by Jo Uffendell
The SAP Extreme Sailing Team came off the water on a high, having made it first across the line in the final race of the day. It has been a largely frustrating day on Fushan Bay, Qingdao as a result of foggy weather conditions and delayed racing, however, crossing the line at the head of the fleet has lifted the mood of the SAP Extreme Sailing Team ahead of the final day of racing tomorrow.
After postponing racing this morning due to adverse conditions, the Extreme Sailing Series race management were keen to squeeze in as many races as possible when the weather cleared. With around 5 knots of breeze on the race course, teams were battling the same shifty conditions they have experienced all week with the surrounding buildings casting large wind shadows over the racecourse.
So close were the points on overall scores that there was an intense battle between SAP Extreme Sailing Team, GAC Pindar and China Team in the final race with all three wanting to head into the last day of racing with an edge on their rivals.
The SAP Extreme Sailing Team have come away in 4th place with 110 points accrued overall and are tantalizingly to closest race rivals, GAC Pindar, with just one point between them.
Commenting on their performance and delayed racing start today, Trimmer Pete Cumming said:
“Today was especially hard for all the teams with a 3 hour postponement. When it came to 4pm, we all assumed racing would be cancelled and to mentally pick ourselves up when we thought there would be no racing was pretty hard. We had our first race win of this act, a third and a couple of reasonable results so we have definite kept ourselves in the fight in fourth position and one point away from the podium. We are sailing really well as a team and have everything to play for tomorrow and I just hope we have a really strong finish just like we did in Singapore.”
The Extreme Sailing Series has a highly competitive and experienced fleet and the SAP Extreme Sailing Team use SAP Analytics to review their performance and look for opportunities to make gains on their race rivals.
Follow tomorrow’s racing from 12.00 CET with live text commentary. Video replay of the days action will also be available.
