ALINGHI SOAR

sayheng@sph.com.sg

At the end of Day 2 of the Extreme Sailing Series at The Promontory@Marina Bay yesterday, Alinghi helm Morgan Larson was asked if he was enjoying the competition.

"Does it look like it," he deadpanned.

The 42-year-old American has every reason to be enjoying the first stop of the eight-leg global series.

The Swiss-flagged catamaran is sitting pretty at the top of the 12-boat fleet with 111 points, winning two races and finishing second in four others yesterday.

It could have been so different for Alinghi in Race 13, when Larson and Co. had to recover from the brink of a capsize.

He recalled: "Coming into today, we said we wouldn't push it as hard otherwise we'd end up in the water.

"But early on, we got lifted right up on one hull, and we just thought, 'If we were to go any further we're definitely going to tip over'.

"Things were definitely smiling in our favour today."

Alinghi was not the only team to put in a strong performance.

Defending champions The Wave, Muscat shot up from ninth to third after winning three races and posting one second and third.

They are now on 84 points, six off second-placed Emirates Team New Zealand.

Skipper Leigh McMillan said: "We really had one bad race... in this strong fleet we made a jump on a lot of teams and we are pretty happy with our results today."

While the form guide may favour a straight-up tussle between Alinghi and The Wave, Muscat for glory in Singapore, Larson is not taking anything for granted with days to go.

He said: "The way things are lining up now, it's going to be a good fight. Tomorrow is another day and it's pretty easy to get a string of really bad races but, luckily, I am with a group of sailors who are mentally strong enough to overcome that.

"We will take our chances."

The leaders cannot discount Realstone, who finished Day 1 on top of the leaderboard but were forced to retire late yesterday after a collision with Oman Air.

The Swiss team slid to fifth on 81 points.

Realstone skipper Jerome Clerc said: "Oman Air tried to bear away behind us... (but they) didn't achieve the manoeuvre and hit us at the back of the boat."

"They smashed into the rudder and created a big hole, we started sinking but we pushed ourselves to finish that race," added the Swiss, whose team missed the last two races yesterday.

Clerc's shore crew will race against time to fix the damage to their steering system and aims to be back in the water.

Asked if the team could still finish on the podium tomorrow after the setback, Clerc said: "After the redress, I don't think we will lose that many points.

"We are still in the game."