The final day of the Extreme Sailing Series in San Diego started with thick fog across the race course, the forecast was suggesting very light airs again, but the local fishermen were confident, that when a day in San Diego starts with fog, the thermal breeze always appears. And they were right, as the day progressed so did the breeze.
With the breeze came some better form from the young INEOS Rebels UK, posting two seconds and a third in the six-race day as helmsman Leigh McMillian explained. “It was definitely a better day today, we’ve been looking hard at ourselves and the boat, how we’ve been setting it up over the past couple of days and found a couple of things that weren’t quite right in the setting and put that right today. It seemed to make a bit of a difference, we felt more competitive, not the fastest boat on the water still, but getting into the race and able to make those gains when they were actually available.”
It was a solid day to end the week with a lot everyone can take away going into Los Cabos, Mexico in five weeks’ time, and the team will be assessing how they can learn from San Diego and get back onto the podium for the final event of the season. “When you’re having a tough week you have to go away and learn from it, not write it off, otherwise you don’t get better.”
The Extreme Sailing Series continues with final 2018 Act in Los Cabos, Mexico 29th November - 2nd December.
Extreme Sailing Series™ 2018 San Diego, presented by SAP, standings after Day 4, 21 races (21.10.18)
Position / Team / Points
1st, Oman Air (OMA) Phil Robertson, Pete Greenhalgh, James Wierzbowski, Stewart Dodson, Nasser Al Mashari: 233 pts
2nd, Alinghi (SUI) Arnaud Psarofaghis, Nicolas Charbonnier, Timothé Lapauw, Bryan Mettraux, Yves Detrey: 232 points
3rd, SAP Extreme Sailing Team (DEN) Rasmus Køstner, Adam Minoprio, Julius Hallström, Pierluigi de Felice, Richard Mason: 226 pts
4th, Red Bull Sailing Team (AUT) Roman Hagara, Hans Peter Steinacher, Dan Morris, Rhys Mara, Micah Wilkinson: 199 pts
5th, INEOS Rebels UK (GBR) Will Alloway, Leigh McMillan, Oli Greber, Adam Kay, Mark Spearman: 190 pts
6th, Element Spark Compass (USA) Taylor Canfield, Sam Hallowell, John Wallace, Matt Noble, Mateo Vargas: 159 pts
7th, Team México (MEX) Erik Brockmann, Tom Buggy, Alex Higby, Tom Phipps, Danel Belausteguigoitia Fierro: 147 pts
Extreme Sailing Series™ 2018 overall standings
Position / Team / Points
1st, Alinghi (SUI) 68 points
2nd, SAP Extreme Sailing Team (DEN) 65 pts
3rd, Oman Air (OMA) 63 pts
4th, INEOS Rebels UK (GBR) 54 pts
5th, Red Bull Sailing Team (AUT) 50 pts
6th, Team México (MEX) 42 pts
Light breeze continued for penultimate day
The thermal breeze failed to get above eight knots for the penultimate day of racing for the INEOS Rebels on San Diego Bay. The young team struggled to find their form in the two races points races completed and remain in fifth overall on the leader board.
© Mark Lloyd
Lloyd Images
Helmsman, Leigh McMillan gave his thoughts on the day, “It’s a bit frustrating for us, we seem to have found a bit of a speed barrier problem in these light conditions. It’s been a while since we raced in the light breeze and we’ve lost our way a bit with it, we seem very much on the back foot and despite getting good starts and clear air, we’re still dropping back through the fleet quite consistently at the moment.
“Definitely racking our brains and trying to find the pace again but all we can do is keep pushing and learn from it.”
With similar conditions forecast for the final day of racing, and the top teams showing a consistent pace, the Rebels will need to find their old form and put in a good days racing to climb back up the scoreboard.
© Mark Lloyd
Lloyd Images
The team will regroup and come out fighting, as ever, tomorrow. “Tonight we can have a good think about the little setting issues we’ve been having and try come out tomorrow and be more competitive and climb back up the leader board, that’s our sole focus” concluded McMillan.
Racing continues on Sunday 21st at 1400 – 1700 local time, - 7 UTC. SAP will host live insights and 3D analytics with the racing streamed live online at INEOS TEAM UK.
Extreme Sailing Series™ 2018 San Diego, presented by SAP, standings after Day 3, 15 races (20.10.18)
Position / Team / Points
1st, Alinghi (SUI) 162 points
2nd, Oman Air (OMA) 157 pts
3rd, SAP Extreme Sailing Team (DEN) 154 pts
4th, Red Bull Sailing Team (AUT) 136 pts
5th, INEOS Rebels UK (GBR) 128 pts
6th, Element Spark Compass (USA) 110 pts
7th, Team México (MEX) 98 pts
Just one of those days
Some days things just don’t go to plan and for the INEOS Rebels competing at the penultimate event of the Extreme Sailing Series on San Diego Bay, it was one of those days.
