‘Sultanate of Oman’ sails to GC32 victory in Round the Island Race
‘Sultanate of Oman’, which is supported by the Ministry of Tourism and EFG Bank (Monaco), crossed the finishline to win the GC32 class with just 56 seconds ahead of Alinghi with whom they had jostled for the lead all the way round the course in tough cond
MUSCAT: After three days of intense racing in the 2015 Bullitt GC32 Racing Tour’s Cowes Cup, Oman Sail’s GC32 crew onboard ‘Sultanate of Oman’ participated in the JP Morgan Round the Island Race, one of the world’s largest yacht races, taking the GC32 class honour and finishing second overall out of a 1,584 boat fleet.
‘Sultanate of Oman’, which is supported by the Ministry of Tourism and EFG Bank (Monaco), crossed the finish-line to win the GC32 class with just 56 seconds ahead of Alinghi with whom they had jostled for the lead all the way round the course in tough conditions. The crew consisted of regular Paul Campbell-James, one of the UK’s most experienced foiling experts who stepped in for skipper and Olympian champion Leigh McMillan, Nasser Al Mashari, Ed Smyth, Alister Richardson and Pete Greenhalgh. After break- ing his hand at the GC32 Cowes Cup on Thursday, Leigh McMillan passed helming duties over to Paul Campbell-James (CJ), but it was McMillan’s coaching tips that resonated as they were hurtling around the back of the Isle of Wight crashing off waves at 30 knots, CJ said.
“Leigh McMillan spent some time with us all on Friday and it made a big difference. We hoped we would win and it helped that we had time in the boat. The crew did really well – they are the best in the game, and already leading the GC32 series, so it was a nice position for me to slip into.”
“The back of the island was the most full on I have ever seen it – we were nose-diving just to slow the boat down so it didn’t do cartwheels. It wasn’t easy to sail in those conditions and it was physi- cally exhausting, but we have all got massive smiles on our faces now.”
“It was extremely lively round the back end of the island – 16-18 knots and very, very rough,” he explained. “We were crashing off the foils, leaping out of the water doing 25-30 knots and stopping down to 7-8 knots. These are the roughest conditions we have had in these boats and it was one of the roughest rides any of us have ever had. We are all a bit battered and bruised. There are not many people I would have gone round in With just a month to go until the biggest race of Ahmad Al Harthy’s motorsport season, the Total 24 Hours of Spa, the Oman Racing Team driver is brimming with confidence after a very productive test outing at the famous Belgian track last week. those conditions with, but CJ did us proud. He was superb.”
Back in 2010, bowman Nasser Al Mashari came second in the Extreme 40 class but this time around he went one better. “We were the third GC32 to go round the Needles but fought hard, used every little bit of pressure and every wave. It was very choppy but from then on we had some great racing. I am very happy and extremely proud to have won our class at the Round the Island Race,” he said.
Concise, the MOD70 owned by Tony Lawson, recorded a time of 03:30:24 to take the Freedom Challenge Bowl, with just six minutes separating the first and last GC32, with French boat Team ENGIE posting a time of 03:53:47 in third and Team ARGO from USA completing the course in 03:56:06.
The GC32 class is a foiling catamaran that is regarded as one of the most exciting newcomers on the high-performance racing scene. The next event of the 2015 Bullitt GC32 Racing Tour is in Kiel, Germany from July 29 to August 2.