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It has been a whirlwind few days for the NZL Sailing Team and that continued with the first day of racing in Act 1 of the Extreme Sailing Series in Oman overnight (NZ time).
The New Zealand team, who are using the regatta as valuable training ahead of June's Red Bull Youth America's Cup, were eighth of the nine teams after seven races off the coast of Muscat, with 39 points. SAP Extreme Sailing Team (69 points), helmed by Kiwi Adam Minoprio, held a one-point lead over the Red Bull Sailing Team with Oman Air, helmed by New Zealand's Phil Robertson, further three points behind in third.
(SAP Extreme Sailing Team, helmed by New Zealand's Adam Minoprio, won three of the seven races. Photo: Extreme Sailing Series)
The New Zealand presence is strong at the regatta and Tawera Racing, who operate out of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron and are skippered by Chris Steele, collected two race wins to finish the day in sixth on 54 points. Stewart Dodson (Red Bull Sailing Team) and Josh Salthouse (Tawera Racing), who are part of the NZL Sailing Team's Red Bull Youth America's Cup squad, are also involved along with Will Tiller (Red Bull Sailing Team).
The NZL Sailing Team received a late wildcard invitation to compete in Oman - the trip was confirmed on Friday and they departed on Sunday - meaning they scrambled to be ready on time. The five members of the team, along with boat captain Stuart MacKinven, arrived at 3.30am and went straight to the boat yard to get the boat ready for racing.
"It was a big learning curve in practice dealing with the short but sharp chop that develops with the seabreeze," bowman Luca Brown said. " There was often 1m of chop with less than 10 knots of breeze, making manoeuvres hard and accuracy in everything paramount.
"With big efforts from the boys, and particularly Disco (MacGinven) our boat captain and team manager, we had the boat ready to race today. The racing took place down the coast an hour's foil tow away in front of the sheik's palace. There were 1.5m swells and up to 18 knots of breeze for the first few races, then the breeze died off to 5-10 knots for the remainder of the day. We had a mixed bag of results but there were a lot of positives and things we can carry into tomorrow with some momentum."
Their best result was a fifth in race two and they finished the day ahead of the Land Rover BAR Academy, who will also race in June's Red Bull Youth America's Cup. Land Rover BAR Academy were forced to miss the first three races because of problems with their support boat and they also damaged their bowsprit in race seven, threatening the stability of their mast.
"The team vibe is good and we are starting to click as a unit," Brown said. "It's just about refining all the small things now and working out our tactics within the fleet."
Racing continues today with a series of stadium races.
Extreme Sailing Series Act 1, Muscat standings after Day 1, 7 races
Position / Team / Points
1st SAP Extreme Sailing Team (DEN) Adam Minoprio, Rasmus Køstner, Mads Emil Stephensen, Hervé Cunnigham, Richard Mason 69 points.
2nd Red Bull Sailing Team (AUT) Roman Hagara, Hans Peter Steinacher, Stewart Dodson, Adam Piggott, Will Tiller 68 points.
3rd Oman Air (OMA) Phil Robertson, Pete Greenhalgh, James Wierzbowski, Ed Smyth, Nasser Al Mashari 65 points.
4th Alinghi (SUI) Arnaud Psarofaghis, Nicolas Charbonnier, Timothé Lapauw, Nils Frei, Yves Detrey 64 points.
5th Team ENGIE (FRA) Sébastien Rogues, Gurvan Bontemps, Jules Bidegaray, Antoine Joubert, Benjamin Amiot 57 points.
6th Tawera Racing (NZL) Chris Steele, Graeme Sutherland, Shane Diviney, Leonard Takahashi, Josh Salthouse 54 points.
7th Team Tilt (SUI) Sebastien Schneiter, Jéremy Bachelin, Florian Trüb, Arthur Cevey, Jocelyn Keller 54 points.
8th NZL Sailing Team (NZL) Logan Dunning Beck, Harry Hull, Isaac McHardie, Matthew Kempkers, Luca Brown 39 points.
9th Land Rover BAR Academy (GBR) Rob Bunce, Owen Bowerman, Elliot Hanson, Adam Kay, Oli Greber 35 points.