© Mark Lloyd
Lloyd Images
It was a tough day on the water for the young Rebels in shifty and marginal foiling conditions as helmsman Leigh McMillian explained. “It was a very frustrating day us unfortunately, we didn’t start the day off well not getting the best starts or rights settings, but race by race we were getting ourselves back in the picture into better positions.
7⃣ races today in #SanDiego ??
— Extreme Sailing (@extremesailing) October 20, 2018
? Check out the scores ?https://t.co/eFdZgtriZa
? Insights by @SAPSports #extremesailing pic.twitter.com/UrAAxWQalo
But even when we did get out in front, we had the worst possible situations or luck go our way, it was one of those bad days, the worst days racing of the year for us unfortunately, so we are going to have to turn that round tonight and tomorrow and start afresh and finish this regatta off on a high.”
It was really tough racing for everyone and some of the guys are doing a really good job of getting their heads around that, and we need to do the same over the next couple of days. The forecast is pretty similar for tomorrow, so we can learn from today, come out tomorrow refreshed for these conditions.”
© Mark Lloyd
Lloyd Images
With two more days of racing and 12 - 16 races scheduled on San Diego Bay the Rebels will be keen to get out racing again and climb the leaderboard.
Racing continues on Saturday 20th at 1400 – 1700 local time, - 7 UTC. SAP will host live insights and 3D analytics over the next two event days with the racing streamed live online at INEOS TEAM UK on Saturday and Sunday.
Results
Extreme Sailing Series™ 2018 San Diego, presented by SAP, standings after Day 2, 13 races
Position / Team / Points
1st, Alinghi (SUI) 140 points
2nd, Oman Air (OMA) 135 pts
3rd, SAP Extreme Sailing Team (DEN) 132 pts
4th, Red Bull Sailing Team (AUT) 118 pts
5th, INEOS Rebels UK (GBR) 113 pts
6th, Element Spark Compass (USA) 96 pts
7th, Team México (MEX) 85 pts
Racing underway in San Diego
The first day of the penultimate Act of the 2018 Extreme Sailing Series got underway in San Diego today, with six races on the city’s Bay Front (5,1,2,7,3,5).
© Mark Lloyd
Lloyd Images
After an hour’s delay due to the light breeze, by race two the fleet was up to 20 knots of boat speed and up on the foils.
The Brits bag a bullet in Race 2! ?#extremesailing #RebelRebel@INEOSTEAMUK pic.twitter.com/PbAf8I747C
— Extreme Sailing (@extremesailing) October 18, 2018
Starting well was the key to delivering a solid set of results; at times the team delivered and were able to lead the fleet from start through to finish but during others, got caught up in the pack leaving them at the back of the fleet. This was reflected in the results, alongside three podium finishes - a win in race two, a second and a third - the Rebels were left frustrated with two fifths and a last place in the fourth of the day.
Check out the scores after six races on #HarborIsland ?? on the opening day of #extremesailing San Diego, presented by @SAPSports.
— Extreme Sailing (@extremesailing) October 19, 2018
? Insights by @SAPSports https://t.co/eFdZgt9I7C pic.twitter.com/8dd1H890Lm
The team head into day two fourth overall with 55 points, jus one point behind fourth placed SAP Extreme Sailing Team.
Thoughts from the team:
Skipper, Will Alloway, “Today started off pretty breezy, the thermal pressure started to come in around 1300, but then later this afternoon it started to drop off and we had around five – eight knots for the last race of the day.
“It was a really tricky one for us today, we had some good moments where we got in good starts - it was super shifty out on the racecourse so it was all about getting onto the right shift on the start line. We saw that in the last race when a couple of the teams managed to hook into that.
“Our results were fairly inconsistent, but we are racing really solidly onboard and the boat handling is good so we still feel that we have a good shot at this regatta.”
Coach, Andrew Walsh, “It was a real up and down day. We had some really good races, where we led by a long way but then we got caught in the pack and struggled a little bit. It’s a really hard race course, getting off the start line was key and at times we struggled a little bit with that but it’s the first day so we will learn from that and move on tomorrow.
Racing continues on Friday 19th at 1400 – 1700 local time, - 7 UTC. SAP will host live insights and 3D analytics over the next three event days with the racing streamed live online at INEOS TEAM UK on Saturday and Sunday.
© Mark Lloyd
Lloyd Images
Results
Position / Team / Points
1st, Alinghi (SUI) 68 points
2nd, Oman Air (OMA) 60 pts
3rd, SAP Extreme Sailing Team (DEN) 56 pts
4th, INEOS Rebels UK (GBR) 55 pts
5th, Red Bull Sailing Team (AUT) 55 pts
6th, Element Spark Compass (USA) 44 pts
7th, Team México (MEX) 40 pts
INEOS Rebels UK (GBR)
Skipper/Trimmer: Will Alloway
Helm: Leigh McMillan
Trimmer/Float: Adam Kay
Mainsail Trimmer: Mark Spearman
Bowman: Oli Greber
Coach: Andrew Walsh
Boat Captain: Matty Adams
Project Manager: Rob Andrews