Act 5 of the Extreme Sailing Series in Porto delivered the ultimate challenge in Stadium Racing. The narrow river, high walls, strong tides, dangerous rocks and temperamental winds contributed to some of the tightest racing yet.
After 30 races, both The Wave, Muscat and Alinghi had a shot at first going into the final double pointer, but the Omani team ultimately out-boathandled their competition and snagged first place overall.
Porto is the third Act win for The Wave, Muscat with Leigh McMillan at the helm, bringing them to a tie with Alinghi at the top of the overall Series leaderboard. His crew Peter Greenhalgh, Hasim al Rashidi, Musab al Hadi and Ed Smyth cheered ecstatically along with McMillan as they easily glided across the finish line in first place.
Pierre Pennec, who is known as one of the most daring sailors in the Series, drove the Realteam Extreme 40 to its first podium finish. “Our objective for this event was to reach the podium, so it was a great result for the team! The most important factor is the crew engagement, good communication onboard and technically we progressed a lot over the week which is really good looking ahead to the future of the team. It’s great to be back racing in the circuit, and from today anything is possible!” he said.
SAP Extreme Sailing Team and Red Bull Sailing Team battled it out in the middle of the pack, while newcomers ROFF Cascais Sailing Team and Team Tilt got their first taste of the circuit and even managed to score some top-half finishes.
Now at its halfway point, the Series is headed to the Welsh capital Cardiff for August 23-26.
Press release courtesy of Extreme Sailing Series; photo credit Lloyd Images.
