Land Rover BAR Academy and Team ENGIE ready to race again

Land Rover BAR Academy and Team ENGIE are busting to get back into the Extreme Sailing Series™ action today after both crews were forced to miss races yesterday with boat damage.

Thursday 9th March 2017

Land Rover BAR Academy and Team ENGIE are busting to get back into the Extreme Sailing Series™ action today after both crews were forced to miss races yesterday with boat damage.

Land Rover BAR Academy, the youth wing of Sir Ben Ainslie’s British America’s Cup challengers, were forced to sit out of the opening three races of Act 1 due to a problem with their support RIB.

Their quest to recover from the setback suffered a further blow when a start line collision with wildcard Team ENGIE in the final race saw the bowsprit on their GC32 catamaran damaged, threatening the stability of their mast.

Team ENGIE didn’t escape unscathed either – they were left with a small hole in one of their hulls – and both boats were towed back to Muscat’s Al Mouj Marina from the race course off Muscat’s old town of Muttrah.

The respective shore crews then began work to ensure the teams would be back in action when round two of racing starts today.

With both boats back up to full strength they were craned back into the water this morning.

Land Rover BAR Academy skipper Rob Bunce, who led the team to a seventh-place finish at last week’s GC32 Championship, said his young crew will be looking to rediscover their form today.

“Yesterday was a pretty big day out for us,” he said. “To get to the race course we had to motor for an hour towing the race boat behind our support RIB. Halfway there we had some mechanical problems with our RIB which meant we ended up getting to the race course a bit late.

“We had to miss the first three races but got into the action in the fourth race of the day. We were a little rusty but we got a couple of good results so we were happy. Unfortunately in the final race we had a situation at the start with Team ENGIE that ripped our bowsprit off. Thankfully our rig didn’t come down and the team immediately adopted all our safety protocols. We secured the rig quickly and were able to tow the boat home safely, and it was fixed up overnight.

“We placed some really good results last week in the GC32 Championship with some podium finishes. We want to be back at the end of that level by the end of the event.”

Despite their opening day difficulties, Team ENGIE skipper Sébastien Rogues said his crew were itching to get back out on the race course after making their Extreme Sailing Series debut.

“Yesterday was just amazing,” Rogues said. “It was our first time racing in the Extreme Sailing Series and it really showed us the level that we need to be competing at.

“The racing is much different to the GC32 Racing Tour – much shorter courses with very little time between races. We loved it. It was a great experience for us, and just what we need to up our level.

“Unfortunately we had a small crash with Land Rover BAR Academy and ended up with a small hole in the hull but our technical team did a great job to fix it overnight and this morning the boat is looking perfect again.”