The ninth event of the 2011 Extreme Sailing Series kicked off today (7th December), with the iconic cityscape of Singapore providing a spectacular backdrop for the final stage of the 2011 global Series. Thunderstorms, monsoon-style rain and light airs greeted the 10 international teams, whichincludes the only boats hailing from the Middle East, Oman Sail’s The Wave, Muscat and Oman Air, as the fight for the Series podium began.


Five days of racing will be played out in Singapore before the event, and the Series, draws to a close on Sunday 11th December, when the winner of the 2011 Extreme Sailing Series will be crowned. With the points as they stand going into this event, either Luna Rossa (ITA) or Groupe Edmond de Rothschild (FRA) will walk away with the title, whilst four other teamshave a shot at claiming the final podium place – including Oman Sail’s The Wave, Muscat.

The fleet had to contend with tricky racing conditions in Singapore with some major wind shifts as the storm clouds gathered. After race two, the first rumblings of thunder and flashes of lightning swept across the race course, and the decision was made to postpone racing.

After a short respite for the teams, racing resumed in 4-5 knots of wind, which steadily built throughout the day to eight knows by the final race, just enough to get the hulls flying.

The Wave, Muscatdidn’t manage to get the event and their campaign for the podium off to the start they were hoping for, finishing tenth in the first two races of the day after a series of on the water penalties. However after the storms swept threw, the Omani team was determined to make up for the bad start, and two third place finishes in the final races leaves the team tied on points with GAC Pindar (GBR), in sixth place at the end of day one.

Khamis Al Anbouri, The Wave,Muscat’s Bowman: “It was a challenging start for us on our first day and the weather conditions were difficult. It started raining quite heavily and thundering during the race and in such conditions when there is lightning it could be quite dangerous. We concluded the day with good results and this is what we are aiming to do, so we are happy with that. Tomorrow we want to start the day that way.”

Under the guidance of new Skipper and British Olympian Chris Draper, the team on Oman Air faced an additional challenge, which they rose to impressively. The team grew in confidence throughout the day, steadily climbing their way up the leaderboard and posting their best result of the day in the final race, finishing second. Nasser AlMashari, the teams Bowman reflected:

“It is always a challenge with a new Skipper onboard, and we had very little practice time yesterday. But I felt like we started to find our flow on the water and were working as a team, which we saw as the results kept getting better!”

Chris is no stranger to Oman Sail or the Extreme 40’s, having helmed Oman Sail’s Masirah to victory in the 2009 Extreme Sailing Series. After two years away from the Series, Chris admits it is a challenge stepping back onto the Extreme 40 but is optimistic about the week ahead.

“It's going to be a bit hard getting back into Extreme 40 racing but we've really got nothing to lose. We're here to do the best job we can for Oman and we have a good chance of beating Red Bull in the overall rankings. The fleet is stronger then it was in 2009, it’s very impressive and I am really pleased by how we all sailed together today. I think if we continue to improve like we did today we will have a really nice regatta."

It was double Olympic gold medallist Roman Hagara and his Austrianteam on Red Bull who shone today,winning two of the five races, enough for them to finish day one at the top of the leaderboard. Luna Rossa are six points adrift, with their French rivals Groupe Edmond de Rothschild just two points off them with both teams vying to make an early claim for the Series title.

Over the next four days of racing, the sailors are preparing themselves for more light winds, and the ever-present risk of thunderstorms. As we have seen in every event this Series, it often comes down to the last race before the podium places are decided, and Khamis Al Anbouri is determined an Omani boat will be on the overall Series podium for the third consecutive year. “We have a good chance to be on the podium. We need to be consistent and keep getting the good results. We are optimistic that we could win the last event here in Singapore.”

For live updates from the race course follow Oman Sail on Twitter – www.twitter.com/OmanSail