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Tagesvideo
September 26th 2010
The Wave, Muscat, Take Top Spot in Trapani
With Overall Championship title Wide Open
Paul Campbell-James, skipper of The Wave, Muscat has won the
Extreme Sailing Series™ Trapani snatching the overall lead for
the Series from Groupe Edmond de Rothschild with the
Championship title all to play for in Almeria in less than two
weeks time. The Medieval city of Trapani has provided some of
the best conditions and thrilling action of the year over the
past four days with the seven-strong fleet thrilling the
spectators with dramatic mark roundings, near pitchpoles and
capsizes and match-racing duels as the fleet covered all corners
of the Sicilian harbour.
© Lloyd Images/ OC Events
Going into the final day, Paul Campbell-James, skipper of The
Wave, Muscat had a 16-point lead over second placed contender
Groupe Edmond de Rothschild. Campbell-James thrived in the 15-17
knot wind, posting two wins, two thirds and a sixth, during
which they chased their French rivals down the fleet in an
aggressive match-race in the five-race afternoon, crossing the
finish line set within inches of the spectators.
But the real battle going on wasn't for the top spot… Four teams
were in contention for the second and third podium positions:
Groupama 40, Groupe Edmond de Rothschild, Ecover Sailing Team
and Oman Sail Masirah, and none of them were giving up without a
fight.
The four teams traded blows, before Groupama dropped out of the
running, with two seventh places. And then there were three, but
only two podium positions in their sights…
© Roberto Foresti/ Canon/ OC Events
But it was Mike Golding's all British team onboard Ecover Sailing
Team who, with dogged determination, improved as their day went
on with aggressive starts and lucid tactical calls, posting two
bullets in the final two races and take the final podium spot,
squeezing out the French team Groupe Edmond de Rothschild,
skippered by Yann Guichard, into a disappointing fourth.
Loick Peyron, skipper of Oman Sail Masirah was relieved to take
the second place behind stablemate The Wave, Muscat, "It was up
and down for us today, as we all know by now you have to win the
starts, that is crucial to winning races. We were efficient on
the water and the last race was good. I did make mistakes today
and didn't win a duel against Trapani at one point but it is
good to see the local team have a good last day. They have put
on a great event.
"The real battle out there was between The Wave, Muscat and
Groupe Edmond De Rothschild for the overall fight for the
leaderboard. They are both great teams and it will be
interesting to see how they respond in Almeria. In general the
event was perfect, perfect for Masirah and perfect for Oman Sail
. I am really impressed by The Wave Muscat, they have been really
consistent all Series."
© Roberto Foresti/ Canon/ OC Events
Golding commented, "A fantastic day really, a great recovery from
yesterday and its a great feeling onboard the boat. We knew we
had to go and do our own thing today, there was no advantage to
us hunting any particular boat out we just wanted to stay safe
and run our own race and see how it would pan out. We were
hoping that one of the Oman boats would go hunting Groupe Edmond
de Rothschild and I think that happened a little bit especially
in the last race which helped our cause. It panned out really
well for us and we're very pleased to be where we are at the end
of today.
In terms of the overalls its good to see that we're still holing
onto third that was important heading into Almeria, Its still
incredibly close for those top spots going into the final event
so who knows what will happen.
Trapani the Sailing Seacily's skipper, Gabriele Bruni was
relegated to the spectator stand as he nursed his broken
malleolus, sustained on day 2 of racing, and his brother, Azzura
Skipper Francesco Bruni took his place. The team had a brilliant
last day and a great final race when they were locked tight into
a match racing duel with Campbell-James' The Wave, Muscat,
before succumbing to the former Student World Match Racing
Champion's moves and taking their best place of the whole event,
a fourth.
© Roberto Foresti/ Canon/ OC Events
"It is good fun watching the racing, but it is much better
sailing the races! It is very nice view from here and the boats
are really fast and I think for the public it is fantastic, I
have never seen such a nice view from the shore, so I think the
Extreme Sailing Series is a really nice concept of sailing and I
like it even if my story I have always sailed with big, slow
boats in the oceans and sailing this is really great, I've loved
it."
The final event on the Extreme Sailing Series™ calendar kicks off
in just ten days time when the Andalucian city will welcome the
circuit for the second consecutive year for the Grand Finale.
With the top four boats separated by just four points for the
overall title, nothing will be certain until the 12th of October
when the 2010 Extreme Sailing Series™ Champion will be crowned.
Watch the action here from onboard the Extreme 40s here. Would
you like to be in their shoes?:
[http://s3.amazonaws.com/ocgroup-dme-video/61.mov] and check out
the results page here:
[http://www.extremesailingseries.com/results/trapani/]
Overall Series Standings:
The Wave, Muscat 28
Groupe Edmond de Rothschild 27
Ecover Sailing Team 25
Oman Sail Masirah 24
Groupama 40 12
Red Bull Extreme Sailing 12
The Ocean Racing Club 8
Team GAC Pindar 3
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