Hotshots from the America’s Cup and the Olympics square up against World Champions and record holders in the impressive roll call for the 2011 Extreme Sailing Series™.

By James Boyd, Editor and publisher of The Daily Sail.

With a wealth of new teams and crew line-ups, the 2011 Extreme Sailing Series season promises to be the most competitive yet with 11 boats manned with talent from every corner of competitive yacht racing – the America’s Cup and Volvo Ocean Race skippers and crew to Olympic medallists and numerous World Champions. Whilst just two of the 11 teams are current America’s Cup projects, certainly the America’s Cup moving to catamarans has given an extra boost to the circuit this year, with several new top international sailing teams competing, including past two America’s Cup defenders. But the question hanging over the outcome to this season is: will victory go to one of the top Cup style teams that may be new to multihulls or to one of the more experienced Extreme Sailing Series competitors?

Over the past four seasons the Extreme Sailing Series has been won by three teams where the helmsman has previously been a leading skiff sailor: Rob Greenhalgh, the International 14 and 18ft skiff World Champion aboard Basilica in the first year, 49er Olympic bronze medallist Chris Draper on Oman Sail Masirah in 2009 and most recently The Wave, Muscat’s Paul Campbell-James, also a 49er sailor. The exception was 2008, won by Alinghi with helmsman Ed Baird, a former Laser and three time ISAF Match Racing World Champion, best known for steering Ernesto Bertarelli’s team to a successful defence of the America’s Cup in 2007.

The Wave, Muscat wins the 2010 Extreme Sailing Series Europe

In 2008 Baird arrived on the Extreme Sailing Series circuit as a newbie multihull sailor, although Alinghi had carried out much in-house training beforehand. The Swiss team ended up winning four out of five of the regattas that year, followed by another America’s Cup team, TEAMORIGIN. Alinghi didn’t compete in the last two seasons and since then the level of competition has certainly risen. So while Cup teams are typically the best resourced, with the most experienced sailors and the most days spent training with the best coaches, victory we suspect will be by no means assured for them this season.

One of the two actual Cup teams competing, Emirates Team New Zealand, famously won the America’s Cup in 1995 and successfully defended it in 2000. Dean Barker, the 2000 ISAF Match Racing World Champion, has been skipper and helmsman of their team since 2001 and during his tenure the Kiwis ended up racing Alinghi in the 2007 America’s Cup, eventually being beaten 5-2. However in the last two seasons the team has enjoyed consecutive victories in the Audi MedCup, considered the leading fleet racing circuit for monohulls. Dean Barker is regarded as one of the top helmsmen in the sport, both in match racing and fleet racing. Sailing with Barker are two crew from the Kiwi Cup team, trimmer James Dagg and bowman Jeremy Lomas and with them they have catamaran talent in the form of Glenn Ashby, the Olympic Tornado two time World Champion and silver medallist in Beijing. Like Baird in 2008, so Barker is undergoing a fast-track schooling in sailing on two hulls, but will he learn as quickly?

Dean Barker at Almeria 2010

The second of the two America’s Cup teams, and also on a steep catamaran learning curve is that of Torbjorn Tornqvist’s Artemis, who have ultra-competitive American Terry Hutchinson on the helm. Hutchinson is a past J/24, Farr 40 and IMS World Champion, a veteran of three America’s Cup campaigns, most recently with Dean Barker on Emirates Team New Zealand in 2007. Like Dean Barker, he has also won the Audi MedCup, as skipper of Quantum Racing in 2008. Unlike Barker, Hutchinson has opted not to bring any catamaran expertise on board and instead is joined by three old hands from the AC: Sean Clarkson, Morgan Trubovich and Andy Fethers. While it is hard to gauge their form going into this season, Artemis has been undergoing the most intensive two-boat training to get themselves up to speed and will be favourite versus Emirates Team New Zealand. Although Ernesto Bertarelli’s Alinghi, the America’s Cup victor in 2003 and successful defender in 2007, have no aspirations to compete in the next event in 2013, they return to Extreme Sailing Series this year after a two-year absence.

