The biggest French multihull sailing champions will meet once again in the five-round 2010 Extreme Sailing Series. Loick Peyron, holder of the most multihull championship titles, Yann Guichard, a favourite for the forthcoming Route de Rhum, and Franck Cammas, who convincingly won the Jules Verne Trophy just one month ago, will meet on the water for the first time this year on 27 May at the first event in Sète, France.
 
In Detail:
Winner of two of the six stages in the 2009 series (Venice and Amsterdam), the catamaran racing under the colours of baron Benjamin de Rothschild will be again helmed by Yann Guichard this year and renamed Groupe Edmond de Rothschild. He will be looking to improve on his overall second place in 2009, just three points behind the overall winners, Oman Sail Masirah, skippered by Pete Cumming (GBR).

“2009 was the year we discovered the Extreme Sailing Series and the style of Extreme 40 regattas: the notion of sport as a spectacle! We soon learnt that consistency pays and to perform well in this series and to post good results, you need to navigate really well and not have any on-the-water contact with your competitors. The Extreme Sailing Series is a good school to learn self-control. I really like the intensity of the regattas the shot of adrenalin you get. In an Extreme 40, racing is never clear cut and it isn’t over until you cross the finish line.”

“I find this format totally motivating and interesting and it allows me to grow as a sailor. Second in 2009, we are aiming to have Groupe Edmond de Rothschild on the top of the podium this year. And that’s not forgetting our team’s sporting objective for the team this year: the Route de Rhum with Gitana 11, which will start from St Malo at the end of October,” explained the Breton Skipper.

Also on the circuit this year is his Route de Rhum competitor, another favourite for the Extreme Sailing Series title Franck Cammas; recent winner of the Jules Verne Trophy for the fastest, non-stop assault around the world, Cammas is also preparing for the next Volvo Ocean Race.

“We’ve spent the winter capturing the Jules Verne Trophy with an amazing team onboard Groupama 3, and so Groupama 40 looks pretty small! But we like these close-quarter regattas. Our business is all about sailing so, big or small, in a team, or alone, it’s not important. It’s all about the sailing.”

Franck will be joined onboard Groupama 40 by his regular team mates Tanguy Cariou, as tactician with whom he has won a number of titles on the ORMA Grand Prix circuit, as well as two new team members for the first leg in Sète: ” For the first event on the 2010 circuit, we have modified the team with the arrival of Christophe Espangnon and Devan Le Bihan. And with Tanguy Cariou as the tactican we have a great team. Whether it is enough to win against Oman Sail Masirah or Groupe Edmond de Rothschild, both of whom shone last year, I don’t know. But we have been training and preparing for Sète with the same determination as all our other projects. The format and situation in the city will be great with the racing so close to the public and Sète also has the America’s Cup history. It promises to be a great event.”

The third French skipper joining the circuit this year is Loick Peyron, a sailor with the most titles in the history of multihull sailing and recently returned from Valencia as helmsman of Alinghi’s America’s Cup entry in the battle of the giant multihulls. Peyron will be helming the winning boat of 2009, Oman Sail Masirah with no change to the rest of the team. Mark Bulkeley, who represented Great Britain in the Tornado class at the Athens Olympics, will stay in his role of mainsail trimmer and tactician; David ‘Freddie’ Carr, one of the most experienced Extreme 40 sailors, will use his knowledge at the front of the boat as bowman and Pete Cumming, the skipper in 2009, will this year be the trimmer and overall sailing team manager for the Oman Sail team. After a winter of training in Sultanate, the Oman Sail Masirah team will be hoping their experience and close teamwork will be a force to be reckoned with in 2010.

With just one month to go until the first vent, the pressure is increasing for the teams, and for organisers OC Events. “Sète is a new venue for us, so a new challenge,” commented OC Events Director Gilles Chiorri. “We have great support from the municipality, the Port de Sète as well as the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Societe Nautique de Sète [Sailing Club of Sète]. The courses will be directly in front of the harbour walls so the public will have the perfect viewpoint, with all the action being played out right at their feet. It will be a unique spectacle,” he concluded.

