The UK leg of the world's most exciting inshore racing series, the Extreme 40 catamarans arrived in Cardiff Bay yesterday for four days of racing.
The event will feature the very best sailors from the world of extreme sailing as well as Welsh Olympic silver medallist, Hannah Mills from Cardiff and windsurfing silver medallist, Nick Dempsey.
Now in its sixth year the adrenaline-fuelled global series has given the sport of sailing a new lease of life combining fast, state-of-the-art multihulls with demanding races and world class skippers.
Extreme 40 catamarans from nine countries will be raced by some of the world's finest sailors including Olympians, America's Cup veterans, Round the World yachtsmen and World Champions along with a Team Wales wildcard entry, taking part to inspire future champions.
The series is designed with spectators in mind with plenty of spectacular high speed crashes, capsizes and near misses, all close to shore.
The race series was the brainchild of Olympic champions Yves Loday and Mitch Booth, who wanted to provide the international sailing arena with a 'visually stunning and 100% performance-focused multihull.'
The Extreme 40 is a scaled-up version of the Olympic Class Catamaran Tornado with relatively similar dimensions but twice as big and incredibly fast.
The catamarans are built for speed and even in medium winds, are capable of reaching speeds normally associated with speedboats.
The global sailing series attracts huge audiences around the world and this year is the first year that Cardiff will host during the UK leg.
The competition forms part of the Cardiff Bay Festival and Cabinet Member for Sport, Culture and Leisure, Cllr. Huw Thomas, said: "This is the Welsh debut for Extreme 40 and is exactly the kind of high calibre event we are consistently attracting to the capital."
Olympic silver medallist and one half of the successful British 470 women's duo, Hannah Mills will be flying the Welsh flag as part of Team Wales.
Hannah said: "It will be awesome to return to my hometown as an Olympic medallist and race on the Extreme 40 catamarans, a completely new experience for me."
The Team Wales boat will be skippered by one of Wales' most talented young sailors, Dave Evans from Cardiff. At 26 years old is the youngest competing skipper but experience is everything.
Dave said "We narrowly missed out on selection for the Olympics in Weymouth, so it's great to be given a chance to do a big event this summer, and on home waters it will be great to show friends and family what sailing looks like on their doorstep."
Joining the skipper and Hannah will be Ed Powys, a Team GBR 49er sailor and Anglesey born sailor Tudur Owen who both have valuable regatta winning experience.
Rising Australian sailing star Torvar Mirsky, returns to the Extreme Sailing Series after his 2011 debut, at the helm of the Welsh boat.
I was lucky enough to get on board the Team Wales boat and race with the crew yesterday. I say race, I was lying on the netting, falling into various positions whilst the young but incredibly professional crew shouted instructions at me.
The speed and rapid acceleration of the boats was incredible not to mention the feeling of weightlessness as the hull rises up at an acute angle on one side. When speedboats can't keep up, you know you're going fast!
The racing finishes on Sunday, 2 September and I'd urge anyone with a passing interest in sailing to go down and take a look. The Harbour Festival is on all weekend too and the sun will be shining with highs of 21 degrees on Sunday.
You can see the photos I took yesterday in a News online gallery.