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SAILING

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It is often said that hospitality at and around sailing events is amongst the best of any sport. SportsPro’s Tom Love decided the only way to test that theory was to spend two days in Nice immersing himself in the Extreme Sailing Series’ corporate experience.

By Tom Love

Day one – Thursday 18th October

Having touched down at Nice Cote d’Azur Airport in the dead of night – narrowly avoiding the stormy weather

that affected the travel plans of many Sportel Monaco goers this year – I looked forward to beginning day one of act seven in the Extreme Sailing Series amidst perfect weather conditions. Light winds, baking October sun and clear blue skies greeted guests as an assorted rabble of VIPs, media and local dignitaries congregated at the Nice event’s hospitality tent ahead of a speech by the city’s mayor

Christian Estrosi. Though my grasp of the French language has suffered since GCSEs, the sentiment of Estrosi’s words was received loud and clear: “This is the Extreme Sailing Series, and it’s exciting!”

Following a short but terrifying video of sailors being catapulted through the air in the aftermath of some particularly violent capsizes, the various teams’ international skippers were presented to the absolute crème de la crème of the national sporting press. The sailors themselves, all of a world class standard, are an eclectic assortment of characters, from Isle of Wight-born beach bum Leigh McMillan of the The Wave, Muscat, to grizzly sea captain types such as

Red Bull Sailing Team’s Roman Hagara.With the Q&A over, the race village

emptied as the crews and their support teams were ferried off to the technical area to make ready their ships. It was during this period of calm that I was introduced to Ole Egeblad, the commercial manner of SAP Extreme Sailing Team. A man with a manic enthusiasm for marketing, Egeblad spoke on a range of subjects from what makes the Extreme Sailing Series so special – it takes “the best from sailing, the best from speedway and the best from beach volleyball” – to the increasing crossover between sailing and cycling.

By this time the Extreme 40 boats were

Postcard from Nice

The picturesque Côte d’Azur coastline of Nice, along which the Extreme Sailing Series held its penultimate event of 2012 on 18th and 19th October

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now whizzing up and down the Nice shoreline, and so, post-chat, we in the media were whisked away to waterproof ourselves ahead of a hell-for-leather rib ride trailing in the wake of the various teams as they scythed their way through the ocean at breakneck speed.

Unfortunately, the tranquillity of the morning had long been replaced by ominous skies, high winds and mountainous waves, and so it was with much reluctance on the part of the organisers that, for only the second time in the Extreme Sailing Series’ history, the weather would prove too extreme for sailing.

With no chance of racing in the latter parts of the afternoon, a select group of guests returned to their hotel rooms to prepare for a traditional Niçoise dinner in a local brasserie and a night of debauchery on the narrow streets of Nice’s old town.

Day Two – Friday 19th October

Morning came quickly and thirstily and with the excitement of the race rapidly approaching, the VIP village

was abuzz with linen-clad men and high-heeled women who strolled la Promenade des Anglais soaking up the atmosphere generated by OC Sport and its partners.

It was there, as I reclined on some Extreme Sailing Series-branded beanbags, that I interviewed OC Sport executive chairman Mark Turner at length – Turner giving his answers accompanied by the continual clink of wine glasses and the smooth sounds of Ibiza beach lounge classics.

Interview over and it was back to the technical area to join the Danish crew of SAP Extreme Sailing Team on the water as they warmed up for the fi rst race the day. After some brief introductions where one of the Danes revealed a completely understandable fear of sharks – “it doesn’t matter where you are, even in Cardiff, if you fall in the water you’re always a little nervous about what’s beneath you” – ‘we’ trimmed the mainsheet and set sail.

Earlier in the day Turner had described the fi fth man concept as “like hanging in the scrum in an England versus France rugby game.” An apt simile as it turned out. Serving as a guest sailor on an Extreme 40

catamaran is a full-throttle, money-can’t-buy experience but it’s certainly not for the faint-hearted. As a young and relatively mobile passenger, twenty minutes of getting in the way while at the same time clinging on for dear life was more than enough time to know that I’ll never be an extreme sailor. Lord knows how podgy corporate VIPs get on.

However, take my words with a pinch of salt. Given the strength of the building wind I was to be the only fi fth man in Nice – OC Sport didn’t insist on handicapping the other teams for safety reasons – and as a whole, the glamorous location, good food and great service meant that one could want little more from a hospitality experience.

As for the competition itself, the afternoon’s racing was nothing short of spectacular. The roar of an engine fi nds its equivalent at an Extreme Sailing Series event in the gasps from the crowd and the excited yells of the commentary team as the boats jostle for position, while the elevated viewing area and obvious course design mean that the action is kept engaging throughout.

Th e weather intervened on day one, with racing cancelled for only the second time in

Extreme Sailing Series history, but the boats were back out the following day

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