The 2010 Calendar is confirmed as follows

27 – 30 May: Sète, France
31 July – 5 August: Cowes, UK
26 – 29 August: Kiel, Germany
23 – 26 September: Trapani, Italy
9 – 12 October: Almería, Spain

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The Formula 1 pit Lane in Singapore is in action again, but this time not to the drone of engines… A new type of sport is in town for five days – the Extreme Sailing Series Asia.
 
 Gilles Chiorri/OC Events Marina Reservoir will play host to the second round of the inaugural Extreme Sailing Series Asia starting this Friday 11th December. Six state of the art 40-foot catamarans, each crewed by a team of four top professional sailors, and racing at up to 40 miles per hour, will be battling it out for supremacy on the tight races courses just metres off the shoreline by the Singapore Flyer. Twenty-four sailors from 8 nations and between them, three double Olympic Gold medallists, 24 World Championship titles, nine America’s Cup events, 8 Round the World navigations and 114 National Championship titles!

Guy Nowell/OC EventsMark Turner, CEO of OC Group, the parent company to organisers OC Events, commented, “In the first event in Hong Kong of this ‘demo’ series, we really met our objectives and took over 60 potential sponsors, key opinion formers and the media out on the water to watch the sailing and race onboard in the fifth man spots. There aren’t many other sports where corporate guests can actually take part in the scoring action – it’s a unique experience.

“We are keen to return in 2010/2011 with a full scale series with public entertainment package, similar to Europe with shoreside activities, entertainment, concerts and a bespoke VIP set-up, and will be looking to come with the support of, and to work closely with, the host venues.”
Marco Hong/OC EventsDavid Voth, Senior Director, Sports Marketing Group, the Singapore Sports Council (SSC) said: “The SSC is excited about showcasing such a key sailing race for the first time in the Marina Bay area. We hope that this will set the stage for future watersports events to be potentially held in the area, which will bring exciting life, colour and activities into Singapore’s exciting annual events calendar.”

Local Singaporean sailor Tan Wearn Haw, helming CHINA TEAM is hoping his knowledge of the sometimes fickle Singapore winds will put the team to good stead. CHINA TEAM finished third in the first round of the Asian series in Hong Kong, surprising both themselves and their competitors. Helmsman Tan Wearn Haw, who challenged for the last America’s Cup for China started his sailing career in Singapore. “The next five days of racing will bring a real mixed bag of conditions and really close racing. The winds will be tricky and testing, but definitely hoping for great winds, even if it is from rain squalls so the Extreme 40s can show off some exhilarating racing and capture the imagination of Singapore!”

Gilles Chiorri/OC EventsCHINA TEAM has a specific goal to build on its 2007 America’s Cup experience, as Tan explains: “We have a long-term vision of not just excelling in the World’s biggest sailing events like the Extreme Sailing Series, but using our experience along the way to establish a pipeline programme to develop the next generation of world class professional sailors in Asia. The upcoming years will be really important as we look to put our plans in action and chalk up some impressive results. The podium finish in Hong Kong was a fantastic start, but we really want to consolidate that here in Singapore.”
Extreme 40s in Hong Kong for the Extreme Sailing Series Asia
Gilles Chiorri/OC EventsCHINA TEAM will be on the start line under the Singapore Flyer in Marina Reservoir on Friday up against some of the World’s very best sailors. Another newcomer to the circuit is Red Bull Extreme Sailing Team, skippered by double Olympic Gold Medallist Roman Hagara and his Olympic crew, Hans-Peter Steinacher as tactician. The team experienced equipment failure in Hong Kong and are hunting down a podium position in Singapore. Asked what it is about the circuit that attracts top international sailors like themselves, Hagara commented, “The excitement of the boat. I think it’s one of the fastest boats that can race around the track. No other class that has done this before so that’s what we are looking for. We have 25 years in Olympic Sailing; this is the way to go for the future of the sport.”

