Yann Guichard wins Extreme Sailing Series™ Kiel

01/09/2010

Yann Guichard and his crew on Groupe Edmond de Rothschild have won the third round of the 2010 Extreme Sailing Series™ in Kiel with a race to spare – an unusual occurrence on this circuit that normally sees every event go to the wire in the final double points race. However, there was no stopping Guichard who took control of the German event yesterday, unseating Britain’s Mike Golding from the top of the leaderboard. Today the French team scored four 1st places and two 4th places in the six fleet races.

Tough and tricky racing conditions
“I think that’s the best event we have ever done,” said Guichard. “We were in the match since the first day, our manoeuvres got better and better and the last two days were almost perfect. We enjoyed ourselves onboard and the results speak for themselves. Sometimes, like today, things just go well - we could have had 10 races today and I’m sure it would’ve been just as fine!” The Extreme Sailing Series™ Kiel event, supported by Kiel.Sailing City, delivered tough and tricky racing conditions for the 9 competing teams who rose to the challenges and entertained the 65,000 strong crowd that lined the Kiellinie shoreline over the four days.

Numerous penalties and one collision
Sunday's conditions were similar to Saturday's – big rain squalls bringing big gusts, then decreasing wind – and there was plenty of action on the short race courses resulting in numerous penalties. There was a collision between Red Bull Extreme Sailing and The Wave, Muscat in the third race of the day in a port/starboard incident approaching the weather mark – the impact was so loud it was heard inside the VIP enclosure! Neither team incurred major damage and carried on racing with Roman Hagara’s team awarded a 4-point redress as they sat out the next race to affect repairs to their bow on the water.

Continuous improvement by Ecover team
The all-British team on Ecover, having led for the first two days, had to settle for 2nd place overall and that was not without a fight. At the start of the final day they were lying in third behind Oman Sail Masirah, skippered by Loick Peyron. But good fighting tactics saw them move into 2nd overall after two races which they managed to cling on to: “It was a really good event for us and, more importantly, we are moving forward our expectations in the overall series which is great,” said Golding. “We had one slightly shaky day here but we see a continuous improvement which is important. There’s no secret, it’s all about team work and training, and it’s paying off now.”

The Wave won 3rd place
The battle for 3rd place then developed between the two Omani teams of Oman Sail Masirah and The Wave, Muscat. Paul Campbell-James, skipper of The Wave, finally got the upper hand in the penultimate race moving into 3rd overall with 120 points, 1 point ahead of Masirah. In the final double points race, Loick Peyron had the advantage but ‘CJ’ fought back to finish ahead and take 3rd place on the podium. Mid-leaderboard Mitch Booth on The Ocean Racing Club continued to dominate, finishing on equal points with Masirah, but awarded 5th place overall on countback. Red Bull Extreme Sailing finished in 6th place on 99 points, ahead of Groupama on 92 points, helmed by Tanguy Cariou whilst Franck Cammas demolished the Round Britain & Ireland course record on his Groupama VO70.

German battle
A ‘home’ team battle raged between the German ‘wild card’ entries of Team Wirsol Germany, with the young skipper Tino Mittelmeier at the helm, and the Audi Sailing Team Germany which facilitates training for the 2012 Olympics. Going into the final day, only 1 point separated the two teams to Audi’s advantage, but a spectacular win in the second race of the day for Team Wirsol Germany – that sent the thousands of spectators ecstatic – helped them overhaul their compatriots. Next stop for the 2010 Extreme Sailing Series™ is Trapani, Sicily from 24-26 September, the penultimate event of the circuit.

Source: extremesailingseries.com

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