Oman Sail has a firm hold on the Extreme Sailing Series podium in Istanbul after Leigh McMillan and his crew on The Wave, Muscat extended their lead to 15 points and inspired their team-mates led by Stevie Morrison on Oman Air to another strong performance with a best ever third place overall.
The open waters of the Bosphorus Straits are once again delivering some of the best conditions seen all season and for the experienced McMillan, right-hand man Pete Greenhalgh and tactician Sarah Ayton, the frisky breeze of between 15 to 20 knots is bringing out the best in them.
“We are sailing the boat fast because these conditions are really playing to our strengths,” said Greenhalgh.
“We are solid when there is a bit of wind with some difficult shifts but we are reading the shifts well and loving it. It might be a different story if things become light and fluffy but at the moment, this is fast tactical sailing, we are doing a really nice job and it is really exciting.”
The Wave, Muscat started and finished the day with outright wins and added another in the third race of the day, fending off a challenge from Oman Air who crossed the line in second.
Seven of eight races completed today featured either Oman Air or The Wave, Muscat, or both, on the podium leaving McMillan’s team at the top of the leaderboard with 132 points and Oman Air in third on 107 with SAP sandwiched in the middle on 117 points.
“We have had a very good two days and we are very happy,” said Oman Air skipper Stevie Morrison. “The courses are slightly shorter and it is shifty and gusty but we are pleased with how it is going.
There is still a lot of room for improvement and we will certainly be going all out to keep chipping away over the next two days.”
His bowman Ali Al Balushi pointed to an improvement in crew communications as one of the reasons why Istanbul is proving to be Oman Air’s best event so far in 2015.
“This was probably close to the best day we have had this year but there is still a long way to go and a lot to do,” he said.
“We are performing better together as a team – our communications are better, our planning is better and our starts are better. We are also fighting harder and we will continue to fight hard tomorrow because this is our best chance of finishing on the podium.”
Spirits were high off the water too as Oman Sail played host to a group of distinguished corporate guests in Istanbul. Some had travelled from Oman to see how Oman Sail and the Ministry of Tourism promote Oman overseas and the rest comprised some of the top travel firms across Turkey.
At the Bullitt GC32 Racing Tour in Marseille, Sultanate of Oman were lying in third place after finishing on the podium in five out of six races. Led by Olympic sailor Nathan Outteridge, who is standing in for Extreme skipper Leigh McMillan, Sultanate of Oman were 5 points adrift of leaders Alinghi and just 2 points behind Spindrift. Tomorrow is the final day of the GC32 racing season.
Live coverage of the Extreme Sailing Series Istanbul continues on Saturday at 14:00 local time (GMT+3) with live video streaming, live 3D graphics and frequent Twitter updates.