Two teams are entered from the Sultanate of Oman, Masirah and The Wave, Muscat. Masirah were crowned Champions of the European Series, in the final race of the final day, after 118 races across Europe, as well as winning the first Asian Series event in Hong Kong. Skipper Pete Cumming was building his Extreme 40 today in the pit lane of the Singapore F1 track.
The Wave, Muscat. Training Day, Singapore.
Gilles Chiorri/OC Events”The racetrack here is like every race area in Europe you took us to: small! We have been really surprised by the amount of wind as we were expecting to come here with it being hot, little wind and very humid, but it’s been great. The race area isn’t as surrounded by buildings as we thought so it looks like one of the more open venues we’ve had. Certainly a lot more open than Hong Kong so I think if the wind stays up, there should be some fast, exciting racing.”

Racing onboard both the Sultanate of Oman boats are two Omani nationals, drawn from the Oman Sail project. British Double World Champion, Paul Campbell-James will be joined by Khamis Al Bourrai onboard The Wave, Muscat: “Hong Kong was my first event as a professional sailor sailing with a professional team and this is only my second event. I hope to achieve and get more improvement on my sailing skills and my professional skills. This time I will be sailing on The Wave, Muscat so I’ll be sailing with different sailors so, hopefully, I will learn new skills from them and build my sailing career.” His Oman Sail colleague Nasser Almasari will race with Pete Cumming onboard Masirah.
Rumbo Almeria racing during the Around the Island Race in Hong Kong as part of the Extreme Sailing Series Asia.
Gilles Chiorri/OC EventsDouble Olympic Gold Medallist Shirley Robertson will skipper Rumbo Almería with a strong European team including Nick Hutton, one of the most experienced Extreme sailors on the circuit. Australian Nick Moloney, who came second in Hong Kong, will skipper BT.

Six to eight races are planned from Friday 11-Tuesday 15 December. Although this year it is not planned as a public event, for Extreme sailing fans, the best place to watch will be from the F1 Pit Lane at the foot of the Singapore Flyer.

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OC Events, organisers of the award winning iShares Cup, the European Extreme 40 Sailing Series, has announced today the creation of the inaugural Extreme Sailing Series Asia to be staged between November 2009 and March 2010. The first year of the Asian series will include events in Hong Kong, Singapore and Oman with the possibility of a fourth venue to be confirmed, and with a plan to grow this to a six-event series by 2011/12. Bids have already been received for the future series from a number of other venues across Asia.

After the spectacular finale of the six-stage European iShares Cup circuit last weekend in Almería (Spain), five of the boats were packed up to be shipped directly to Hong Kong. Mark Turner, CEO of OC Group, which includes the Series’ organisers OC Events, declared: “The iShares Cup has been running very successfully for three years now in Europe and the Extreme Sailing Series Asia is the next step in the evolution of this exciting sailing format – a format which has become a benchmark in terms of changing the way sailing is seen. Our aim is to build this series each year on the same foundations on which the European iShares Cup has been built – a comprehensive sailing entertainment event that packages the sport to appeal to the public, media and provide experiential VIP client hospitality. For this inaugural series in Asia we won’t be focused on the public side directly, instead we will work hard on the VIP and media aspects, as we did in the early iShares Cup years. But, of course, our aspiration is to build this circuit up over the coming years to match the award-winning iShares Cup format including a strong public element.”

Each event will consist of five days of racing, combining the established format of short, easy to understand races, a media day, VIP sailing days and special events. The Extreme Sailing Series Asia Notice of Race has been issued today and the announcement of the first of the competing teams will follow imminently. Five boats have already committed to the Asian circuit, as in the first year of the iShares Cup series in Europe.

 

The first event in the Extreme Sailing Series Asia will take place over the 20th-24th November in Hong Kong, supported by the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club, to coincide with their annual ‘Around the Island Race’ on the 22nd November. With over 200 entries the Around the Island Race is Hong Kong’s largest and most inclusive sailing event. The RHKYC is well equipped to support the series given its long time presence in Hong Kong waters as the premier sailing club.

The circuit will then move on to Singapore from 11th-15th December where sailing has become synonymous with sporting excellence in the region, after multiple medal success at the Asian Games and the ISAF Youth World Championships. One of the country’s key objectives is to make Singapore a key hub for sailing competitions.

