Reflections ...... coming soon

Just got back to Beaumaris, bit of a culture shock! Have been writing a lot about my experiences in China. Will add entries over the next few days .............

1st Daimen Match Race, Berlin, Germany

After the excitement of the Extreme 40s at the iShares Cup in Kiel last weekend it was a pleasure to get back to - relatively - a more baisc form of our sport. The VSaW, a wonderfully traditional sailing club on the shores of the Wansee lake, south-west of Berlin city centre, was the host of this brand new match racing event for women. Using four chartered Skippi 650s we had two days of match racing in light but eventful conditions. The best lake sailing has to offer; lots of pressure variation and numerous shifts to keep all the crews busy and tacticians earning their titles!


The club hope it will be the begining of something special - its counter-part the Berlin Match Race will hold its 16th edition this Autumn. This year they plan to have both an ISAF Grade 1 Open event as well as an ISAF Grade 1 Women's event. It will be a joint effort by two of the main clubs on the Wansee, VSaW and the Berlin Yacht Club.



There was much discussion in the evenings about the proposed women's match race event in the 2012 Olympic Sailing Games, and plenty of speculation about boats, formats, and qualifying structures. Hope it all gets sorted at the ISAF Annual Meeting in November, Madrid, ESP.

More 'extreme' than '40' at iShares Cup, Kiel, GER

Kiel, GER, hosted the latest edition of the iShares Cup featuring the Extreme 40 class. These boats, the race format, the Field of Play location, and the style of rule adjudication all add up to a fantastic presentation of our sport. What a great job Offshore Challange Events, OC Events, has done to show what the very best our sport has to offer.

More than 80,000 people came to watch over the three days of racing held just off the Kiel habour area in the inner fjord. Of course things had to be well timed; the ferries and commercial shipping couldn't be stopped but with short-course racing it was relatively easy to meet everyone's needs. And the ferry boat customers got a very close view of the action!

The commentators kept the crowds well informed and motivated, and when we did have a break in the racing - to re-lay the course - they organised 'fly-pasts' to trill the crowds - the biggest applause going to the boat flying the windward hull highest (one almost capsized which would have been a great talking point for the winter months!).

It was tough going for the umpires - although there were only ten competing boats competing the rapid change of bat speed meant that even if things settled down after the first top mark pressure points could easily develop at any stage of the race, and usually did! Hard work but great fun too.

Off to umpire 'normal' match racing next, in Berlin, GER ............

Its all over, roll on 2012!

Does sailing have a future as an Olympic sport?

Whilst sailing has been an Olympic sport for the past 100 years it is unlikely that unless we resolve the 'problems' with the presentation of our sport that it will enjoy another hundred years! I am sure all sports say they are 'different' and need 'special' treatment, but sailing does have some unique sports management qualities - to say the least!

There are no other sports where so many athletes are competiting at one time on the same course and who can influence each others' performance to such a high degree. Thus we have a fairly complex set of rules, procedures, policies and interpritations to govern those interactions.

The Racing Rules of Sailing are only one aspect of these 'rules'. Most competitors and officials would agree that the 'boat-to-boat' aspects of the rules are quite understandingable, stable, and well applied (particularly when racing is umpired!) - at least until the new rules for 2009-2012 are published!

What does seem to be letting our sport down at the moment is the interralationship between the various other rules; Measurement Regulation, class rules, Sailing Instructions, Notice of Race, Coach Boat Regulations, Rule 51 (of the Olympic Charter), Equipment Rules of Sailing, and the rest of the 21 documents that govern this event in one way or another. The result is that in the main, may be, most situations are understandable by the expereinced few but totally unintelligible for the majority of the public, our ultimate 'sponsors'.

We end up having situations; where there are two boats placed first in a race, where one country's athletes are competing in another country's boat (or equipment in Olympic terminology), where the additional identification - national flags, decals, and country letters - fall off or ruin years of sail development work because its the wrong material, where boats are reaching into so called 'windward' marks, where athletes and their support personnel spend three days rubbing down equipment because of faults in the manufacturing, where the data available to the media on mark roundings is inaccurate and misleading, where the top sports media from around the world are literally lost for words because of a lack of clarity of the situations, where competitors are disqualified because of minor infractions, .........

Yet the major inconsistencies in our sport are left untackled; to use a curretly popular phrase, maybe we have an 'elephant in the room'? We have a lot to do in the next four years. The key question is; are those who govern our sport (and, being an ISAF International Judge and International Umpire, I include myself in that group) ready, willing and able to take on the challenge?

All over in Qingdao, bring it on Beijing!

Sparky, the team GB manager, enjoying the post-event atmosphere at the organisers' cocktail party. We then went on to the local stadium for a full-on Closing Ceremony for the Sailing Olympics.

Qingdao has taken the Olympic and Paralympic sailing events to its heart - its incredible what support every, literally every, body has worked so hard; whether its picking up sea weed, volunteering, planting flowers, or cleaning streets, everyone in Qingdao has helped to make the events a success.

Its a privilege to be here to witness it .......... Weymouth, bring it on.

The show moves on .......

All the 'supplied equipment', RS:Xs and Lasers (Standard & Radial), is being packed up ready for re-sale in China, probably. Seems strange we have supplied equipment - any sailor that is here, certainly in the top ten, have their own stuff here anyway! Still what do I know?

What will be the 'equipment' in 2012? We all have to wait till November for the ISAF Annual Meeting to decide. Seems strange that we have decisions so late into an Olympic cycle - those that want to succeed in our sport will have been training for longer than 3 years and 10 months. But then there are a lot of strange things in our sport ......

Well the fat lady has sung her last song here in Qingdao!

On a rain swept break-water at the entrance to the Olympic Sailing Venue here in Qingdao, China, Sparky checks that what we saw happen is confirmed; yes, its a fourth Gold Medal for team GB in sailing, fantastic! And it was a Medal Race worthy of the name, lots of possibilities and lots of place changes all keeping the wet - and increasingly cold - spectator on the edge of their (wet) seats.

It was good practice for Weymouth! More soon ......