A TOUGH SINGAPORE STAGE 27 Jan 2010 // 21:57

 Woops, a belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from me.

 

We kick off in Australia where the lifestyle is simply Amazing!

 

As I pack my bags for a flight tonight to Muscat for round 3 of the Extreme Series Asia I thought is should at least re-cap on the Singapore leg held just prior to Christmas.

 

Singapore is an amazing city, for those who have not spent any time there I would highly recommend a visit. The sailing venue was right down town along pit lane of their F1 track. I couldn’t help thinking how awesome it would be for a n Extreme Series event supporting the Grand Prix…that would be nuts!

 

Racing in Singapore was light as expected, well we actually saw more wind that we all thought for the racing but definitely lighter than Hong Kong. This found us back struggling for speed in a similar light to that we had experienced for most of the year last year in the European arm of the tour.

 

We had some ups and downs, the ups showing us that if we risk it all we can score..if we are conservative and sail where we should at least be in the running, we are now completely out of the picture.

 

There was a great deal of aggressive attitude and chat amongst the fleet and with the absence of ‘on water’ umpiring there were plenty of late nights in the protest room. Fortunately in Muscat the event will take on a closer appearance to that of the European tour and we will have jury settling any disputes on the spot. This will hopefully simmer a few hot heads amongst the fleet.

 

Our speed problem has been super frustrating as you are continually searching for alternate answers, which simply are not there. Its is very transparent that our sails are hindering our performance in these conditions and  this will not change until the European leg marks a new page in the cycle of the Extreme Sailing Series.

 

The Economic down turn experienced last year had had a pretty detrimental effect to our present and future project options. It is important for us to have a good series in Oman. After finishing 5^th in Singapore and 2^nd in Hong Kong we now only just hang on to 2^nd over all for the series.

Its going to be all on in Muscat!