Leigh McMillan wins Extreme Sailing Series regatta in Oman

An “exceptional day” and an exceptional final, double points scoring race gave British Olympian Leigh McMillan and his local The Wave team a last gasp win in the opening regatta of the 2013 Extreme Sailing Series in Oman.

He beat by just six points, 232 to 226, the Red Bull Team, skippered by Austrian Olympic gold medallist Roman Hagara, which had led for most of the four days.

In third place was America’s Cup winner Ernesto Bertarelli, racing under the Alinghi banner and who is also giving serious consideration to expanding his sailing horizons to the Volvo round the world race, which starts from Alicante late next year.

In the West Indies, Simonas Steponavicius has also announced that he intends to enter a Lithuanian entry in the Volvo next year.

Entries already announced are an all-woman crew for Swedish challenger SCA, a Brazilian team from Recife, and a repeat appearance of an Abu Dhabi crew skippered by British double Olympic silver medallist Ian Walker.