The Extreme Sailing Series Qingdao Stop which is one of the top four special events of ISAF was held from May 2nd to 5th. 8 top international sailing teams and 40 international professional sailors have competed at Fushan Bay. During the competition, many Qingdao citizens and tourists came to Qingdao Olympic Sailing Center vicinity to experience the thrills and charm of the “Sea F1”.

The British OC Company launched the extreme sailing series in 2007. The events integrate speed, adventure and technology in one. Inshore race provides spectators with stadium-style watching experience, thus the events is known as the "Sea F1”, together with America's Cup, Volvo Ocean Race and World Match Racing Tour, they make up of the top four special events of ISAF.

Extreme Sailing Series is generally held in tourist cities with world landmark or cities with sailing culture and history. It was held in Qingdao in April 2011 for the first time, up to now it has been held in Qingdao for three consecutive years.

The 2013 Extreme Sailing Series sets up 8 stops and they are Muscat in Oman, Singapore, Qingdao in China, Istar Boolean in Turkey, Bordeaux in Portugal, Cardiff in UK, Nice in France and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil respectively. 8 sailing teams including the Alinghi, GACPindar, Real Team, Red Bull, SAP, Wave Muscat, South Korea and Team China participated in the competition held in Qingdao. Among the 8 teams, the most notable team was undoubtedly Team China. Team China is headed by Mitch Booth from Australia; the 4 crews are all Chinese. Captain Booth is a legend in the international sailing world, he had participated in Olympic Sailing Regatta for 5 times and won 2 silver medals and 1 bronze medal, he had won 11 world champions in his career. Besides Team China, Red Bull team may also be popular with Qingdao sailing enthusiasts, after all, "Red Bull" is the chief sponsor of Guo Chuan, who has just finished his solo, nonstop sail around the globe and the mainsail of "Qingdao" boat is printed with huge logo “Red Bull". Red Bull team is made up of Roman Hagara and Hans Sitannache, gold medal winners of Olympic Sailing Regatta for twice. This is the sixth time for them to participate in competition in Qingdao including 2008 Olympic sailing competition.

The events in the Qingdao stop lasted for 4 days and six competitions were held from 13:00 to 16:00 from May 2 to 5. A special program of the Extreme Sailing Series was the fifth person, who refers to an amateur sailor working as an auxiliary crew in addition to the professional athletes on each vessel. The special program aimed at increasing participation in the race and deepening understanding of sailing. Qingdao stop selected 18 “the fifth person” this time.

The annual Extreme Sailing Series Qingdao stop is a festival which focuses on sailboat. This year, the Organizing Committee of Qingdao stop also planned a series of cultural and sports activities which include offshore motorboat performance, OP Sailing performance, exchanges between star crew and students from sailing featured schools to create a new interaction model among international competitions, Qingdao elements and visitors. (Sun Fei)