After four days of highly contested races, the Swiss boat Alinghi wins the 7th stage of the Extreme Sailing Series. Leading since the third day, Alinghi is rewarded for its consistency and takes off in the overall standings.
Switzerland took the lead in Nice. It’s the second Swiss boat, Realteam skippered by Jérôme Clerc, that launched hostilities with a perfect first day. Two days of light winds, a favorable situation for the Swiss crews, accustomed to training on Lake Geneva under similar conditions. A calm sea that requires deep reflection to find the ideal solution on the always challenging waters of the Bay of Nice. Weak winds that, for the first three days, tested the nerves of the 11 skippers.
“Light winds are not our preferred conditions, but I think we still did some great things. We’d like to do better than ninth, but we’re getting closer in points to the teams ahead of us. We still lack consistency; we had a bad day, but on the other three days, the team sailed well,” states the skipper of Groupama, Franck Cammas, on the official website of the Extreme Sailing Series.
In front of a large audience gathered on the Promenade des Anglais, the 11 boats, competing since last February, battled until the last race to improve their ranking positions. Ultimately, it was Alinghi, the leader in the overall standings, who won the 7th stage ahead of Realteam and JP Morgan skippered by Sir Ben Ainslie. The Swiss, winners of 6 races, succeed the Omanis of The Wave Muscat, the winners in Nice in 2013, and strengthen their position as leaders in the overall standings, although the last stage, which will take place in Sydney (from December 11 to 14), will count double. Morgan Larson’s men have an 8-point lead over The Wave Muscat, but in sailing, a lost race can quickly change the rankings.
“At the start of the season, we were confident; we thought we had a good lead. But the rest of the fleet is very competitive. The points for this last Act will count double, and if we perform poorly and The Wave, Muscat, or Emirates Team New Zealand do well, we will lose everything. So we have to go aiming for the podium,” explains Morgan Larson after the prize-giving ceremony.
Some teams dropped down over the days, such as Gazprom, 3rd on Friday night and last on Sunday, and The Wave Muscat, 2nd overall before this stage and only 8th in the Nice stage. Meanwhile, others made remarkable comebacks, like Red Bull, 4th thanks to two quality last days, and the Danish boat SAP, 7th overall after a challenging start.
