Extreme 40 Basilica took the lead after day one of racing at the iShares Cup, Munich. Ending the day with a perfect score with four wins, the British team, helmed by Robert Greenhalgh, became the team to beat on Lake Starnberg. The six-boat Extreme 40 fleet got four races out of five away on the first racing day, in only 2-3 knots with a maximum of five. Built super-light, these 40ft catamarans can get up speed in light airs. If luck was indeed the key to success, then Basilica had buckets of it. The team was met with applause from spectators as they completed their final race of the day, securing their Mumm Champagne moment at the prizegiving. Scoring four straight wins gave them 40-points and a seven point lead ahead of second-place Tommy Hilfiger who also found the benefit of being consistent and continually chased down Basilica out on the racetrack. A great start for the team who only took delivery of their new boat last week.
Great Britain's Robert Greenhalgh helmed his Extreme 40 Basilica, crewed by Peter Greenhalgh, Justin Slattery and James Grant, to victory on the second racing day on Lake Starnberg in the first event of the iShares Cup Extreme 40 season. It went to the wire with the final race proving the decider. Greenhalgh kept his cool even after scoring a last place in the penultimate race and kept Jean-Christophe Mourniac's Volvo Ocean Race Extreme 40 at bay. The Brits topped the scoreboard of the three-day competition, that saw the maximum number of 15 races sailed and 25,000 spectators viewing the action. The race committee rescheduled racing on the final day to attempt to fit in nine races to reach the maximum 15 races allowed for each iShares Cup event. The six-boat fleet started at 09:00 local time in a moderate breeze although the wind varied in speed and direction throughout the day from 2 knots to the occasional hull-flying 8 knots. The next iShares Cup Extreme 40 event will be held in Marseille from 7-9 July but before then some of the fleet will head to Lake Geneva to compete in one of Europe's largest endurance races, the 82-mile Bol d'Or Mirabaud.
