Issue date
Kiwi helmsman Phil Robertson helped his Oman Air team score a convincing win at the GC32 Championships held out of Al Mouj on the outskirts of Muscat.
(Phil Robertson won the battle of the Kiwi helsmen when his Oman Air edged AP Extreme Sailing Team, helmed by Adam Minoprio. Photo: Jesus Renedo/GC32 Championship Oman 2017)
The Omani team led the GC32 Championship from the outset and won the regatta by 14 points over Alinghi. SAP Extreme Sailing Team, helmed by New Zealander Adam Minoprio, were third only one point behind the Swiss boat.
Oman Air has one of the most experienced multihull crews, including old hands from the Extreme Sailing Series such as Peter Greenhalgh and Oman’s Nasser Al Mashari. In foiling GC32s, they won the GC32 Racing Tour with Sultanate of Oman in 2015 and finished close second to winner Alinghi on the 2016 Extreme Sailing Series. But the GC32 Championship was their first regatta with reigning match racing world champion Robertson helming.
“We’ve punched way harder than all of our expectations," Robertson said. "It’s gone really well.”
It also went reasonably well for Kiwi outfit Tawera Racing, who were eighth among the 11 teams and were racing on the circuit for the first time. Helmed by Chris Steele, they will compete as a full-season entry. The team were formed to give New Zealand's elite youth sailors a launch pad into the cutting-edge world of foiling multihull racing.
Steele comes with valuable experience in the series, having competed last season on board CHINA One and as skipper and helm of Act 8 wildcard team RNZYS Performance Programme on Sydney Harbour.
Eleven teams took part in the inaugural championship for the one-design foiling catamarans, being run by the GC32 International Class Association in association with OC Sport, which represented the largest-ever gathering of the foiling cats built in nearby Dubai.
Plans are already afoot to hold the next GC32 Championship in 2018. Racing for the GC32s continues tomorrow with Act 1 of the Extreme Sailing Series in Oman while the GC32 Racing Tour fires up on May 11-14 at Riva del Garda, Italy.
Final results:
1. Oman Air, 47 points
2. Alinghi , 61
3. SAP Extreme Sailing Team, 62
4. Red Bull Sailing Team, 78
5. Team TILT, 90
6. Team ENGIE, 92
7. Land Rover BAR Academy, 98
8. Tawera Racing, 108
9. Argo, 120
10. SVB Team Germany, 148
11. Youth Vikings Denmark, 155
For more, see here
