Roman Hagara’s Red Bull Sailing Team clinches lead on Day 1 of 2012 Extreme Sailing Series Act 2
Opening day of the 2012 Extreme Sailing Series Act 2 produced thrilling sailing competitions between the Extreme 40 fleet. The Extreme Sailing Series Act 2 is being hosted by the Chinese city of Qingdao and has featured Roman Hagara’s Red Bull Sailing Team
on top of the fleet with 47 points. The regatta was not open to the public but still thousands thronged to the breakwater to see their favourite sailors.
As expected, the major support was for China’s Team but the local team was not able to perform according to the expectation and finished on eighth place. The Chinese team, in their Extreme 40 debut, was skippered by Phil Robertson and the team crew members
included Garth Ellingham, Kit Cheng, Nick Catley and Xiaqun Song. They clinched 18 points at the end of the first day of regatta.
The Austrian, Red Bull Sailing Team skippered by Roman Hagara along with the Olympic partner, Hans Peter Steinacher as tactician, had a tremendous sail on the Qingdao waters as they used their Olympic knowledge to edge ahead and hit the top of the leaderboard
at the conclusion. The Austrian team is hoping to retain the overall lead until the end of the regatta.
The fleet sailed in six scheduled open-water races under some moderate wind conditions. The fleet sailed just outside of the breakwater to start the proceedings. The winds were quite ideal for a superb sail as the teams had no trouble during the races. Red
Bull Sailing Team clinched 47 points after a convincing sail.
Overall standings at the end of Day 1:
1. Red Bull Sailing Team (AUT) Roman Hagara, Hans Peter Steinacher, Matthew Adams, Graeme Spence, Pierre Le Clainche 47 points
2. The Wave, Muscat (OMA) Leigh McMillan, Ed Smyth, Pete Greenhalgh, Hashim Al Rashdi, Rachel Williamson 44 points
3rd GAC Pindar (GBR) Ian Williams, Mark Ivey, Mark Bulkeley, Adam Piggot, Andrew Walsh 37 points
4. Groupe Edmond de Rothschild (FRA) Pierre Pennec, Jean-Christophe Mourniac, Hervé Cunningham, Bernard Labro, Romain Petit 32 points
5. Oman Air (OMA) Morgan Larson, Will Howden, Charlie Ogletree, Nasser Al Mashari, Max Bulger 28 points
6. Alinghi (SUI), Pierre-Yves Jorand, Tanguy Cariou, Nils Frei, Yves Detrey, Charles Favre 26 points
7. ZouLou (FRA) Loick Peyron, Philippe Mourniac, Jean-Sébastien Ponce, Bruno Jeanjean, Patrick Aucour 24 points
8. China Team (CHN) Phil Robertson, Garth Ellingham, Kit Cheng, Nick Catley, Xiaqun Song 18 points
9. SAP Extreme Sailing Team (DEN) Jes Gram-Hansen, Rasmus Kostner, Pete Cumming, Christian Kamp, Jonas Hviid 14 points
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