On this occasion the team is being led by Breton Tanguy Cariou and helmed by Yann Guichard who skippered Groupe Edmond de Rothschild into second place in both 2009 and 2010. A very experienced offshore multihull sailor, Guichard has also represented France in the Tornado class at the Sydney Olympics. On the water Yann shows nerves of steel and consistency. Cariou represented France in the 470 class in Sydney, and is a well respected tactician who competed in the America’s Cup in 2007 with France’s Areva Challenge and knows the Extreme Sailing Series well, having previously been tactician on Franck Cammas’ Groupama 40. Recently he has become a regular on the Alinghi D35 catamaran, racing on Lake Geneva. They are joined by old Alinghi hands, and seasoned multihull sailors, Nils Frei, Yves Detrey and Pierre Yves Jorand.

Like Alinghi, Luna Rossa, the team of Prada boss Italian Patricio Bertelli, has a long association with the America’s Cup having challenged on three occasions, but are believed not to have their sights on the 2013 event. As is the case with Emirates Team New Zealand and Artemis, the team is new to catamaran racing, but have two aces up their sleeve having recruited British Olympic 49er sailor and match racer Paul Campbell-James as helmsman and his able tactician Alister Richardson. This British duo won the 2010 Extreme Sailing Series aboard The Wave, Muscat, while Richardson is the circuit’s only two-time winner having also been on board Basilica, the 2007 winner. They are joined by their skipper Max Sirena, a four time America’s Cup veteran - three with Luna Rossa/Prada and most recently with BMW Oracle Racing – and Manuel Modena, another past Luna Rossa AC crewman, also a past Melges 24 World Champion and who, like team mates Richardson and Campbell-James, is a former Olympic 49er sailor.

The only team mostly unchanged from 2010 are the Austrian duo Roman Hagara and Hans Peter Steinacher aboard Red Bull Racing Team. While they finished sixth in the eight strong Extreme Sailing Series field last year, this duo have the most formidable Olympic track record in the Tornado catamaran having won gold at both the Sydney and Athens Olympics. Will they be able to up their game this season?

Red Bull Extreme Sailing

Four other teams are returning, but with new crew line-ups. Oman Sail is once again fielding two boats – The Wave, Muscat and the rechristened Oman Air. Close attention should be paid to this duo as Oman Sail has won the last two seasons of the Extreme Sailing Series and will certainly be gunning for the hat trick.

For 2011 young talented Australian match racer Torvar Mirsky has taken over the helm of last year’s winner The Wave, Muscat and brings with him his tactician from the World Match Racing Tour, Kyle Langford, while leading Oman Air is Frenchman Sidney Gavignet. Gavignet is best known as a multiple Volvo Ocean Race sailor, winning the fully crewed round the world race in 2005-6 on ABN AMRO One. He competed for the team last autumn in the French singlehanded transatlantic race, the Route du Rhum. However aside from his experience on his 100ft Omar Air trimaran, Gavignet is otherwise new to racing multihulls, particularly inshore and on tight courses, while conversely Mirsky is completely new to multihulls, but used to racing tight courses from his years spent on the World Match Racing Tour.

If the Oman Sail skippers are new this season, many of the crew from last year’s Oman Sail teams remain. They are Nick Hutton and Omani Khamis Al Anbouri on The Wave, Muscat and the UK’s Freddie Carr and Omani Nasser Al Mashari on Omar Air.  It is worth mentioning that Khamis was one of the original recruits into the Oman Sail training programme in 2008 and after two seasons of Extreme 40 training, he was given a permanent crew spot as bowman on The Wave, Muscat in 2010. He was part of the team that beat some of the best sailors in the world last year. Not bad for a man who had no prior sailing experience before joining Oman Sail!

