Leigh McMillan saws off his plaster cast

After suffering a broken hand three weeks ago while racing Oman Sail’s GC32, Sultanate of Oman, in Cowes, Leigh McMillan is back on the water and ready to defend his position at the top of the 2015 Extreme Sailing Series™ leaderboard.

Wednesday 22nd July 2015

After suffering a broken hand three weeks ago while racing Oman Sail’s GC32, Sultanate of Oman, in Cowes, Leigh McMillan is back on the water and ready to defend his position at the top of the 2015 Extreme Sailing Series™ leaderboard.

“I’ve broken the fourth metacarpal bone in my hand,” said McMillan over coffee this morning as he stretched out his fingers and rubbed the knuckle of his left hand. “I tripped over and hit my hand on the mainsheet block, contacting my knuckle and snapping the bone. It was pretty painful and a bit disappointing to miss two really good days sailing around the Isle of Wight,” added the helm of The Wave, Muscat.

Seeing photos of the Extreme 40 legend in a cast pop up on Facebook, the other teams in the fleet may be forgiven for thinking luck was on their side going into Act 5 in Hamburg, but McMillan is determined this will not be the case. “I had a cast for a day, but hacksawed it off because it wasn’t supposed to be on there. I got some good advice a couple of days later from an osteopath in Southampton. He gave me something that covers the area and keeps the bone in the right place to heel, which I’ll wear for a couple of weeks.”

This is good news for The Wave, Muscat crew who, at the mid-season mark, are looking for every marginal gain possible as SAP Extreme Sailing Team and Red Bull Sailing Team snap at their heals just two points adrift.

“Nearly four weeks later and it’s heeled quite well, the bone is still forming but its not clicking anymore and only hurts when I’m using it aggressively. I don’t think it will be a problem on the water, maybe just when there is a really high load pumping on the hydraulics if it’s windy, but on that one tack Pete (Greenhalgh) can jump in and help.”

When asked if he felt it might affect his performance on board, McMillan smiled: “I’m not worried about not being able to perform, but I suppose I never worry about that anyway,” he said laughing. That sounds like fighting talk to us.