ECOVER relishing the conditions on Day 4 of the Extreme Sailing Series Europe in Cowes. Image copyright Mark Lloyd/Lloyd Images.
by Lucy Harwood
Ecover came out fighting today scoring three bullets to take day four of the Extreme Sailing Series in Cowes, after posting a third in race one, the crew just relished the plus 20 knot conditions to dominate the fleet and post their best performance on the circuit to date. Conditions ramped up to over 20 knots this afternoon, and the race committee made the call for the fleet to reef the mainsails and that the crew had to wear life jackets. The breeze also meant that fifth men were prevented from racing at the start of the day.
No morning race today has given the crew a respite from the intense schedule so far this week. Cowes is the longest of the Extreme 40 events this year, at any other event this season the regatta would have culminated yesterday, so the crews are working hard to stay consistent and stay in contention.
Local boy and Ecover helm Leigh McMillan commented after racing,
“Awesome day, all the boys on the boat were just hammering the manouvres all the way round, at the first windward mark on the first race we had a bit of an issue with a rope around the rig. But we dealt with it really well and managed to hold onto a top three place in that race, and from then everything was just super slick, Mike and all the boys were just excellent”.
“Today was the opposite of yesterday, yesterday we got bounced off every wall, we were backwards forwards, left, right and center. Today was the opposite but that’s just the nature of the sport. We got off to a good start in the day and then just relaxed into it, other than that you just take the opportunities and try and keep everything cool on the boat, keep the communications really clear and its all good. Today, was really windy but it was quite nice to have the reefs in it meant we weren’t right on the edge as we were two days ago. Everything just seem to click into place. We had a good day on that occasion and today we seem to be going well in the breeze again. We absolutely nailed the starts, which paid dividends, we rounded each mark in first place, we just kept it really tight and had an awesome day. It’s really nice to see the results and its great for all the boys on the boat to se the rewards for all the hard work they do”.
Standings after Day 4
1. The Wave, Muscat 150 pts
2. Ecover 146 pts
3. Oman Sail Masirah 141 pts
4. Groupe Edmond de Rothschild 139 pts
5. Red Bull Extreme Sailing 122 pts
6. Groupama 119 pts
7. Team GAC Pindar 99 pts
8. The Ocean Racing Club 79 pts
9. Veolia Environnement 30 pt
ECOVER Sailing Team
Extreme Sailing Series Europe
