The day was full of expectations as the eight international Extreme 40 teams headed onto the water for Day 1 of the Extreme Sailing Series in Sete France. Ecover had been based in the fishing town since the previous weekend in order to gain as much time on the water in breezy conditions that the event expected.

With a new team, and new helm, the all British Ecover Sailing Team were full of anticipation as they headed out for the first day of racing. Skipper Mike Golding commented from the dock, "This is the first time we've trained against other boats. It's been a great opportunity to get a feel of where we are, we don't seem to be having any boat speed issues, we seem to be going around the course pretty well. So, so far so good. We feel like we're on plan with our new setup, we're pretty interested in to see how today pans out, and how it all works out but we're reasonably confident".

Racing got underway with a north westerly 12 knot breeze, but conditions would prove to cause the fleet a world of trouble as the breeze shifted around the course, resulting in course changes and some frustrating results for some teams. Ecover were compounded by the technical problems onboard which resulted in a last place on race two, but a more successful final race placing third.

Speaking after racing skipper Mike Golding commented, “We seem to have good speed and we’re not experiencing any problems during the manouvers. During race one we had a major wind shift to the right hand side of the course, which just turned the fleet on its head. Those boats at the back of the fleet profited, we were fighting for second or third at that time and doing well up till this somewhat random turnaround. In race two we had some technical issues with the boat, first the starboard rudder popped up mid race and then just to compound this we then broke a traveller line.

The last race in which we finished third felt more representative of our performance as a team. We do seem to be sailing well together and apart from fixing the technical problems tonight we don’t need to make any big changes onboard.

Predictably the French boats Gitana and Groupama sailed really well today. I think there are a few boats that shone right from the get-go today. They were somehow able to make good calls in the shifty breeze. Speed wise, I think they might have a little edge over the rest of the fleet, which will be interesting to watch as the series goes on”

Conditions are expected to stay breezy over the weekend, tomorrow the fleet are expecting 8 - 10 knots from the north west. But with large wind shifts making racing increasingly challenging, the teams will be hoping for more settled conditions. Groupe Edmond de Rothschild hold pole position on the leaderboard with Ecover in seventh.
Source: www.ecoversailingteam.com