Extreme Sailing Series: «Where's Ben Ainsley?»
Sailing

Extreme Sailing Series: «Where's Ben Ainsley?»

Twelve teams fought off the fourth stage of the world series of sailing races in St. Petersburg.
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If you want to take a picture with the winner of the «America»'s Cup, shake hands with Olympic champions and famous sailors, watch these sailing stars chase against the background of their native Neva, or even chase with them, then you are too late. Race Extreme Sailing Serieswhich was held in St. Petersburg, ended yesterday. You can read about how it was in our materials:

Extreme Sailing Series in Peter. This isn't a stometrock race.

Day two, the day of change

Day three, the Kings of the Neva.

From a place in the quarry we will begin to sum up the last day. Russian team Gazprom Team Russia took seventh place. We, of course, counted on more, especially since the crew were among the top five before the St. Petersburg stage. After the final race we asked her skipper, Igor Lisovenko, to share the difficulties they faced on the course:

«The hardest part was guessing unstable gusts of wind, they kept blowing from different directions. Whoever was luckier won. We can do much more, but we had a very bad second race day. We lost a lot of points because of it and it was hard to get into the first three».

Yes, luck on the 300 meters wide distance, limited by the Petropavlovka beach on one side and the navigable fairway on the other, was important. Clever underwater current of 1.5 knots, no less clever wind with gusts that are not clear how to catch.

Foreign colleagues nicknamed the race on the Neva with «Russian roulette».

However, the three teams - Swiss Alinghi, Oman's The Wave, Muscat and Team New Zealand - knew how to play it.

Exactly after 11 races (22 races in total) the three leaders got fixed in the same order as we wrote. Even the beautiful victory of the «kiwi» in the last race, for which Team New Zealand received 20 points (in the final race all points earned doubled), did not change the situation, although it reduced the gap between second and third place to two points.

It was awkward with the SAP award for the fastest boat (remember we wrote about the competition for the Speed King?).

Well, SAP gave it to their own team.

Statistics is a stubborn thing, you can't go against it. On the last day of the regatta, when the strongest wind was blowing, the SAP Extreme Sailing Team boat showed a speed above 21 knots. The day before, she was also the leader in the speed standings. But fast does not mean first - in the SAP standings the sixth. But even if you're first, as Alinghi's skipper Morgan Larson, it's not enough for glory...

Waiting for the athletes after the final race was under the loud cheers of the sailing academy students. Young «optimists»who knew by heart all the regalia of the titled British athlete Sir Ben Ainsley, winner of the «America»'s Cup, could not wait to get his signature on the memory and it was not interesting at all who won this race. So the first question that Morgan Larson heard from the young yachtsmen was: «Where is Ben Ainsley?»

So, having found out where Ben Ainsley was (by the way, fourth place at this stage), we say goodbye.

The next Extreme Sailing Series will take place in Cardiff, the capital of Wales. In 2015 we hope to see the Extreme 40 catamarans in the Northern Capital and say Welcome Back to these exciting races.

The final results table for the Extreme Sailing Series by Land Rover.

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