August 27th 2010
Day 2: Only 8 points separate top 3 as Ecover hold on to top spot
Mike Golding's Ecover Sailing Team have managed to hold on to the
top spot at the Extreme Sailing Series™ Kiel event going into
the penultimate day tomorrow (Saturday, 28th August). Two 1st
places, a 4th and a 5th in the fleet racing plus a win in the
match racing gave them 67 points: "It is great to be at the top
at the end of today – a nice birthday present!" said Mike who is
50 today. "The reality is that we still look behind us and see
the same boats finishing at the top of the fleet so it is very,
very close… We keep hoping that one of the other boats at the
top will have a really disastrous race but there is none of that
."
© Paul Wyeth/ OC Events
With only 8 points separating the top 3 boats, the British team
are being closely shadowed by their French rivals… Yann Guichard
and his crew on Groupe Edmond de Rothschild may not have claimed
any race wins today but three 2nd places and a 3rd saw them
steadily claiming points to move into second overall today,
ahead of Loick Peyron's Oman Sail Masirah: "We were really
consistent today… It's great and it's paying in the end," said
Guichard. "We took some great starts and we are happy with the
speed of the boat. We will have to keep the same pace – as usual
every point is important."
In this star-studded class, every point is hard fought for and no
team can feel secure with their advantage. Nearly every Extreme
Sailing Series event goes to the wire and with a double points
final race on Sunday, the skippers know how important it is to
secure every point they can now.
The racing began in a steady 9 knots of breeze and the nine-boat
fleet was speeding around the short race track, flying their
hulls in front of the crowd. Each race lasting on average 12
minutes, covering each 800m leg in just 2-3 minutes.
© Paul Wyeth/ OC Events
Double Olympic Gold Medallist, Roman Hagara, at the helm of Red
Bull Extreme Sailing had a far more satisfying day today on the
water, scoring their first race win of the regatta. Obviously
inspired to perform well under the gaze of German top model
Miriam Holler who raced on board in the 5th man guest spot:
"Even if we had some bad results at the beginning of the
afternoon, we got better after a win," said Hagara. "We have to
be a little bit more aggressive to catch up on the leaderboard.
This light wind makes everything really hard." They continued in
that vein with a second place in the penultimate fleet race with
Red Bull Air Race World Champion, Hannah Arch spurring them on
in the 5th Man spot. Their performance today has moved Red Bull
Extreme Sailing up a place to 5th overall with 46 points, just
two points behind The Wave, Muscat.
Despite being the lightest crew by about 40 kilos, it didn't help
their performance and Paul Campbell-James will be disappointed
to have dropped a place overall, although Peyron can be
comforted to have an 11-point lead over his counterpart. With
Groupama skipper Franck Cammas competing in the Sevenstar Round
Britain & Ireland race on his Volvo 70, Tanguy Cariou is driving
here in Kiel and will be pleased to have scored their best
result of the regatta so far with a 4th place in the second race
of the day to help elevate the team from 8th overall to 7th, two
points behind Mitch Booth's The Ocean Racing Club.
© Paul Wyeth/ OC Events
By the penultimate fleet race the wind had dropped to just 5
knots and the rain became a more consistent feature that,
thankfully, didn't seem to deter the spectators. A round of
match racing then followed but by this time the wind had dropped
to less than 3 knots, then almost nothing, proving a painfully
slow exercise for the teams.
The German 'wild card' teams are not surprisingly finding the
going tough against this experienced field but their objectives
for competing are being met as Audi Sailing Team Germany skipper
, Johannes Polgar, confirmed: "Every single race when we leave a
competitor behind at the finish line is a great success for us.
Our learning curve is steep but we're looking forward to the
breeze that is supposed to pick up over the weekend."
The action continues tomorrow, Saturday 28 August from midday
with foiling Moth demonstrations before the index act, the
Extreme 40s take centre stage at 2.30pm.
Watch yesterday's video HERE
[http://www.extremesailingseries.com/video/kiel/]
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