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Extreme 40 Series 2010 in Kiel
www.extremesailingseries.com/ - Übersicht
August 28th 2010
Consistency Pays for Yann Guichard
on Penultimate Day of the Extreme Sailing Series™ in Kiel
It was a good day for Yann Guichard and his men on Groupe Edmond
de Rothschild ending with a win in their match race against
Loick Peyron. On a day of inconsistent weather, the French team
performed consistently securing three 2nd places, two 3rd places
and a 1st in the final fleet race on the penultimate day of the
Extreme Sailing Series™ Kiel event to steal a march on their
rivals and topple Ecover from the top of the overall leaderboard
. "We sailed really well today, always being in the match and
never giving up when we were a bit behind," said Guichard.
© Paul Wyeth/ OC Events
"We took only good starts and despite a penalty in a race we
managed to finish third. I have the dream team on board and I
think that's what makes the difference - all the manoeuvres are
spot-on and that helps to get that extra inch to get in front of
the other guys. Today the objective was to get in front of
Ecover so it's been achieved."
Groupe Edmond de Rothschild now
has a 16-point lead over their closest rivals Oman Sail Masirah
going into the final day tomorrow.
Ecover will be gutted to see their dominance falter - a 7th, 8th,
3rd, 5th, 4th and 7th - was nowhere near good enough and they
are now ranked third overall on 93 points.
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Fotos: © Paul Wyeth/ OC Events
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Conditions today were
really tricky – big rain squalls and plenty of cloud action
inducing shifty winds and lanes of no pressure, then good
pressure, as Paul Cambell-James, skipper of The Wave, Muscat
explained: "It's such a different event compared to Cowes, very
light wind and shifty conditions. It's really technical here, we
were watching the sky all the time, looking for clouds and
squalls, as you know rain means wind. Today was not too bad but
the last couple of days didn't go the way we wanted too."
It was not easy for any of the teams, some got lucky and some
didn't. Mitch Booth was having a great day – two race wins and
two seconds places, enough to elevate The Ocean Racing Club into
4th place in the overall standings - until The Wave, Muscat ran
into the back of them damaging their back beam, as Booth
explained: "We were getting ready for the last fleet race, it
was pretty gusty, and The Wave were trying to get underneath us
and they got caught by a gust. They tried to bear away but the
huge gust and accelerated them from a standstill to up to 20
knots in two boat lengths and they hit our back beam." 'CJ' and
his crew only had a few seconds to go for damage limitation: "We
tried to slow the boat down as much as possible but when you go
20 knots it's not easy to do! We hit them where it would make
the less damage and hit the back of the beam." The Ocean Racing
Club has been given redress for the races they missed this
afternoon, and the Extreme 40 has been craned out to make
repairs to the back beam. All being well, Mitch Booth's team
will be back racing tomorrow.
© Paul Wyeth/ OC Events
The estimated 30,000-strong spectator crowd endured the
torrential downpours and then basked in the sunshine, enjoying
all the action the nine-boat Extreme 40 fleet had to offer from
the six fleet races to a final round of match racing: "Racing in
Kiel is fantastic," said Booth. "The people here love it, there
were thousand of spectators today and you can hear them cheering
from the water, especially when the local teams cross the finish
line. That makes you feel like you have to do your best and
provide the show they deserve."
Groupe Edmond de Rothschild and Oman Sail had a great match race
- Peyron had the advantage with Guichard pushing hard forcing
Peyron to make a mistake and incur a penalty. Masirah tried to
put enough distance between themselves and Groupe Edmond de
Rothschild to perform the penalty without being overtaken, but
it could not be done and Guichard took the win.
© Paul Wyeth/ OC Events
The Audi Sailing Team Germany will be further encouraged by their
day on the water, scoring a 4th place in the first fleet race
and a win in their match racing against the other 'home' team
Wirsol Team Germany.
Tomorrow (Sunday, 29th August) is the final day of the third
round of the Extreme Sailing Series™ and there is still
everything to play for as Guichard summed up: "There's a great
spirit onboard but there's still a day to go so it's not over
yet." The German public will not be disappointed…
The final day of Extreme Sailing Series™ action starts tomorrow
with Moth demonstrations from 12.30 and Extreme 40 racing from 2
.30pm.
[http://www.extremesailingseries.com]
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