The Hamburg racetrack, brand new to the Extreme Sailing Series in 2015, proved favourable for The Wave, Muscat who are sitting top of the table after the first day’s action while Oman Air gave the thumbs up to a ‘superb’ venue.
Leigh McMillan’s championship winning team of Nasser Al Mashari, Sarah Ayton, Pete Greenhalgh and Ed Smyth on The Wave, Muscat, made a German debut to remember, winning the second race of the day outright and adding another four podium places to earn a two point lead at the top of the table.
Second placed SAP Extreme Sailing Team, who are vying with the Omani team as overall series leaders, posted some strong results to give their opponents notice of the fiercely competitive match that lies ahead over the next three days.
“We are happy to be leading but frustrated because there were opportunities to increase it,” said McMillan who survived the day without causing further damage to the hand he broke three weeks ago while racing GC32s in Cowes, UK. “We made a hash of the last race because we had a chance to come right back at the fleet but messed it up. We need to continue to try and improve over the weekend. We had some issues with the hydraulics for the first few races which was a bit of problem but we fixed it and were fully up to speed after that.”
Bowman Nasser Al Mashari, along with his Omani mates Ali Al Balushi, Sulaiman Al Manji and Hilal Al Zadjali, paid tribute to Sultan Qaboos bin Said and the people of Oman to mark Oman’s Renaissance Day, a celebration that had inspired their performances. “We are very happy and very proud because today is the anniversary of Oman’s Renaissance Day, the day our Sultan ascended the throne in 1970 so this is a big gift to His Majesty,” said Al Mashari. “He is a king, a father and a Sultan to us and we love him.”
Stevie Morrison, skipper of Oman Air described the city centre venue as ‘superb’ but admitted to feeling frustrated by performances that left them in sixth place overall, some 17 points behind their Oman Sail stablemates. “We had really nice breeze and a good day’s racing though it has been frustrating for us,” said Morrison, who put together his new crew of Ed Powys, Ali Al Balushi, Nic Asher and Ted Hackney at the start of this year. “We are going fast but are struggling to execute the last 100m of the first leg so have ended up with some average windward mark roundings. We need a few more breaks but are happy enough because the racing is so good. It has been superb today, as good as you can hope for. If the wind shifts tomorrow, the race course could become very small very quickly so we shall wait and see what happens.”
Racing continues tomorrow with live coverage and regularly updated results at www.extremesailingseries.com.
