Fresh from victory at the Extreme Sailing Series in Hamburg, Leigh McMillan’s triumphant crew on board The Wave, Muscat switch back to foils and travel 100 kilometres north this week to the German port of Kiel for the third round of the Bullitt GC32 Racing Tour, beginning today, with high hopes of taking a second victory on board the Sultanate of Oman.
With just three days of rest between events, McMillan is excited about their return to foiling, especially after missing out on a win at the last event in Cowes a month ago when he broke his hand.
Four weeks of rest meant his hand survived the strong winds in Hamburg and, with a similar breeze forecast in Kiel, he is confident that he and his crew of Pete Greenhalgh, Ed Smyth, Nasser Al Mashari and Alister Richardson will be ready and raring to go.
“It will be exciting because they are talking about a big breeze in Kiel so it will be full on,” he said. “My hand has been holding up just fine – it was hurting a bit during the Extreme 40 racing in Hamburg but a couple of days of rest and recovery means I will be good to go in Kiel. We are really looking forward to getting on foils again and are really enjoying all these events. It is good to compete on the two boats even though they are so different. “
“Good experienced sailors tend to be very adaptable – we have done a bit of foiling and there is a slightly different feel to how the boat reacts, but as far as tactics and teamwork are concerned – which are the important parts of racing – they are all the same.”
Compared to the open waters of the Solent at the Cowes Cup, racing in Kiel takes place in the compact surroundings of Kiel Fjord, an inlet of the Baltic Sea that extends into the city centre. The race is expected to draw massive crowds but will also pose a challenge for the crews, especially if the wind is strong.
“These boats are very fast and the track is quite small, so it will be a challenge but we have a strong crew and work well together as a team. We are really looking forward to it,” said Nasser Al Mashari, bowman on Sultanate of Oman.
Sultanate of Oman won the opening Bullitt GC32 Racing Tour event in Austria and came second to Flavio Marazzi’s Armin Strom Racing Team in Cowes but remain three points ahead at the top of the leaderboard with two events remaining, in Rome, Italy, in August and Marseille, France in September.
