The Act 3 race of the ISAF Extreme Sailing Series opened in east China's coastal city Qingdao on Thursday.

The four-day event attracted 12 yacht teams from 10 countries and regions. More than 70 world top sailors will attend the race, and 13 of them are Olympic gold medalists, according to the local organizing committee.

"I have participated in many races in Qingdao, and everything here is familiar. I hope the wind will be stronger in the coming four days to make the race more exciting," said Roman Hagara, skipper of the Red Bull Sailing Team from Austria.

Ben Ainslie, skipper of the J.P. Morgan Bar Team, who won an Olympic gold medal in 2008 in Qingdao, said: "It feels great to come back to Qingdao. People here can enjoy the extreme sailing events on the shore. I hope we could bring a lot of fun to them."

The Extreme Sailing Series had already held events in Singapore, Muscat of Oman, and will visit Russia, Britain, Turkey and Australia after the China race.

Qingdao, the venue of sailing events of 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, has hosted top sailing events, such as Volvo Ocean Race, Clipper Round the World Race and America's Cup.

This is the fourth time that The ISAF Extreme Sailing Series visited Qingdao, and China has a representative yacht team, Extreme Qingdao, in the 2014 event.

The ISAF Extreme Sailing Series, launched in 2007, was listed as one of the top four events of the ISAF.