Two wins in a row for The Wave, Muscat as Stadium Sailing action delights Italian fans in Trapani and on TV
Leigh McMillan’s team on The Wave, Muscat made it two in a row winning Act 6 of the Extreme Sailing Series™ in Trapani on the back of their Act 5 win in Cowes, UK. It was an incredibly close finish to Act 6 – after 34 races in total, The Wave, Muscat just held on in another final race which could have given the points to a number of teams.
French team Groupe Edmond de Rothschild came second and Oman Air skippered by ‘new boy’ Ben Ainslie came in third. Just 3.5 points behind were Max Sirena’s Luna Rossa, and only three points behind them Hagara’s Red Bull Extreme Sailing.
Luna Rossa’s result here elevates them to the top of the 2011 Overall Extreme Sailing Series leaderboard, 1 point ahead of Groupe Edmond de Rothshild.
Fans who turned out to see the final day of racing were treated to not one, but eight races with 17+ knots (not km/h) of breeze.
Leigh McMillan said:
“It has been the toughest week we have had, well one of the toughest weeks I have ever had on the water. Everyday we have been grinding it out trying to get some good races, we are thrilled to have won in Trapani and somehow we have won two in a row. I thought it would go to Alinghi or Oman Air. Alinghi started off really well and Oman Air have been incredible all through the week, right on the pace. So to actually have managed to beat both of them as they were pushing us all the way is great.”
Groupe Edmond de Rothschild’s bowman Hervé Cunningham said:
“I am happy, much better than in Cowes, as we did a good job. But still we have to improve. It would be easier for us if we started well and stayed in the top of the leaderboard from day 1 but it’s not happening. We are all really happy we managed to sneak into second position on the leaderboard. We all said this morning that there was no pressure and we would stick to our plan, focus on ourselves and we would see how it goes, and it went well! The level of the fleet is still rising so we must focus and keep improving to sail the best we can.”
Ben Ainslie at the helm of Oman Air once again demonstrated how quickly he has got a handle on these boats and raced strongly throughout the afternoon, only a poor start in the final race was the team’s undoing:
“I’ve have really enjoyed it. We have a lot of improvements to make and I am just learning the ropes, the guys are fantastic and have pulled me through. It’s great to be in the top three for my first event.”
For the Italian team of Luna Rossa, the favourites of the crowd here and positioned as favourites to win Act 6 by many of the pundits, but Trapani didn’t go the way skipper, Max Sirena, had hoped:
“It is what it is. We are going to spend this week working out what went wrong so we can work out what we need to improve.”
