The Wave, Muscat built a small but impressive lead at the Extreme Sailing Series Sydney with another display of unbending consistency while Oman Air fought hard to stay in the mix for a final podium place. After two days of strong winds, a slight easing in conditions across Sydney Harbour gave skipper Leigh McMillan and his crew an opportunity to steal a march on rivals in their bid to seal a record-breaking third Extreme Sailing Series championship title.
By the end of eight hard fought and tight races, they had posted six podium places including a win in the penultimate race, their fourth of the event, to create a three-point advantage over second placed SAP Extreme Sailing Team with one day’s racing left.
Consistency once again was key, McMillan said and they made the most of the conditions. “It was a bit up and down and at times, we were a bit frustrated because we felt we could have converted some results but we were consistent and mostly made the best of the situation we were in.”
Sunday marks the final day of Extreme 40 racing for McMillan who is set to join the British America’s Cup team LandRover BAR in January and although he is poised to depart as the most successful helm in Extreme Sailing history, his focus is on completing a victory in Sydney, which would be his fifth event win in a row, and becoming 2015 champion to add to his 2012 and 2013 titles.
“Tomorrow is my last event of the season and although this has slowly dawned on me, we are trying to focus on doing well and winning the event. It doesn’t feel any different at the moment but it might feel different tomorrow.
“It was a great day’s racing today and nice to put on a bit of a show – the Sydney conditions were fantastic and it must have been spectacular from the shore.”
In fourth place on the leaderboard, Oman Air skipper Stevie Morrison admitted it had been a tough day at the office with three podium finishes in eight races but there were still plenty of opportunities to claw back some crucial points on the final day.
“We had a lot of 50/50s that went against us which was frustrating but we will go away and come back positive tomorrow because there is everything to play for on the last day,” he said.
“Our game plan was for consistency, to keep chipping away but it was tough and we need to up our game tomorrow.”
The plan is still to finish on the podium to bring the curtain down on their first season racing together as a crew, added Ali Al Balushi.
“It was hard today – we had a couple of good races and some not so good. Hopefully it will be good tomorrow and we can finish on the podium,” he said.
Support for the teams was felt at the Oman Tourism Pavilion set in the Royal Botanical Gardens where hundreds of racegoers dropped in to discover the beauty of Oman and to learn about the country as a tourist destination, leaving with a traditional Henna souvenir!
The last day of racing for the Oman Sail squad on The Wave, Muscat and Oman Air – wrapping up the Sydney event, the 2015 season and the momentous Extreme 40 catamaran era – starts at 1400 local time (GMT+11) with a final double points race as a climax. Follow live video and twitter updates at www.extremesailingseries.com.
