Crew of The Wave, Muscat, (left to right: Nick Hutton, Alister Richardson, Khamis Al Anbouri and Paul Campbell-James) with the Extreme 40 overall season trophy. Image copyright Mark Lloyd/LLoyd Images/OC Events.
by Nicky Moore
Britain’s Paul Campbell-James has won the final event of the 2010 Extreme Sailing Series and with it secured overall victory in the 2010 Series, with his team onboard Oman Sail’s Extreme 40 The Wave, Muscat. Paul has campaigned to represent Great Britain for the last two Olympic Games in the 49er dinghy, was a training partner to both double Olympic gold medallists Shirley Robertson and Sarah Ayton for their Athens and Beijing campaigns.
“This is my biggest sailing achievement by far; this is number one, without a doubt. I can’t believe but we’ve won! It’s fantastic, it hasn’t quite sunk in yet but I couldn’t be happier.” Said Paul, the youngest skipper in the fleet at just 27 years old, who beat off some incredible competition, including Emirates Team New Zealand skipper Dean Barker, to win the event.
The racing was action-packed throughout the four day event in Spain. The young team onboard The Wave, Muscat beat pre-season favourites Groupe Edmond de Rothschild from France to lift the trophy. Breezy conditions on the final day saw the eight boats blast round the tight stadium set inside the port of Almeria in front of thousands of public. It was a spectacular finale to the five-event circuit that began in May in Sète (France), Cowes (UK), Kiel (Germany), Trapani (Sicily) and, finally, Almeria (Spain) and has seen the teams compete in 129 races throughout the series.
No-one knew who the overall victor would be right up to the end of the final double point final race of the day. “Coming into the last race today we had a pretty good idea we had won the Series. We just had to keep our heads down, and finish in sixth place. Two boats were over the line at the start, but we still had to make sure we didn’t capsize or get any serious penalties, we just played it safe and held on to secure our victory!”, Paul Campbell-James.
The Wave, Muscat sailed under the Omani flag, Khamis Al Anbouri, the teams Omani bowman, only began sailing three years ago, the victory in Almeria achieved one of Oman Sail’s key milestones; an Omani sailor standing on the podium of a top international sailing event for the first time in the country’s history.
To say the level of at the Extreme Sailing Series is high can only be put into perspective by the achievement of the 32 sailors competing in Almeria, between them they have won 6 Olympic medals, 67 World Championships and 137 European Championships, attended 30 Olympic Games and America’s Cups, sailed 21 laps of the world and hold 19 world records for their achievements. Paul Campbell-James and his young team onboard The Wave, Muscat were really competing and winning against some of the best sailors in the world.
Final results after 27races, Almeria, Spain
Place Team Overall points
1st The Wave, Muscat 157 points
1st Groupe Edmond de Rothschild 142 points
3rd Ecover Sailing team 135 points
4th Oman Sail, Masirah 123 points
5th Groupama 107 points
6th Red Bull Extreme Racing 91 points
7th Rumbo Almeria 91 points
8th Emirates Team New Zealand 66 points
Overall Series Standings after four events
1. The Wave, Muscat - 36
2. Groupe Edmond de Rothschild - 34
3. Ecover Sailing Team - 31
4. Oman Sail Masirah - 29
5. Groupama - 17
6. Red Bull Extreme Sailing - 11
The Crew - The Wave, Muscat
Paul Campbell-James – Helm (GBR)
Alister Richardson – Tactician (GBR)
Nick Hutton – Trimmer (GBR)
Khamis Al Anbouri – Bowman (OMA)
Oman Sail
Extreme Sailing Series Europe