Muscat, Oman will host the third event over the 1st to 5th February just before the America’s Cup in the neighbouring United Arab Emirates, subject to the current legal dispute. The Sultanate of Oman, home to the legend of Sindbad, is known throughout the Gulf for its spectacular beauty and hospitality. The two Oman Sail boats that finished in 1st and 3rd place in the European 2009 iShares Cup, will return to the Extreme Sailing Series Asia this time with two Omani recruits from the Oman Sail Academy on board as part of the crew.

The inaugural Extreme Sailing Series Asia will see the same high calibre of competitors currently competing in the European circuit with Olympians, World Champions and Record Holders battling it out for victory in this new territory.

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Oman Sail Masirah has won the iShares Cup 2009, but it came down to the last leg of the last race on the last day of the last regatta at the iShares Cup Almeria in Spain, with Gitana Extreme-LCF Rothschild pushing Oman Sail Masirah right to the very last minute with a superb final performance. Pete Cumming and his crew held their nerve despite the strong comeback of Yann Guichard and the Gitana Extreme crew who took 2nd overall with Loick Peyron’s Oman Sail Renaissance completing the 2009 podium. Tens of thousands of spectators, the biggest stadium audience of the year, packed the port of Almeria to witness the heart-stopping tension of the final race of the season. No hull flying today, but heart stopping it still was!

Masirah completed a six-month trail of glory with a double victory in Almeria as thousands watched. All crew members put in a performance which overshadowed all efforts from other teams to not only take the victory in the Almeria leg of the iShares Cup but the title of 2009 iShares Cup champions!

Renaissance also battled hard until the last minute to take an admirable fourth overall in the Almeria leg ensuring a double Oman victory as they took third place in the 2009 iShares Cup series.

The culmination of six venues and 118 races all boiled down to the last race on the last day of the last venue as ten boats all lined up, but only three were in contention for the 2009 iShares Cup title.  The electricity in the air from the 40,000 spectators, including Her Excellency Dr. Rajiha Bint Abdulameer Bin Ali, Oman’s Minister of Tourism, His Excellency Eng. Sultan Hamdoon al Harthi, Head of Muscat Municipality and the Municipal Council as well as His Excellency Oman’s Ambassador to Spain was flowing as the start gun went for the first race. Masirah got off to a near-perfect start and led all the way and maintained their lead throughout the day. In the final race Masirah had a marginal lead, but not enough to rest on their laurels. In the last race Masirah wisely opted to keep the only other contender for the top podium position at this stage, Gitana Extreme-Groupe LCF Rothschild, in their sights to ensure their overall win.
As the finishing horn was sounded for Masirah’s finish a huge cheer went up from the crowded waterfront as the new heroes were given a standing ovation and applause.

Renaissance sailed on the edge all day to score an equally credible third overall to bookmark the podium with the proud colours of the Oman flag. To have not one, but two teams, on the podium in such a high profile international event is testament to the support in Oman given to the teams and the aspirations of reigniting the maritime heritage of Oman. Her Excellency Dr, Rajiha Bint Abdulameer Bin Ali, was incredibly proud of both teams, “I am so proud to have been able to watch Oman Sail’s Masirah winning the series in front of thousands of spectators in Spain. I dedicate this victory to the wise leadership of His Majesty and his vision in bringing this project into fruition. I want to thank all the team in Oman sail and in particular the team on Masirah for reaching first place – it was not an easy victory. I didn’t realise how difficult this was until I came to Spain and watch Oman racing myself. My congratulations to the team.” His Excellency Eng. Sultan Hamdoon al Harthi was just as impressed by the victory that unfolded in front of him, “It is a matter of pride for Oman that Masirah and Renaissance dominated the iShares Cup, not just in Spain but also the entire series. To win first and third overall is a result of unprecedented performance.”

 
Two Omani trainees have supported the teams during the summer, both of whom will now be sailing for Oman Sail in the next series themselves. Masirah team member Khamis Al Anbouri summed up the mood of the team  “Winning the iShares Cup is just one of Oman Sail’s steps in encouraging young Omanis to start sailing and showing them the hard work required to achieve success. I am very proud to be part of this team and I look forward to competing now in the next series as a full crewmember. I would also like to thank my wife for all her support and encouragement as I strive to become the very best and to make Oman a household name. Congratulations also to Ahmad Al Harthy for his result this weekend- a truly proud weekend for Oman!”

