After the drama and action-packed first four days of Act 5 from Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week, the breezy conditions that cart-wheeled the Extreme 40 Aberdeen Asset Management yesterday, eased off today at the halfway stage of the UK round of the 2011 Extreme Sailing Series™.  It was also a day that many well-known faces from the world of sailing and sport dropped by to sail on board as a 5th man guest or just enjoy the atmosphere. Gavin Hastings, the best rugby player to come out of Scotland, and Scottish professional female golfers Carly Booth and Mhairi McKay joined 2012 Vendée Globe entrant Mike Golding; Ken Read, helmsman on two of Dennis Conner’s Stars & Stripes America’s Cup campaigns; Vincent Riou, winner of the 2004/05 Vendée Globe; Jean Le Cam; round the world yachtswoman Samantha Davies; Sarah Gosling, double Olympic Gold medalist; and Red Bull’s wakeboarder Quentin Delefortrie, impressed the crowds as he performed his wakeboarding skills off the back of the Red Bull Extreme Sailing Extreme 40 before racing started.

Watch the Day 4 in 60 seconds video for the story so far, plus Freddie Carr takes a dip!


Quentin Delefortrie wakeboarding behind Red Bull Extreme Sailing © Lloyd Images

The British Aberdeen Asset Management team headed up by Olympic 49er sailor, John Pink, did a great job overnight to get their Extreme 40 ‘race ready’ for today, replacing the 62ft rig with a spare mast.  The more benign north-westerly conditions allowed the full fleet (minus Artemis Racing who have been unable to repair their damage incurred in the collision on Sunday) to race together on the stadium course set off Egypt Point, right along the shoreline in front of the crowds.

David 'Freddie' Carr leaps in to the water to manhandle Oman Air Extreme 40 off the beach © Lloyd Images

The racing started with a round of one-on-one speed duels before the 11 teams lined up to race as one fleet for the first time since day 1. It was a case of playing the shifts, finding the best patches of pressure out of the 6-8 knots of breeze, and keeping out of the adverse tide on the upwind legs, tacking as close into shore as they dared. For Sidney Gavignet’s Oman Air, they dared too much and went aground in the final race right in front of the Race Village. Crew man David (Freddie) Carr leapt into the water to manhandle the Extreme 40 off the beach.

Fleet racing on day 4 at Cowes © Lloyd Images

After the seven races today, including five full-fleet races, it is The Wave, Muscat skippered by Leigh McMillan who has taken over the lead at the top of the overall leaderboard from his friend and rival Paul Campbell-James at the helm of Luna Rossa: “Today it opened up an opportunity to get some proper full fleet racing in with some light winds so we really wanted to take full advantage of that and I think we did a pretty good job... The tide was absolutely ripping and I think that caught a few people out in the beginning… It was so much more trickier conditions, more frustrating at times, but it was a good day for us.”  McMillan who was born on the Isle of Wight made the best use of his ‘home’ advantage but only has a very slim lead ahead the French team on Groupe Edmond de Rothschild and Max Sirena’s Luna Rossa in third. “We are still very much in the game,” commented Pennec. “We have fought hard over the last three days to add one or two points over the competition…and I think that’s going to be the case until the end.”

Vincent Riou, winner of the 2004/05 Vendée Globe, onboard Groupe Edmond de Rothschild © Lloyd Images

The Swiss team headed up by Tanguy Cariou with two-times Series runner up Yann Guichard on the helm, had a stronger day winning the final race, elevating them to 4th overall, up two places in the standings from yesterday. Britain’s Ian Williams on Team GAC Pindar will be annoyed to have dropped a place in the standings after scoring a win in the second fleet race, the team could do no better than 8th in the remaining races.  Roman Hagara’s team on Red Bull Extreme Sailing are lying in 6th place on 86 points, only 3 points ahead of Oman Air who enjoyed a second race win of Act 5 in the penultimate race today.  Adam Beashel’s team on Emirates Team New Zealand is not having the regatta they would have hoped for so far. Snagging the top mark in the first fleet race of the day, relegated them to the back of the fleet by the time they freed the mark, and the Kiwi’s best result of the day was a 5th place leaving them in 9th overall, 8 points behind the Italian team on Niceforyou.