Saturday 22 March 2014

Extreme Sailing Series update, Podium remains wide open at event in Muscat, Oman

From the following press release on the Extreme Sailing Series website:

 http://www.extremesailingseries.com/news/view/podium-wide-open-ahead-of-extreme-sailing-series-muscat-final-showdown#.UyyDLq-KDrc

- J.P. Morgan BAR are the comeback kings of the day, with three race wins and the British team threatening the podium hard.
- Swiss Alinghi hold onto pole position and withstand the onslaught of the rest of the 11 boat pack – but with no room for error on tomorrow’s final showdown, with five teams waiting to pounce.
- Replay today’s Stadium Racing here. Change to tomorrow’s live racing times – watch the final battle unfold from 1500 local time/1100GMT/1200CET.

The punishing light winds and beating Arabian sun called for nerves of steel on the penultimate day’s racing of the Extreme Sailing Series™ in Muscat, which saw a reshuffle of the pack and a shift in power on the leaderboard. Overnight leaders Alinghi managed to hold onto pole position and withstand the onslaught of pressure from the rest of the pack, but it couldn’t be closer at the top, with just 14 points between the top five boats – less than the difference of tomorrow’s final double points race. SAP Extreme Sailing Team did well to put themselves back in the game, heading into tomorrow’s final showdown in second place, but the team of the day was Ben Ainslie’s J.P. Morgan BAR, with three race wins for the Brits, who are now threatening the podium hard. Tomorrow’s final will come down to which team can withstand the pressure, and fans around the world can watch it live at a new time of 1500 local time/1100GMT/1200CET.

Alinghi marked their intent from the first start gun with a race win, but even the light wind specialists struggled for consistency in breeze of around five knots, and it looked like the tricky course may have finally got the better of the Swiss America’s Cup winners with a last place in race 16. Race 19 and the team turned it around, hitting the reset button and clawing back some valuable points, as helm Morgan Larson explained: “Things can come and go out there, you try and stick to the same objective and sometimes the wind doesn’t go your way or you get stuck in a tough spot. I think a lot of the other competitors that came out today had already figured it out, so we got caught up a little bit. You have to have the best day tomorrow, you can’t hold back.”

read more here

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