 
Oman Sail Masirah has won the iShares Cup 2009, but it came down to the last leg of the last race on the last day of the last regatta at the iShares Cup Almeria in Spain, with Gitana Extreme – LCF Rothschild pushing Oman Sail Masirah right to the very last minute with a superb final performance.

Almeria’s usually strong winds never materialized, with light winds adding to the nerves of the 10 teams challenging for the Andulician final event of this benchmark season for the Extreme 40 Sailing Series.

Tens of thousands of spectators, the biggest stadium audience of the year, packed the port of Almeria to witness the heart-stopping tension of the double points final race of the season. No hull flying today, heart stopping it still was!

iShares Cup Almeria:
1. Oman Sail Masirah 132 points
2. Gitana Extreme – Groupe LCF Rothschild 129 points
3. Groupama Extreme 112 points
4. Oman Sail Renaissance 96 points
5. LUNA 96 points
6. Team iShares 83 points
7. Holmatro 82 points
8. BT 79 points
9. Rumbo Almeria 73 points
10. Ecover 89 points

iShares Cup 2009 overall:
1. Oman Sail Masirah 53 points
2. Gitana Extreme – Groupe LCF Rothschild 52 points
3. Oman Sail Renaissance 42 points
4. Groupama Extreme 41 points
5. Team iShares 27 points
6. BT 26 points
7. LUNA 26 points
8. Holmatro 24 points
9. Ecover 10 points

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The best breeze of the day filled in for the final three races today producing some extreme racing – close calls, collisions, penalties and a nail-biting, final double-points race – entertaining the 10,000 strong crowd lining the IJ-Haven. There were seven different race winners in this penultimate event, that was more about tactics than boat handling. Gitana Extreme sailed brilliantly under pressure to win the penultimate iShares Cup Amsterdam event ahead of Oman Sail Renaissance, whilst Groupama fought back to win the final race and fill the last spot on the podium in third. Overall series leaders, Oman Sail Masirah, put their day 1 disaster behind them, finishing 5th in Amsterdam to retain their overall lead, ahead of Gitana Extreme – Groupe LCF Rothschild and Oman Sail Renaissance, going into the final iShares Cup event in Almeria only two weeks away…

The nine-boat Extreme 40 fleet saved the best till last at the iShares Cup Amsterdam event today to produce a thrilling three-lap finale that had the 10,000-strong crowd of spectators cheering the boats home all the way. The penultimate round of the six-stage European iShares Cup series, held on the confined IJ-Haven canal in Amsterdam, saw predominantly light airs but finally this afternoon, a good 8 knot breeze filled in to see the 40-foot catamarans lifting their hulls. It was perfect catamaran sailing – the excitement levels going into fifth gear for both sailors and spectators. As the breeze increased the size of the IJ-Haven racecourse seemed to decrease! The boats accelerating faster round the tiny racecourse and, not surprisingly, a number of collisions ensued.

For Oman Sail Masirah skipper, Pete Cumming, the team did the job they needed to do to keep the overall series lead, despite the unsettling experience of being seriously holed on the first day:
“That was a good day for us, we won the first and the fourth race and had average results in the three others. We have been up and down during the all events but I have to say that it’s hard to keep positive and motivated after the big crash we had on Friday. Our shore team did an amazing job to fix the boat. Tonight we are on equal points with Gitana in the overall series which keeps the pressure on for the last event in Almeria. The conditions will be very different to here, more like Cowes or Kiel and it’s what we like. It’s going to be a fantastic battle for the overall iShares Cup!”

The stage was set for the showdown between Gitana Extreme skipper, Yann Guichard, and Oman Sail Renaissance supremo, Loick Peyron, with Guichard coming out on top. “Since the first start today we were in the game and we sailed well despite the pressure of those last races. Once again, our teamwork was key to our success. That final race was under a lot of pressure, we knew that we could not let Loïck put more than two boats between us, and we finished right behind him! It was an ideal scenario, and we’re really happy with that new victory. As we foresaw, everything will unfold in Almeria. We really wanted to win in Amsterdam not to regret anything, and to fight for victory, The top three boats are now one point apart, and the fight between Masirah, Renaissance and ourselves will be amazing. I also wanted to congratulate the Oman Sail Masirah team, who came back strong despite their incident.”

