The Wave, Muscat fought their way to the top of the leaderboard with five podium places from seven races while Oman Air hit form late in the day to claim two more on Day two of the Extreme Sailing Series in St Petersburg, Russia.
The River Neva in St Petersburg lived up to its reputation for asking stiff questions of the Extreme 40 crews and the opening two days of racing can be characterised by the light winds and strong current combining to upset the best laid plans.
Regarded as one of the most difficult venues on the Extreme Sailing Series circuit, St Petersburg has delivered the customary wind-against-tide challenge for the fleet with a strong current taking any punch out of a shifty 10-knot breeze. But Leigh McMillan and his team on The Wave, Muscat were, by their own admission, feeling more relaxed and reeled off a string of impressive results.
They posted back-to-back wins then added another for good measure to lift them above Red Bull in the rankings with a five point cushion and two days remaining. According to Nasser Al Mashari, the Omani bowman and a key member of this double championship winning crew, everyone settled in to their roles quickly today and were extra watchful to make sure they stayed on top of the shifts.
“We felt quite relaxed today and it showed in our performance because we were thinking ahead and focussing more on our boat handling,” said Al Mashari, referring to his teammates, Sarah Ayton, Pete Greenhalgh, Ed Smyth, and of course his skipper.
“That was our aim after our debrief on Thursday night and everyone worked hard to make it happen. There are still two days to go, so our next aim is to keep up the momentum.”
Skipper McMillan was delighted by today’s scoreline but cautioned against getting overexcited since there are still two days to go and plenty of hard work ahead.
“It was a pretty good day with conditions similar to Thursday and we were successful in putting into practice the things we learned on the first day,” he said. “There was a good tempo among the crew and we had a reasonable handle on the conditions and reacted well to every situation. It was a good all round performance and it felt really good.”
Oman Air made a fiery debut in St Petersburg by winning the opening race of the Act but then the welcome cooled as the testing conditions took their toll, and by the close of racing on Day One, Stevie Morrison’s team were lying in sixth place in a tight fleet – where just eight points separated the third and seventh placed teams.
Day two proved challenging as the Oman Air crew battled adversity in the early races, suffering technical issues with the boat and incurring a couple of penalties from the umpires, but they fought back and scored two second places in the last three races which earned the crew high praise from skipper Stevie Morrison.
“It was a frustrating day for us but for the guys to come back at the end to post those results was a real testimony to their patience and teamwork. We all stayed calm through the difficulties and managed to finish the day well. When we are good, we are very good, and when the chips are down, there is a very strong team bond. When things are happening fast, our communication loops get a bit blurred so we have to work on that. We are on the right track as those two back to back second place finishes showed and we will be looking to build on that over the next two days.”
Racing in St Petersburg continues through to Sunday August 23 and all of the action can be followed as it happens on the Extreme Sailing Series website with live video, live streaming of the SAP analytics and dynamic leaderboards. Fans can also follow the new event twitter handle @exssLIVE for all the updates from the water.
See more at www.extremesailingseries.com
