The big day!
A national holiday in Spain, also referred to as Columbus Day in commemoration of the discovery of America, this Monday 12th October is also special for the Extreme 40 crews who have been competing in the 2009 circuit. Indeed, in just a few hours’ time we’ll know the successor to the Swiss Alinghi team as event champion. Will it be Gitana Extreme, Masirah or Renaissance who will stand out this year… ? Verdict at around 1800 hours!
Within the Gitana Team the day began with a muscular wake-up during a jogging session around the hills of Almeria. Running around the hilltop fortifications of Alcazaba – the second largest Arabian edifice in Spain after the Alhambra in Grenada – the crew of Gitana Extreme – LCF Rothschild Group have thus managed to get the measure of the race zone just hours before the final decisive confrontations. In order to enable the race committee to run the maximum number of races prior to the 1800 hours deadline imposed by the organisers, the ten competing crews will be ready on the start line from 1430 hours, which is an hour earlier than on previous days.
Second in the ranking of this Spanish stage before the final day’s racing, as well as second overall behind Oman Masirah, Yann Guichard’s men know that they have to pull out all the stops in front of Pete Cumming’s crew today, in order to climb to the highest step of the podium. At the same time they’re going to have to keep an eye on Renaissance who, despite a second day of mixed results, are still on track for the 2009 title.
The weather conditions are likely to be similar to those encountered yesterday: namely a light thermal breeze, which forecasts envisage will reach 7 to 10 knots at most.
Ranking in Almeria after the second day (after 10 races)
1/ Oman Sail Masirah (Pete Cumming) – 80 points
2/ Gitana Extreme- LCF Rothschild Group (Yann GUICHARD) - 70 points
3/ Luna (Erik Maris) – 59 points
4/ Groupama 40 (Franck Cammas) – 59 points
5/ Oman Sail Renaissance (Loïck Peyron) – 58 points
6/ BT (Nick Moloney) – 57 points
7/ Holmatro (Mitch Booth) - 55 points
8/iShares (Shirley Robertson) – 51 points
9/ Rumbo Almeria (Fernando Echavarri) – 31 points
10/Ecover (Mike Golding) – 27 points