The Wave, Muscat and Oman Air are preparing to defend their overall podium positions in the Extreme Sailing Series as they head to Cardiff for the UK leg of the series. The Wave, Muscat will be hoping for home advantage for British skipper Leigh McMillan, along with Bangor born Bleddyn Môn who is sailing with the crew at this event.

This is the first time the event has come to Cardiff, and it will be part of the annual Cardiff Festival, the UK’s biggest free outdoor festival. Both teams have a strong hold on the leader board with The Wave, Muscat leading overall and Oman Air holding third place.

“We’ve put in some good training over the last few days”, commented The Wave, Muscat skipper Leigh McMillan. “It’s going to be a tight course, it is smaller than the last few events but it will make for some great stadium style racing with the course running close to the shore line which will mean a fantastic spectator experience. It will certainly be a challenging course and the starts will be crucial. For us it would be fantastic to win here and have four straight wins, but we are keeping focused on the overall prize of the series title and it’s important that we stay consistent and we are aiming for a strong podium finish to keep us in the lead going into the last two events”.

Oman Air are just eight points from The Wave, Muscat and seven points from second placed Red Bull Sailing Team. The crew have been training hard to learn as much as they can about the course in Cardiff as they try to close the gap on the boats ahead, while also extending from Groupe Edmond de Rothschuild who are on equal points with them going into this event.
“The forecast is looking very promising, the race course will be tight so there will be no room for errors out there, we need to stay focused and keep delivering good results over the next four days. With three events left in the series there is everything to play for and we will be going out there to finish with a podium position,” Will Howden, Oman Air.

The Wave, Muscat and Oman Air will be represented by two Omani sailors, Hashim Al Rashdi and Nasser Al Mashari, both sailors were selected through Oman Sail’s innovative training programme, which has inspired thousands of young Omanis to discover and enjoy sailing. Nasser is going into his second year of Extreme 40 racing. He came through the Oman Sail programme and hopes to follow in the footsteps of Khamis Al Anbouri who was onboard the 2010 Extreme Sailing Series Europe winning boat, The Wave, Muscat in 2011. Hashim worked with Oman Sail last year as part of their Extreme 40 shore team, and he is now in his first series racing on The Wave, Muscat as bowman.

“We’ve been training for the last two days here in Cardiff, it’s a great place to sail and the small course is going to make for some really exciting racing here. The training has been going really well, the communication onboard is great and we feel that we are good shape heading into this event. I am excited to be racing so close to the shoreline, it will be fantastic to have the spectators so close and I’m sure it is going to be some challenging but fun sailing ahead,” Hashim Al Rashdi, The Wave, Muscat.

Racing begins on Cardiff Bay from the 30th August through to Sunday 2nd September.

Extreme Sailing Series 2012 Overall Series Results after 4 Acts:
Position/Team/Points
1 The Wave, Muscat 39 points
2 Red Bull Sailing Team 33 points
3 Oman Air Team 31 points
4 Groupe Edmond de Rothschild 31 points
5 GAC Pindar 22 points
6 Alinghi 18 points
7 SAP Extreme Sailing Team 18 points
8 ZouLou 16 points

Oman Sail  Jessica Gray

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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 29 August 2012 )