Extreme Sailing Series heads to Almeria for Act 8 - Preview + Video

4:46 PM Tue 11 Oct 2011 GMT

'The teams on the dock this morning before heading out for training - Act 8, Almeria, Extreme Sailing Series 2011' Junta de Andaluc?a

Extreme Sailing Series? Act 8 is being held in Almeria, Spain from tomorrow 12th October 2011. The 11 Extreme 40 racing machines are ready to race.

The WebCam will be streaming coverage of the Stadium racing live during the event (see the schedule below).

Olympic gold sailor Anton Paz on Team Extreme - Act 8, Almeria, Extreme Sailing Series 2011 - Junta de Andaluc?a

Some of the teams have been out training today on the official practice day including the new multinational team, Team TILT, led by Swiss multihull specialist Alex Schneiter, three-time of the Bol d'Or. He may find some familiarity between his M2 multihull light-wind lake racing to the prevalent light winds in Almeria today. Also out training was Spanish Tornado Olympic medalist Ant?n Paz with Team Extreme. Paz won gold at the Beijing Olympics and will be a great asset to Roland Gaebler's team, a fellow Tornado Olympic bronze medalist.

Almeria has been the setting for the final over the last two years and many of the sailors know the venue well: 'This event has offered some pretty spectacular and very close racing particularly inside the harbour here,' said Leigh McMillan, skipper of The Wave, Muscat. 'With any kind of wind it can be full-on boat on boat battling. I think it's inevitable that we will get some full-on situations in the stadium racing.'

Team Extreme training on day 0 - Act 8, Almeria, Extreme Sailing Series 2011 - Junta de Andaluc?a

Tomorrow is a Spanish National Holiday and the Extreme 40 fleet will be racing inside the port of Almeria to give the local holidaying public a taste of the stadium action to come. Although there will not be stacks of breeze over the next couple of days, by the weekend a good gradiant breeze and some gusty conditions will have developed, squeezed out of a high pressure located over Central Europe and a low pressure system developing near Sicily and extending over Tunisia and eastern Algeria. Setting the stage for some great final 'stadium' racing over the weekend.

One boat that always gets noticed by the crowds is Red Bull Extreme Sailing, who finished seventh in Almeria in 2010, with the team displaying a stunning turn of speed in the breeze. For this Act, Matt Adams, coach to the team, returns as trimmer. A diverse sailing career spanning match racing, TP52s, Fastnet Race and Figaro racing, Adams knows the team well and will fit into their talents perfectly. You can also find out why his nickname is 'Little Boy Blue'! Watch the 'Nicknames' video below.