Extreme Sailing Series: Oman Air maintains lead
Oman Sail's crew on Oman Air came face to face with some of Hamburg's infamous challenges on Friday, but still came away with five podium positions, including three outright wins to maintain the lead after day two of Act Four of the Extreme Sailing Series (ESS) in Germany.
All seven teams made it onto the podium at some stage during the seven-race programme, reflecting the degree of difficulty in achieving any sort of consistency in a shifty and unstable breeze that topped out at 14 knots when all the GC32s catamarans took off on their foils and flew around the race course. Morgan Larson's team opened the second day of racing with a runners-up place, which was promptly followed by its first win of the afternoon, a resounding 40-second win over SAP Extreme Sailing Team - its strongest rival throughout the day. There were two more Oman Air firsts, including a 61-second win, again over SAP Extreme, to bring day two to a close, by which time, its lead at the top of the table had extended to 12 points over Alinghi, which posted two wins. 'It was very hard, but very good out there today. On such a tight race course, there is a lot of action,' said Oman Air's Omani bowman Nasser al Mashari. 'It was quite breezy and shifty, but for us, it's a case of so far so good.' Crew work and communication on Oman Air remained a 'work in progress', added mainsail trimmer and tactician Pete Greenhalgh who's input was a game-changer. 'We are gelling as a team, there is still a lot of refining to do,' he said. 'The secret to success on this race course is to get your head out of the boat, looking up the track, and being flexible on your plan. If things don't go to plan, seek out other opportunities very quickly because there always are plenty of opportunities.' Standings [after day two]: 1 Oman Air (24 pts), 2 Red Bull Sailing Team (19), 3 Alinghi (19), 4 SAP Extreme Sailing Team (18), 5 China One (18), 6 Sail Portugal (16), 7 Land Rover BAR Academy (12).