Extreme Sailing Series™ Act 6 press conference – what they said

As the Extreme Sailing Series™ gets underway in Funchal, the capital of the Madeira Islands, the seven skippers give their thoughts on what lies ahead for Act 6.

Thursday 22nd September 2016

As the Extreme Sailing Series™ gets underway in Funchal, the capital of the Madeira Islands, the seven skippers give their thoughts on what lies ahead for Act 6.

Diogo Cayolla, Sail Portugal - Visit Madeira (POR): “We’re very excited to be here. Madeira is a beautiful place – it’s the first day of autumn today and we’ve got 27 degrees and a nice breeze. We’ve had two great days of practice sailing here, and you can’t get better than this.”

Arnaud Psarofaghis, Alinghi (SUI): “First of all we’re going to try to sail well here in Madeira, as we know how to do that. We’re not looking back at Red Bull Sailing Team [who are one point behind Alinghi overall] but looking ahead to Oman Air [the Series leaders]. We have three acts to go and we have a few points to catch up. It’s going to be hard but we’re looking forward to it.”

Neil Hunter, Land Rover BAR Academy (GBR): “Over the last few Acts our team line-up has become more consistent which is helping us. Certainly our performances are improving as a team and it’s helping us come together. We’ve shown we can mix it up with the top teams. St Petersburg was a big step forward for us and we’re now looking forward to racing in this beautiful place.”

Morgan Larson, Oman Air (OMA): “Yesterday was our first good day on the water in nice south-east wind, and having a slightly longer course we realised that the communication within the team has to change, the tactics change, and the focus on boatspeed and long-course planning is more important. It is new to us but it felt good.”

Roman Hagara, Red Bull Sailing Team (AUT): “We are looking forward to racing here in Madeira very much. Two teams are ahead of us overall but Alinghi are very close. The goal is still to beat Oman Air – they have been ahead of us in most of the events. All the other teams share this goal. It’s really beautiful here and the sailing is great.”

Jes Gram Hansen, SAP Extreme Sailing Team (DEN): “Madeira is a fantastic place to sail. We’ve been here for two days now and have had absolutely amazing conditions. It’s a more open race course which I hope will suit us well, and we’re looking forward to racing starting. St Petersburg was tough in the end but we sailed a really good regatta. We had the lead after the first day and I think we’ve improved a lot. We just need things to come together here and we’ll be on the podium.”

Brad Funk, Vega Racing (USA): “I love foiling - I sailed a Moth for five years on and off – and when I saw the Extreme Sailing Series move into the GC32 boats I was just amazed and thought I’d love to put a team together. I’m just happy to be here – we’ve managed to put a boat together for this Act and we’re here to learn from the others. We just want to move forward. We have no expectations but to have fun, go foiling and enjoy Madeira.”