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April 12th 2011
Act 2, Qingdao:
Racing Starts Tomorrow at
China's Olympic Sailing Venue
The Olympic spirit is very much alive in Qingdao which hosted the
sailing events of the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, and some of
the Extreme Sailing Series™ competitors have strong memories
from three years ago when they represented their country in the
Tornado catamaran class ... Red Bull Extreme Sailing Austrian
duo Roman Hagara and Hans Peter Steinacher finished 10th, whilst
their British crew man Will Howden came 6th with helmsman Leigh
McMillan, who is in Qingdao coaching Oman Air. Argentinian
Santiago Lange, who is skippering Artemis Racing in place of
Terry Hutchinson for Act 2, reached the Olympic podium to secure
Bronze and New Zealander Glenn Ashby, racing with Emirates Team
New Zealand, went one better and returned home with Silver.
Luna Rossa helm, Paul Campbell-James, also recalled his time in
Qingdao: "I was one of the tuning partners for Team GBR and was
here for almost a month doing a lot of training where the
Olympic racing was held just right out here. We've been sailing
for two days and we're just dying for the event to get started
now. We were expecting there not to be much breeze but the last
two days there has been about 12 knots - enough to get us flying
and get some practice races in so its been pretty good."
The Extreme 40's in Fushan Bay
The teams are in the final stages of preparation, fine tuning
their boats, discussing tactics and studying their weather files
. Racing starts tomorrow (Wednesday, 13th April) for two days of
non-public racing, allowing the race management team to set
optimum race courses further offshore if required, before Act 2
opens to the public from Friday, 15th through to the final day
on Sunday, 17th April when one of the 11 teams will lift the
Double Star Cup. But its not just the teams who are putting the
final touches to their campaigns, the organising committee of
the Qingdao Yachting Association are putting the weight of their
Olympic experience into hosting another high-profile sailing
event as Leo Zhanglizhong, Project Officer, Qingdao Sports
Bureau commented: "The host city is looking forward to this
great event for a long time and we have all been busy preparing
for the event here in Qingdao. All the citizens are very eager
to see the exciting racing."
Leo Zhanglizhong, Project Officer, Qingdao Sports Bureau being
interviewed
An objective of Roland Gaebler's Team Extreme has been to sail
with a local sailor of the host venue and Chinese sailor,
William Wu, has been training the team and is looking forward to
the racing: "I am looking forward to getting more experience on
large multihull racing boats racing against some of the best
sailors in the world," said Wu. "I have been racing in Qingdao
so I have local knowledge of the area which will help with race
strategy. However I will be the one learning the most from my
team, particularly from my skipper Olympic medalist Roland
Gaebler." Wu is a relative newcomer to the sailing world who
had his first taste of sailing in Shanghai in 2007. He
progressed rapidly in the sport and now has his own Chinese
sailing team, Whitewave, who are aiming to compete on an
international level representing his country.
Phil Lawrence, Race Manager, outlines the weather scenario for
Act 2 of the Extreme Sailing Series Qingdao: "The forecast looks
quite promising for the next two or three days with a reasonable
breeze in the afternoons, although its looking lighter for the
weekend but we're still quite a long way out. The boats are very
light so even if the winds are light we can still race. The
tides are very strong here and if we do have some stronger
breeze the sea can get very rough, so we're going to have some
challenging conditions either way."
Luna Rossa preparing their boat for racing
For the Extreme 40 sailors they will adapt to whatever the
weather situation and are used to racing at the Extreme Sailing
Series venues that do not follow the conventions of other
sailing events, racing directly in front of the public in city
centres, on canals, off beaches or on rivers. The teams adapt
quickly to their local environment and as we saw at Act 1 at The
Wave, Muscat, the teams slower off the starting blocks were soon
back in the mix, which was the case for Luna Rossa as Paul
Campbell-James explained: "We were pretty happy after Act 1,
results-wise we were hoping to get on the podium, but the way it
went we were just off fourth place and we started pretty average
and finished pretty well. We hope to carry that momentum into
this event. It's such a varied set of conditions that you get
here and I still wouldn't say one team is stronger than any
other in the light so I'm backing ourselves!"
The people of the 'City of Sails' are going to witness five days
of intense competition… Let the battle commence!
View the current overall standings here.
[http://www.extremesailingseries.com/leaderboards/2011]
The online Digital Media Exchange is currently not operational
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carolyn.lashmar@octhirdpole.com
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Extreme Sailing Series Act 2 Team Line-Up:
Team / Skipper & crew
Groupe Edmond de Rothschild (FRA), Pierre Pennec / Christophe
Espagnon / Thierry Fouchier / Hervé Cunningham
Artemis Racing (SWE), Santiago Lange / Rodney Ardern / Morgan
Trubovich / Andy Fethers
Red Bull Extreme Sailing (AUT), Roman Hagara / Hans Peter
Steinacher / Will Howden / Craig Monk
Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL), Dean Barker / Glenn Ashby /
James Dagg / Richard Meacham
Luna Rossa (ITA), Max Sirena / Paul Campbell-James / Alister
Richardson / Manuel Modena
Alinghi (SUI), Tanguy Cariou / Yann Guichard / Nils Frei / Yves
Detrey
The Wave, Muscat (OMA), Torvar Mirsky / Kyle Langford / Nick
Hutton / Khamis Al Anbouri
Oman Air (OMA), Sidney Gavignet / Kinley Fowler / David Carr /
Nasser Al Mashari
Team Extreme (EUR), Roland Gaebler / Bruno Dubois / Sebbe
Godefroid / William Wu (tbc)
Niceforyou (ITA), Alberto Barovier / Mark Bulkeley / Daniele de
Luca Simone de Mari
Team GAC Pindar (GBR), Ian Williams / Brad Webb / Gilberto Nobili
/ Jono Macbeth
Extreme Sailing Series ™
The Extreme Sailing Series™ is a unique concept, pitting some of
the very best professional sailing teams in the world against
each other on identical Extreme 40 catamarans, on challenging,
tactical courses, but close to shore to provide spectacular,
stadium-style entertainment for the public.
The award-winning circuit will visit Muscat (Oman), Qingdao
(China), Istanbul (Turkey), Boston (USA), Cowes (UK), Trapani
(Italy), Nice (France), Almeria (Spain) and, finally, Singapore
starting in February until December 2011.
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