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The Extreme Sailing Series' St Petersburg regatta kicked off on the River Neva today in typical fashion - tight racing on a confined and tricky race area where again consistency was king.
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Some teams did well, others suffered on the tight race course which is just 300 metres wide at its narrowest point. Testing conditions saw the crews battle massive wind shifts and a four-knot current across the race course.
In the end, the conditions took the day. Four races were sailed before an increasing current and decreasing breeze shut proceedings down.
Race director Phil Lawrence said, “We managed to get four reasonable races in, but I was forced to abandon the fifth race when the wind stopped. We attempted to start a sixth race but by then the wind was just too light.”
Emirates Team New Zealand helmsman Peter Burling was happy with the team's consistently good starts: “We are really happy with our starts, we are getting off the line cleanly but getting around the course is a whole different story.”
Being first off the start line had no bearing on being first over the finish line as conditions were changing continuously with good breeze at times and absolutely no breeze at others. The one constant factor was the current.
“It’s a small race arena but wind velocity could be totally different from one side of the course to the other. It was a case of having to keep our heads down and keep working hard,” Burling said.
“We have been saying all week that consistency is key and Alinghi is showing that right now. We are doing our best to be on the good side of the fleet in each race and hope that we can maintain a strong position going into the final day.”
But there is plenty of racing to go before then with more of the same conditions the fleet encountered today.
Leader board after four races
1st Alinghi 37 points
2nd The Wave, Muscat 28 points
3rd Realstone, 26 points
4th Emirates Team New Zealand, 25 points
5th SAP Extreme Sailing Team, 22 points
6th J.P Morgan BAR, 20 points
7th Groupama, 17 points
8th Gazprom Team Russia, 16 points
9th GAC Pindar, 15 points
10th Oman Air, 11 points
11th Red Bull Sailing Team, 7 points
12th Russian First, 4 points
