Sailing Chat

Congratulations to both Iain Percy and Bryony Shaw, not just for their medal winning performances but also for being the only members of the GB team to swear live on the BBC ! See a great interview with the gold winning Star crew on the BBC website.  The Games have seen Team GBR far exceed their target of four medals, one of which was to be Gold, with four Golds in the Star, Yngling, Finn and Laser, Silver in the mens 470 and Bronze in the womens RS-X. The meeting with the BOC to agree medal targets for London 2012 should be an interesting one…

Huge congratulations to Paul Goodison, who continues Team GBRs stellar Olympics with Gold in the Laser class. Living in the UK and being a sailor, its easy to get carried away in the excitement of our sailors achievements, but I have to say that I think ISAF needs to take a long hard look at the attractiveness of the Olympic regatta to people outside of the sport. The choice of Qingdao was controversial from the start and as events unfolded, its become plain that if the olympic committee had scoured the world for a worse venue in terms of conditions, they’d have been hard pressed to find one. The vast majority of the regatta for all classes has taken place in the lightest of airs and, with the exception of the incident packed 49er medal event, I struggle to think of a single race that would have been anything other than dull as dishwater to watch for an impartial non sailor.

I also think its time to look at the Olympic classes if we’re to make the sport more interesting for the general public. As things stand, the 49er is the only Olympic boat that could be described as “modern”, we’ll have no multihulls from 2012 onwards and whilst the Star is still the pinnacle of technical small keelboat sailing, the relevance and accessibility of the class to the average sailor, never mind anyone else is dubious to say the least. And lets not even mention the Yngling that the women are forced to sail… The danger of reducing the importance of the tactical skills that classes such as these, the 470 and the Finn involve by replacing them with more modern designs is something that needs to be borne in mind, but surely we need to make the sport more tele and photo genic if its to gain real growth on the back of the games. How about Ainslie in a foiling Moth and the mens keelboat event in Melges 24s in 2012 ?!

Day 3 of the Olympic sailing regatta and the Finn, 49er and Yngling classes are all 6 races in. So far, the conditions have been pretty much as feared, with results fluctuating accordingly. At the time of writing though, Team GBR are in gold medal positions with both Ben Ainslie in the Finn (engaged in a nip and tuck overall battle with American Zach Railey) and the so far fairly imperious looking Yngling team of Ayton, Wilson and Webb. The Laser and Laser Radials start tomorrow (Tuesday) with the Star and Tornado sailors having to wait until Friday. For up to date results and a live commentary, check out the ISAF website here.

With the Olympics rapidly approaching, sailing seems to be getting increasing levels of media coverage.  Probably because, much like cycling and rowing, Team GBR sailing delivers medal results consistently and efficiently, particularly when compared to better funded and higher profile sports like track and field.  The BBC website has a nice video interview with Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes, Team GBRs 49er representatives for Beijing.