Extreme Sailor Ed Smyth Stops off in Cardiff

New Zealander Ed Smyth (pictured centre) and Australian James Wierzbowski from the Extreme Sailing Series team Oman Air were in Cardiff recently on a leg of the regatta where they took time to talk to TNT Magazine.

“I was born in Melbourne and grew up in New Zealand but I call myself a New Zealander,” Smyth, the team’s headsail trimmer, begins, before explaining what the Extreme Sailing Series is all about.

“I’ll use the cliché: it’s Formula One on the water I guess, so Formula One racing but with sail boats so it’s crash and burn, high intensity and a great spectacle for people to come and watch,” he says.

“My background as a sailor was fundamentally Skiff sailing as a junior and Olympic class sailing. Then I went into the America’s Cup, which when I did it was in a monohull boat. When they changed to the multihull boats I had to re-skill and I had the opportunity to join the Oman Sail group with The Wave, Muscat in 2012 and that opportunity was through Peter Greenhalgh, our mainsheet trimmer, who I knew personally and raced against when I was doing the Olympics sailing, so that’s how I got to where I am today.”

Oman Air is currently leading the standings this season.

Original article by James Clark, TNT Magazine, August 10, 2016.