What the skippers said…

After the 2015 skippers were presented to the national and international media of the 46th Boot Düsseldorf Boat Show on 20 January 2015, the world-class sailors spoke of their expectations for the season ahead as they enter the Stadium Racing tour.

Wednesday 21st January 2015

After the 2015 skippers were presented to the national and international media of the 46th Boot Düsseldorf Boat Show on 20 January 2015, the world-class sailors spoke of their expectations for the season ahead as they enter the global Stadium Racing tour, now entering its ninth season.

Sarah Ayton, sailor - The Wave, Muscat
“The Extreme Sailing Series, I believe, is one of best sailing Series around at the moment; 4 days of racing, 11 races a day, plenty of action, loads going on, stadium racing, it doesn’t really get much better.”

Lorenzo Bressani, skipper - Lino Sonego Team Italia
“For me to participate in the Extreme Sailing Series as skipper of Lino Sonego Team Italia is a great opportunity. The Extreme 40 circuit has long been one of the underlying events of international sailing, and one of the few circuits that allows professionals to express themselves racing with the best sailors in the world.“

Phil Robertson, helm – Gazprom Team Russia
“Gazprom Team Russia this year is going to be sailed with three Russians on board. The idea of the Gazprom programme right from day one has been to develop young Russian sailors. So our objective this year is to continue this first and then develop some realistic goals from there.

“The Series has come a long way in the last couple of years. The Series has become more competitive and the teams that have been around the longest are the hardest to beat. It is a Series where consistency pays so new teams will always struggle to find consistent results.

“Sailing in Saint Petersburg is one of the most amazing sailing experiences. You are in an iconic location that very few people get to sail in. For the us it is ideal to be on home waters and we will thrive in that location and put in 110% for our home crowd.”

Roman Hagara, skipper - Red Bull Sailing Team
“Our expectations are always quite high, I mean you always want to win. We were once on the podium but we still haven’t won an act, but that’s one of the goals, the other goal is to beat the other boats and be on the top of the podium this year.”

Rasmus Køstner, co-skipper - SAP Extreme Sailing Team

“We don’t take this challenge lightly, we are expecting 2015 to be quite a different year and we need to be ready off the starting block.”

“Any spectator, sailing fan or race crew member of the Series, can see that the combination of the short courses, high boat speeds, and the competitive talent on water means this Series provides a lot of action. Year on year we can see that the series innovates on every level. It’s heart-racing action, which demands on the edge split second decision-making. We’ll take nothing for granted this year. In this kind of sailing you cannot hide, and need to fight for every metre - everybody can win a race, but to get to the top of the leaderboard at the end of the year, you have to perform well in several hundred races. No other racing delivers like this.

“We’ve sailed in Germany a lot throughout our career and enjoy the challenges each venue brings. A big plus is the support for sailing in Germany, it’s huge, so winning over ever-faithful fans and new fans can’t hurt. With our partnership with SAP we are proud of the origins and history associated with Germany and their sailing fraternity and have experienced fantastic atmosphere at previous events.”

Ian Williams, co-skipper - GAC Pindar

“There are a lot of new teams on the circuit this year, so there is no real form guide, it’s sort of any body’s game.”

Stevie Morrison, skipper – Oman Air

“The boats are very fast, there is a real high quality of fleet, the racing is tight and a bit crazy, so if you can achieve success in this fleet it shows you can achieve success anywhere really.

“It’s very exciting to be competing this year, and to go in for a chance of winning will be great. There’s a lot of great sailors, and we have a great team with Oman Sail and Oman Air. Oman Sail has the vision for Oman to learn how to sail by 2020, so to see people in Oman getting out on the water and enjoying the sport that we love is great. Especially guys like Ali Al Balashi, and the guys on The Wave, Muscat, who are all apart of the Oman Sail programme - and even Nasser Al Mashari, who has won the Series before - it’s great. They’re sailing stars now, and they have done incredibly well.”