The Medieval city of Trapani has provided some of the best conditions and thrilling action of the year over the past four days with the seven-strong fleet thrilling the spectators with dramatic mark roundings, near pitchpoles and capsizes and match-racing duels as the fleet covered all corners of the Sicilian harbour.
Crédit : Lloyd Images/ OC Events
Going into the final day, Paul Campbell-James, skipper of The Wave, Muscat had a 16-point lead over second placed contender Groupe Edmond de Rothschild. Campbell-James thrived in the 15-17 knot wind, posting two wins, two thirds and a sixth, during which they chased their French rivals down the fleet in an aggressive match-race in the five-race afternoon, crossing the finish line set within inches of the spectators.
But the real battle going on wasn’t for the top spot… Four teams were in contention for the second and third podium positions: Groupama 40, Groupe Edmond de Rothschild, Ecover Sailing Team and Oman Sail Masirah, and none of them were giving up without a fight.
The four teams traded blows, before Groupama dropped out of the running, with two seventh places. And then there were three, but only two podium positions in their sights…
But it was Mike Golding’s all British team onboard Ecover Sailing Team who, with dogged determination, improved as their day went on with aggressive starts and lucid tactical calls, posting two bullets in the final two races and take the final podium spot, squeezing out the French team Groupe Edmond de Rothschild, skippered by Yann Guichard, into a disappointing fourth.
Credit : Lloyd Images/ OC Events
“The real battle out there was between The Wave, Muscat and Groupe Edmond De Rothschild for the overall fight for the leaderboard. They are both great teams and it will be interesting to see how they respond in Almeria. In general the event was perfect, perfect for Masirah and perfect for Oman Sail. I am really impressed by The Wave Muscat, they have been really consistent all Series.”
Golding commented, “A fantastic day really, a great recovery from yesterday and its a great feeling onboard the boat. We knew we had to go and do our own thing today, there was no advantage to us hunting any particular boat out we just wanted to stay safe and run our own race and see how it would pan out. We were hoping that one of the Oman boats would go hunting Groupe Edmond de Rothschild and I think that happened a little bit especially in the last race which helped our cause. It panned out really well for us and we’re very pleased to be where we are at the end of today.
In terms of the overalls its good to see that we’re still holing onto third that was important heading into Almeria, Its still incredibly close for those top spots going into the final event so who knows what will happen.
Trapani the Sailing Seacily’s skipper, Gabriele Bruni was relegated to the spectator stand as he nursed his broken malleolus, sustained on day 2 of racing, and his brother, Azzura Skipper Francesco Bruni took his place. The team had a brilliant last day and a great final race when they were locked tight into a match racing duel with Campbell-James’ The Wave, Muscat, before succumbing to the former Student World Match Racing Champion’s moves and taking their best place of the whole event, a fourth.
"It is good fun watching the racing, but it is much better sailing the races! It is very nice view from here and the boats are really fast and I think for the public it is fantastic, I have never seen such a nice view from the shore, so I think the Extreme Sailing Series is a really nice concept of sailing and I like it even if my story I have always sailed with big, slow boats in the oceans and sailing this is really great, I’ve loved it.”
The final event on the Extreme Sailing Series™ calendar kicks off in just ten days time when the Andalucian city will welcome the circuit for the second consecutive year for the Grand Finale.
With the top four boats separated by just four points for the overall title, nothing will be certain until the 12th of October when the 2010 Extreme Sailing Series™ Champion will be crowned.
Overall Series Standings:
The Wave, Muscat 28 pts
Groupe Edmond de Rothschild 27pts
Ecover Sailing Team 25pts
Oman Sail Masirah 24pts
Groupama 40 12pts
Red Bull Extreme Sailing 12pts
The Ocean Racing Club 8pts
Team GAC Pindar 3pts
End of event quotes from the teams:
Roman Hagara, Skipper of Red Bull Extreme Sailing: “We know all too well that our boat hasn’t got the speed to stay in touch with the fastest crews on the water. If you’re getting your tactics right, sailing well and yet still not up there near the front on these short courses, then you know there needs to be some work done on the boat. Between now and the next event in Spain we will have to try and get more speed out of it, but there won’t be enough time for us to fit a new sailset.”
Franck Cammas, Skipper of Groupama 40, “Over the four days of the event, there were highs and lows, of course the aim is to only have highs. Not easy given the level of the competition. We can tease the top boats sometimes, but ultimately we get left behind. We know that there are four boats which sail really well in front of us and that’s changed the rankings a bit. We have won three races, which shows that we can do it, we just need to be more consistent.”
Yann Guichard, Skipper of Groupe Edmond de Rothschild, “Tonight, we have entered into a race for the overall 2010 Extreme Sailing Series Championship and for us, we want to be at the top at the end of the season, so it is all to play for in Almeria. There, we aren’t going hesitate, we are there to be in front and we aren’t going to give anything to anyone.”
Leigh McMillan, Helmsman of Ecover Sailing Team, “A great finish to the regatta for us, we had our fair share of gear issue at this event. It didn’t get any better today when we hoisted our main sail just before the start we were doing a bit of practice and it looked completely wrong. We took is down, put it back up again and we still couldn’t figure it out. We then realised the top batten had just shattered in the sail so it wasn’t looking anywhere near correct. We had no choice but to do the first race with it as it was, and then we were in a mad rush to get it replaced before the start of race 2. We were in sequence for the start of race 2 when we were still putting out main up so it was pretty touch and go there for a while.
“We didn’t let is distract us and we managed to get another good start and we continued to work through the day after that. We are really pleased to get back on the podium and to get back into third place is an amazing finish to this event for us. It just goes to show the strength of the team, when you can bounce back from what was a disappointing day for us yesterday where it felt like the results were taken out of our hands.
“I think we want to achieve good result and ideally aim as high as we came. You know we haven’t won at one of these events yet and that’s right at the top of our list. To actually finish off the series with a win is going to be one of our biggest goals going into the final event. We are looking forward to a solid regatta with some consistent sailing and ultimately to stay on the podium overall.”
Gabriele Olivo, Trimmer on Red Bull Extreme Sailing, “I think this week of racing has once again showed that multihulls are the future of sailing.”
From Extreme sailing Series
