From the following press release on the Extreme Sailing Series website:
http://www.extremesailingseries.com/news/view/full-pressure-day-as-the-extreme-40-fleet-battle-huge-gusts-on-the-qingdao#.U2QjeK-KDrc
It was a full pressure day as the fleet moved into the stadium racing mode at
the Land Rover Extreme Sailing Series™ in Qingdao, described by the skippers as
‘radical’, ‘full-on’, ‘unpredictable’ and gnarly’, with gusts up to 32 knots
weaving their way through the surrounding skyscrapers like bullets screaming
across the stadium racecourse. The racing was right on the edge, and the teams
used all their strength to muscle their speed machines expertly around the
track, tackling a huge wind range of over 20 knots. The experience of both
Alinghi and The Wave, Muscat was evident, and the teams relished today’s big
breeze as much as yesterday’s light winds, remaining first and second
respectively, while one first and two second places for the Kiwis on Emirates
Team New Zealand upgraded their overall position to third, ahead of tomorrow’s
penultimate day’s racing.
There was plenty of hull flying, bows down and extremely close mark
rounding’, with the fleet reaching top speeds of 25 knots as they tried to
predict the huge wind shifts which saw the breeze go from 10 to 32 knots in a
second. Before racing, Race Management made the call to split the fleet, first
into groups of eight, and then groups of four, to minimize the chance of
collisions on the tight race track. Leigh McMillan, skipper of The Wave, Muscat
who is out to defend his title in Qingdao, commented: “We like it when the
breeze is up, today was pretty radical. Gusts and big shifts is quite a handful.
But we’re happy to have made it through the day with no big collisions which is
great - it was pretty full on out there.”
read more here
A short highlights video from day 2 in Qingdao:
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