Pindar. William Tiller's crew showed they can handle the intensity of this new style of racing for them, winning their first race of the regatta, an indication their potential.

Tiller was buzzing after racing: “The last couple of days here have been a steep learning curve for us and it’s been really enjoyable and the boy’s are loving it and had a lot of fun today with the stadium racing. Being tied in fifth is pretty good for the team after two days on the water and I think the points are pretty close from fourth right down to eighth so it will be tight racing for the next couple of days and we will be hoping to improve on that – I mean fourth will be a great finish up there in mid fleet for the first time and it will be awesome!”

Tomorrow’s forecast is 18 knots of breeze and coinciding with the Omani weekend thousands of public are expected to attend to watch the spectacle from the shoreside Race Village at The Wave, Muscat.

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