Big Day for China Team

Well we might have survived unscathed we will know in a couple of days; yesterday was the first scheduled day for Equipment Control - the measurement of the equipment, boats and boards, that will be used in the eleven events of the 2008 Olympic Sailing Regatta. China had drawn the short straw with 8 of the possible 11 classes being measured on Saturday - I think the Organising Authority decided to practice on the home team!

The day began at 08:00 with the primary (first ever) measurement of our number one Yngling spinnaker (events with spinnakers - Yngling, 470 Men/Women, 49er, and Tornado - can have two spinnakers 'controlled' with the second going into safe-keeping with the Olympic Measurement Committee and only used if the first one gets damaged) which had just been delivered hot from the sail maker in America thanks to the USA sailing team who brought it with them. Then at 09:30 all the classes started their measurement.

Things went from bad to worse; the 470 Women's boat measured light and then the Yngling measurer couldn't find the Template Reference Points on the Yngling, and then after spending hours putting the 'additional identification' on the sails we were told we would have to re-do them all as the wrong material had been supplied! The 'additional identification' at the Olympics includes a country flag, national letter codes (like GBR, CHN, ESP) and the name of the competitor/s sailing the boat/board. In Athens, 2004, this worked really well with the materials coming from a UK-based graphics company - who specialise in marine grade quality. The Beijing organising authority, BOCOG, in their wisdom, chose the 'save' money by having the materials produced locally. Unfortunately the company they used did not understand the difference between the marine environment and their normal product range and produced the sail stickers in vinyl instead of Dacron (sail cloth). Vinyl doesn't stay stuck to sails!

And, the stickers on the hulls of all the boats may not be of the right grade either. The glue needs to be a special one designed to be immersed and not dissolve. So we might end up with all the stickers coming off - actually if they come all the way off then that's okay, its when they come off half way and cause additional friction and drag.

Cheap is, as the organisers are finding out, sometimes expensive! They have now just placed an order with the 2004 company at 'express' prices which will be more than the amount they would have paid the first time around if they had gone to the specialist firm in the first place ......... another lesson for 2012.