Erik Maris’ crew on LUNA showed flashes of brilliance during round 5 scoring a race win and a second place that left them in 7th place; whilst Nick Moloney’s BT team struggled with boat speed and had to settle for 8th. Britain’s Mike Golding, who is gaining confidence in this extremely aggressive class, thrilled his supporters with a second place in the final race – Fraser Brown leaping to his feet rousing the crowd to cheer more! It was a great finish for this team who had such a traumatic time in round 4 in Kiel suffering an aggressive capsize that left their regular crew Bruno Dubois with a serious head injury.

The final round of the 2009 iShares Cup is only two weeks away, taking place in the Andalucian city of Almeria over the 10th-12th October. The finale promises to be best yet – read the story online.
Oman Sail Masirah and Gitana Extreme – Groupe LCF Rothschild are on equal points (43), Masirah in pole position based on winning three of the rounds so far compared to Gitana Extreme’s two victories, but Oman Sail Renaissance are just 1 point behind them and Groupama 10 points behind the leader. And there will be a big fight over the middle-ground with less than 3 points separating BT, Team iShares, Holmatro and LUNA. Don’t miss it!

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Today, Groupama won the last race hands down, enabling the skipper from Aix en Provence to regain his smile as he snatched third place behind Yann Guichard and Loïck Peyron, who take first and second place respectively. As was the case in Kiel, the French sailors are at the front of the pack with a French triple in the top spots once again!

If we look in detail at the points separating the top five competitors in the final ranking, it is easy to understand the tension which was palpable throughout the day! With the wind still a little undecided as to whether it was going to fill their sails, today’s five races were rather convoluted to say the least and rather reminiscent of the four race yesterday. Franck Cammas: “One thing for sure after these three days racing in Amsterdam, is that with Groupama 40, we still haven’t worked out how to deal with light conditions. In light wind we’re not so at ease. We aren’t able to follow the others. This was my first participation in the light stuff on such a narrow race zone. We unquestionably need to make progress! The minute the wind kicked in, things went better. In fact on Friday, thanks to the breeze, it was a good day for us!”

The famous quote by competitors that says that “anything can happen in a race prior to crossing the finish line” is something that certainly applies to Franck’s crew this weekend: “With Groupama 40, we won the lottery in the last race. Our rivals weren’t as strong which enabled us to overtake two of them and make it to a podium finish, which certainly wasn’t something we could have envisaged at the end of the previous race!”

The skipper from Aix en Provence clearly already has his mind geared towards the last event of the season: “In Alméria, it’s likely to be windy and it will be a whole different ball game! Roll on Spain!”

Finally, it is important to salute the performance by Yann Guichard and his men, outright winner in this Dutch stage. Bagging three victories of the 17 races contested, Gitana Extreme- LCF Rothschild Group climbs to the highest step of the podium and above all is tied on points with Masirah in the general championship ranking.

Suffice to say that the next meeting for the Extremes 40s will take place in Alméria, Spain, on 10th, 11th and 12th October and it is going to have a decisive role in this championship! This sixth event will round off the iShares Cup 2009.

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In race 4 of the first day of the iShares Cup Amsterdam, a collision between Oman Sail Masirah and BT on the first windward leg has put Masirah out of action. A port/starboard incident, saw BT trying to duck Masirah but to no avail. Oman Sail Masirah are waiting anxiously for the crane to haul them out. A big blow for Pete Cumming and his crew who are the overall iShares Cup series leader going into this penultimate round, and they will be looking for redress for the races they miss today. In the strongest breeze of the day so far, gusting over 10 knots, there was plenty of action from the start with LUNA, over the line at the start searching to go back made contact with BT, who had been forced to tack on top of them as Holmatro called starboard. On this tight racecourse here in Amsterdam the building breeze makes the racing even more fraught. Race 4 was won by Gitana Extreme with Franck Cammas on Guichard’s heels but this win puts them at the top of the iShares Cup Amsterdam leaderboard, halfway through today’s racing.