Torvar MIrsky and his 2011 team onboard The Wave, Muscat

After competing in two events on the circuit for the first time last year, Team GAC Pindar return this season with an all-new crew. In 2011 their turquoise Extreme 40 is to be helmed by Britain’s Ian Williams. Like Torvar Mirsky, Williams comes from the World Match Racing Tour but with better credentials having won the series flying the Pindar colours in both 2007 and 2008. Sailing with Williams on board will be an all-star cast of crewmen from Oracle Racing - beefy Italian Gilberto Nibili and New Zealanders Brad Webb and Jono MacBeth. Assuming they get the training time in, and Williams acclimatises to catamarans to which he is new, then this could be an extremely powerful team.

Also returning, having finished a close second to The Wave, Muscat last year, is Groupe Edmond de Rothschild. This season the French team will be skippered by Tornado helmsman from the Sydney Olympics, Pierre Pennec, who has been main trimmer/tactician on board Baron Benjamin de Rothschild’s entry for the last two seasons. Experienced all-rounder Hervé Cunningham also returns and the team are bolstered this year with two new recruits: Thierry Fouchard who was previously with BMW Oracle Racing for the 33rd America’s Cup and Christophe Espagnon who represented France in the Tornado in Beijing and previously competed in the Extreme Sailing Series as part of Franck Cammas’ crew on Groupama. Two other brand new teams for this season round out the 11 competitors.

Groupe Edmond de Rothschild

Following his participation twice at the Extreme Sailing Series in Kiel, German Roland Gaebler is fielding an eclectic mix on Team Extreme! Gaebler is an Olympic Tornado veteran, Sydney bronze medallist and reigning World Champion. While he is relatively new to the class, among his crew are two veterans. Leading French sail maker and one time Whitbread Round the World Race skipper Bruno Dubois, who previously competed on Mike Golding’s Ecover, and Belgium Olympic sailor Seb Godefroid who won silver in the Finn at the Atlanta Games in 1996 and competed at the Beijing Games in the Tornado as part of the only mixed crew. Godefroid has competed on Extreme 40s since the class’ inception. This being a campaign primarily funded by the event organisers, the fourth crew member will be selected locally to represent each host venue country when there is no other home team, to give either an established or up-and-coming sailor some exposure to the Extreme 40 class and perhaps inspire another nation to compete in future years!

While the Luna Rossa team may have an Anglo-Italian crew, team Nice For You is an all-Italian affair. If you are wondering about their name, Nice is an Italian manufacturer of home automation systems. The crew once again has largely America’s Cup experience – skipper/helmsman Alberto Barovier has sailed in the last three with Prada, Mascalzone Latino and, most recently, was mid-bowman for BMW Oracle Racing. He is also a ten-time World Champion, but all in monohulls. With Barovier are veteran sail maker and Olympic coach Daniele de Luca, the trimmer on board, who has sailed two Cups, most recently with Mascalzone Latino, while bowman Simone de Mari has sailed four, three with Luna Rossa and, like Barovier, was last year with BMW Oracle Racing.

Extreme Sailing Series fleet racing

Bringing catamaran experience to the team is Alberto Sonino, the 2001 Hobie Tiger World Champion, a regular competitor on Tornados, Hobie Cats and Formula 18s, who also raced on Giovanni Soldini’s ORMA 60 trimaran, TIM. Sonino helmed Trapani the Sailing Seacily, when the Extreme Sailing Series visited Italy last year.
So who’s going to win? Going into this season probably two thirds of the teams have the experience, talent and sheer nerve to win. So we’re going to leave that one unanswered for now!

Paul Campbell James, helmsman of the 2010 winning team gives his assessment: “Artemis and The Wave, Muscat again will be strong. They [The Wave, Muscat] have Torvar, who has done a bit of 49ering and a lot of match racing and they have Nick [Hutton] and Khamis [Al Anbouri] back with them. You can’t rule out Alinghi and Team New Zealand. It is going to be wicked season.”

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