iShares
Great Britain’s Robert Greenhalgh steered his Extreme 40 Basilica, crewed by Peter Greenhalgh, Justin Slattery and James Grant, to victory on Lake Starnberg, Germany, in the first event of the iShares Cup Extreme 40 season. The regatta went down to the wire with the final race proving the decider. Greenhalgh kept his cool–even after scoring a last place in the penultimate race–and kept Jean-Christophe Mourniac’s Volvo Ocean Race at bay. “We have had a great time,” said Greenhalgh. “We had done a fair bit of training before this event which has helped and we were expecting the light conditions so were prepared for what we got on Lake Starnberg. Jean-Christophe and his Volvo Ocean Race team sailed superbly and were excellent opponents.”A heated fight for third place developed between Stan Schreyer (USA) on Tommy Hilfiger and Holmatro skipper Andreas Hagara from Austria. Tommy Hilfiger had a fantastic start to this regatta but today in the first race where double points were at stake, they came fifth after hitting a mark and having to take a penalty. In the next race they came last and, ultimately, took themselves out of contention for the lead and had to settle for fourth place overall. Skipper Stan Schreyer praised his opponents, saying, “We are a little disappointed with our result. Andreas was a coach of mine for a time and we got beaten by a master – nothing to be embarrassed about.”The next iShares Cup Extreme 40 event will be held in Marseille, France, starting July 9, but before then some of the fleet will head to Lake Geneva, Switzerland, to compete in one of Europe’s largest endurance races, the 82-mile Bol d’Or Mirabaud.For more, click here.