Pete Cumming takes up the story: “It was the first beat of race 4 and it was a clear case of port and starboard. BT were coming in on port and we could see from about 10 seconds out they were going to hit us. The wind had got up and we knew as they accelerated, the bows dug in and holed us under the waterline and the crack goes right underneath. The damage is about 2-foot forward of the back beam on the port hull and it compressed the whole side of the boat in – it’s quite a big job to rebuild that. We didn’t have our best races in the first couple today so we’ll get average points from those races – we’ll just have to see how it goes. It’s an unfortunate situation and we’ve ended up sitting on the shore with our boat full of water.”

A total of 8 races were staged today on the tiny IJ-Haven – the racecourse just 750-meters long and 250-meters wide – on the start line you could literally step from one boat to the next and then on to the canal wall! There is only just enough room for the nine-boat fleet to line up and as soon as they cross the line, the boats, just a few feet from the concrete walls, are yelling for water causing a domino effect across the fleet. The conditions were generally light but on a fairly regular basis the breeze built up to over 10 knots making the IJ-Haven become a hazardous place to be, although the crowds loved it! There were plenty of penalties and at least one other collision and probably a few more scrapes and close shaves that were not visible from the shore.

Team iShares skipper, Shirley Robertson, who scored a win in the penultimate race today and lies in 5th place overall: “Many of us remember the first year we came to Amsterdam… it was pretty windy and it brings back all of those memories of all the points around the canal where you had a few moments! You just have to sail slightly differently and be prepared to see things that you might not before – look for opportunities and be a bit punchy!” It was certainly a case of avoiding the wind holes and taking advantage of the gusts, which resulted in many place changes throughout the fleet. Two wins apiece for Oman Sail Renaissance (Loick Peyron)and Gitana Extreme – Groupe LCF Rothschild (Yann Guichard) and individual race wins for Holmatro (Mitch Booth), Groupama (Franck Cammas), iShares (Shirley Robertson) and LUNA (Erik Maris) have kept the points close on the Round 5 leaderboard. Only 2 points separate Loick Peyron from Guichard and Guichard from Cammas, and 1 point between Mitch Booth, Robertson and Maris (see leaderboard for full results).

Forecast is for slightly lighter winds tomorrow which may reduce the ‘incident’ rate but at this crucial stage of the race, no one is giving an inch and that counts here on the IJ-Haven!

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There are two events to go in the six-stage iShares Cup series, which means 20 points still to play for on the overall leaderboard. Oman Sail Masirah have won the past three events in a row to lead on 37 points, but their top spot is under threat, with just a three point lead on second and third placed Gitana Extreme-Groupe LCF Rothschild and stable mate Oman Sail Renaissance, who are tied on 33 points.

Gilles Chiorri, iShares Cup Event Director, stresses: “Loick Peyron (Renaissance) and Yann Guichard (Gitana) will certainly be the guys to watch out for in Amsterdam, given the tight spot they’re in with their equal points. We’ll witness a close match, on the smallest racecourse of the season, and conventional tactics will have to be put aside momentarily. Covering a direct rival in such a compact fleet is not an easy task, and one has to bear in mind that in Amsterdam, more than anywhere else, keeping out of trouble is key. The risk of collision with another boat or with a wall is possible, and that stress added to the pressure of an equal points situation will make for tense situations.”

Behind these two Groupama 40 will be chasing hard for a podium position as well, as Chiorri adds: “As far as the final podium is concerned, Groupama 40 can still hope to squeeze their way in, and we’ve seen that Franck Cammas was on top form recently.” In fact, Cammas has just won his third Trophée Clairefontaine last week – a series of short races aboard one-design catamarans, a format which is similar to that of the iShares Cup.

Meanwhile Team iShares, BT, LUNA, Holmatro and Ecover could all shuffle their finishing place in the final two events (BMW ORACLE Racing will miss this round due to their America’s Cup commitments). There are no discards in the iShares Cup, so every race counts, and the final race of each event is worth double points, so expect a high-tension finale in both Amsterdam (25th-27th September) and Almeria, Spain (10th-12th October).

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