The Ecover Sailing Team are staying within contention as they compete in the first round of sailing at the Extreme Sailing Series on the South Coast of France. They are fighting hard and with just seven points between 4th and 7th place they go into the final day with everything to play for.

Ecover kicked off proceedings today with a cracking start off the line, leading the fleet around the course on race 1. The final leg saw Gitana just squeezed their way past at the line and Ecover were squeezed into second, but taking valuable points onto the leaderboard. The following two races saw superb sailing from Ecover as they took control of the fleet as racked up two more second places. The second half of the day wasn’t to go in their favour. “Our strategies off the start just really weren’t paying off, we weren’t picking the right shifts off the line and we got thoroughly punished,” commented Leigh McMillan after racing.

The conditions were perfect for the third day of racing with sun crowds and wind, which proved to be more consistent today allowing for less course changes and a full seven races completed. The racing remind tight and the chasing pack pushed Groupe Edmond de Rothschild hard to make an impact on the leaderboard but their presence on the water was outstanding as they continued to rack up top three positions their lead. The Oman Sail teams have kept the pressure on and they top of the table remains very tight with just nine points between 1st and 3rd. For Ecover tomorrow will be crucial if they are to secure fourth place ahead of Groupama, Red Bull and The Ocean Racing Club.

“We’re probably a little bit disappointed because we started the day really well, we got three seconds and were winning at one point, and then the breeze got up and we started to struggle a bit. We had a few close port and starboards which was a difference between us getting round in the second or third or last because we had to do some slow double tacks at the top and stuff at the winward mark so that set us back massively as well. On these boats the margins are so small and so close that a matter of metres can make the difference between the first and last sometimes. We definitely came out the wrong side of that a few times in the last four races so disappointed at the end. But we’re staying on contention for fourth and we intend to come back out tomorrow fighting this isn’t over yet,” Leigh McMillan.

Conditions here in Sete are affected by a large hill that towers over the town. It has a steep side on one side and a shallow on the other. It causes the wind to divide around the hill, which creates a very large shift on one side of the course and a slower shift on the other side of the course. Because the breeze direction keeps moving very very slightly it tends to favour one side of the course of the opposite side, but never the middle. The consequence is that tactically the race course is very divisive and you have to make the right call about which direction to go, which is really proving to be quite a challenge on the race course.

Overall Leaderboard after Day 3
Groupe Edmond de Rothschild - 89
The Wave Muscat - 85
Oman Sail Masirah - 81
Groupama 40 - 66
Red Bull Extreme Sailing - 60
The Ocean Racing Club - 59
Ecover Sailing Team - 59
Team GAC Pindar - 39

Source: www.ecoversailingteam.com