The Wave Muscat leads the fleet. Image copyright Mark Lloyd/Lloyd Images/OCThirdPole.
by Nicky Moore
The third day at the Extreme Sailing Series, Muscat, saw a real battle develop between the top eight of the eleven boats. The Wave, Muscat maintains their place on the podium and within striking distance of the leading French team, Groupe Edmond de Rothschild.
Today saw a shift to the ‘stadium style’ racing which provided an extra challenge for the boats, who had to manoeuvre within the confines of the tight race courses. With two days of racing left, the pressure is building. Khamis Al Anbouri, bowman on The Wave, Muscat commented “Tomorrow is important for us, the points are really close, and with two days left to play it could all change. You can’t guess now who will be on the podium, a lot of teams are really strong, but we will continue to work hard, sail well and aim to stay on the podium at the end of the event”.
Today saw the first public day of the event, and the crowds flocked to the race village to enjoy the activities and watch the stadium style racing, close to the shore. With six races lasting less than 15 minutes each spectators were treated to a real show, with the dramatic finish of each race metres from the shore making for some spectacular viewing.
Extreme 40 viewing from Muscat. Image copyright Mark Lloyd/Lloyd Images/OCThirdPole.
Nasser Al Mashari, bowman on board Oman Air, spoke about how it feels to compete in front of his home crowd. “It is great to see all the public here supporting us from the shore. It makes both me and Khamis want to perform well for them – seeing the crowds and families and hearing them cheer for us from the water makes me so proud.”
A host of exhibitors in the public village, including the official event charity ‘The Environmental Society of Oman’ kept the crowds entertained between races. ‘The Environmental Society of Oman’ aims to educate people about conservation and raise environmental awareness. Lamees Daar, Executive Director of ESO said “ESO is excited to be part of a globally recognized international sports competition that has brought people together from all over the world to appreciate Oman’s natural environment”.
Amongst the activities taking place this week are try sailing sessions. Today students from Muscat International School joined the Oman Sail teams before racing and were treated to a guided tour of the boats and got to ask their questions to Oman’s own Khamis Al Anbouri. Khamis commented “It is great to be able to offer this opportunity to the schools and young Omanis and to see them enjoying being on the sea is just great.”
Muscat treated the sailors to another day of great weather conditions, which seemed to suit the teams from Luna Rossa and Team New Zealand, both posting their first win of the event, which has caused a shake up in the overall leader board. The teams from Oman didn’t have the day they had hoped for, but as we saw today, that could all change tomorrow. Nasser commented, “We struggled today and didn’t have the results we would have hoped for. We are still learning and every day we learn something new about the boats. It is still close and we are only a few points behind Team New Zealand and Luno Ross. Tomorrow everything could change.”
For the final race of the day, the shift was made to a match racing format, where two boats are pitted against each other. The Wave, Muscat lined up for the first match race against Artemis Racing, skippered by Terry Hutchinson, but after a poor start could not do enough to take the win. Torvar Mirsky, skipper of The Wave, Muscat who made his mark on the World Match Circuit before joining Oman Sail explained, “Artemis were really on fire today. They are experienced match racers so my experience didn’t give us any edge. I haven’t match raced these boats before so it was new for me and interesting to see how they handle. I thought we had them at the start but lost it at the last minute.”
The team on Oman Air lined up against Luna Rossa in their match race, with Paul Campbell-James, last years skipper of The Wave, Muscat on the helm. Paul held on to his unbeaten record for match racing in this circuit, took the point from Oman Air. Oman Air struggled to make it into the top half of the fleet today, slipping down the leader board to eighth place, but just one point off joint sixth placed Luna Rossa and Team New Zealand.
With the penultimate day of sailing here in Muscat tomorrow, you can expect the teams to come out fighting for those important points before the winner of the Extreme Sailing Series Muscat is decided on Thursday. After leaving Oman the 2011 Extreme Sailing Series will head off to China. The Series consists of nine events on four continents over 11 months, ending in Singapore in December.
Extreme 40 viewing from Muscat. Image copyright Mark Lloyd/Lloyd Images/OCThirdPole.
Results after 17 races – Tuesday 22nd February – overall points
1) Groupe Edmond de Rothschild (FRA)6,5,3, 1, 1, 7, 2,1,1, 3, 1, 8, 5, 6, 4, 6, 1(133)
2) Artemis Racing (SWE) 1,6,2, 4, 7, 3, 5, 4,8,6 10, 3, 1, 2, 1, 1,1 1, (130)
3) The Wave, Muscat (OMA) 2,1,4,5,10, 1, 10, 5, 2, 1, 2, 6, 6, 9, 2, 2, 0 (124)
4) Alinghi (SUI) 5,4,1,6, 3, 4, 1,2,3, 7, 5, 4, 4, 8, 6,8,0 (121)
5) Red Bull Extreme Sailing (AUT) 3,7,6, 3, 9, 5, 3,3,5, 4, 4, 3, 2, 5, 8,3,1 (120)
6) Luna Ross (ITA) 7,11,7, 2,5, 6, 8, 11, 8,3, 1, 3, 4, 7, 5, 1(102)
7) Emirates Team New Zealand (NZL) 11,2,8, 8 ,6, 4,6,6, 5, 6, 5, 7, 1, 3, 7, 1 (102)
8) Oman Air (OMA) 4,3,5,7, 2, 9,7,7,4,2 8, 9, 4, 7, 5, 4, 0 (101)
9) Team Extreme (EUR) 9,8,9, 10, 8, 11 9,9,7,9, 7, 7, 9, 3, 9, 9 0 (59)
10) Team Nice (ITA) 8,9,10, 9,4, 8 11,11,10, 11, 9, 11, 10, 10, 11, 10, 0 (37)
11)Team GAC Pindar (GBR) 10,10,11, 11,11, 10,8,10,9, 10, 11, 10, 11, 11,10, 11, 1 (29)
Oman Sail
Extreme Sailing Series
