The fourth day of competition in the Nice Grand Prix began at first light today. It was a rare occurrence in the Extreme Sailing Series, which is used to racing in the afternoon. However, the race committee’s fears of the wind dropping away to nothing later in the day were fully justified, so the organisers were quite right to switch the programme around. For the crew of Edmond de Rothschild Group, this morning’s four races were prolific: “This morning, we focused on scoring important points, without necessarily winning races. I had a very good feeling at the helm. Christophe is playing more of a strategic role than normal and that takes some pressure off me, enabling me to concentrate more on our boat speed. Today there were a lot of contact situations, as the level of the fleet is very similar, and we always had what it took to get clear without incurring penalties, which is essential for rounding off the racing in a good position” explained Pierre Pennec.

Second in the provisional ranking for three days, Pierre Pennec and his men have today moved up a step to take control of this competition in Nice. This is real grounds for satisfaction, and they made the most of it on their return to shore, whilst being well aware that their outright win in Nice certainly isn’t a done deal yet: “We can’t complain about the position we’re in this evening, but there’s still a day of racing to go and the points will be totted up tomorrow evening. Indeed experience tells us that in the Extreme Sailing Series, one day of racing can completely reshuffle the cards, particularly the last legendary race of the competition which scores double points,” recalled Thierry Fouchier, the crew’s headsail trimmer.The skipper of Edmond de Rothschild Group shared this mindset: “We’ve put up a consistent performance since the start of this Grand Prix. We haven’t had exceptional days but we’re often in the top half of the fleet. This has enabled us to be in pole position prior to the final races tomorrow. Despite all that, there are very few points separating us from our pursuers and we’re going to have to put up a solid performance, especially as our rivals will be hounding us. However, the crew’s prepared for that. As such, tomorrow, rather than going all out to win each race, we’re going to try to apply ourselves, which is something we’ve succeeding in doing so far. What that means is that we will need to be consistent with the right amount of opportunism, without taking any reckless risks.”

For tomorrow, the organisers have just announced that the day will be identical to today’s race format, to ensure a maximum number of races, thus rounding off the event in style. In this way, the first two hour sailing session will begin at 0830 hours. Then the Extreme 40s will be back racing in the nautical stadium at 1400 hours, in the hope that the wind Gods will finally be feeling more generous. At that point, the die will be cast and the winner of the seventh act of the Extreme Sailing Series will be revealed at around 1700 hours local time.

Ranking for the Nice Grand Prix after the 4^th day

1. Edmond de Rothschild Group (FRA) - 173 points
2. Alinghi (SUI) - 170 points
3. Artemis Racing (SWE) - 169 points
4. Luna Rossa (ITA) - 152 points
5. Red Bull Extreme Sailing (AUT) - 144 points
6. Emirates TeamNew Zealand(NZ) - 139 points
7. OmanAir (OMA) - 132 points
8. Team GAC Pindar (GBR) - 129 points
9. The Wave, Muscat (OMA) - 109 points
10. Niceforyou (ITA) - 100 points
11. Team Extreme (EUR) - 87 points