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 ......

Womens' Match Racing is Olympic 'demonstration' sport!

Well they only managed one race for the Finn and Yngling classes today. What a shame the schedule didn't allow for there to be races started after 16:00 - other than the 49er all classes stayed out late except the Finn and Yngling (need to change that rule for 2012!).

So the GBR and NED are going to 'match race' for the Yngling Gold Medal tomorrow. The USA team are close to loosing their grip on the Bronze and there are 7 other teams with Olympic Medal possibilities hoping they will. The umpires had better be limbering up they'll need to be on top form!

Tomorrow sees the first event Medal Race at an Olympics, and it will be interesting to see how well it is received. There are large crowds here every day. Seems that going to the Olympics is seen as a day-out for the family.

I hope to have a ring-side seat .........

What do you call a sailng event with no racing?

So, now there has been no wind for the last one and a half days. I guess this is when the pressure starts piling on for competitors and race officials alike.

All racing was cancelled here today. Now most classes (apart from the Star and Tornado, who were due to have their practice race today) are behind the racing schedule by at least two races, and it was all going so smoothly. The Pacific high is dominating the weather here is Qingdao.

The weather gurus standing around the Official Notice Boards - everyone has an opinion - were predicting everything from no wind to too much wind. Guess we will just have to wait and see.

What is certain is that the organisers are no 'on the back foot' as Charlie Cooke, the Chief Race Officer, would put it. I wonder, will Weymouth & Portland be any better ...... in August traditionally it can be quite windless as well, though not this week I hear!

On yer bike!

Well you could be mistaken for thinking I am at the biking part of the Olympics judging from this picture! The amazing sailing facilities at this venue are all quite well spread out, so the most effective mode of transport (other than the 'golf buggies' provided by the organisers) is to have your own bike.

Or course, as with everything, there is a pecking order; the 'top' teams have the best bikes which travel the world in the teams' containers from venue to venue, the next ranked 'bikers' are those who have bought local bikes which are full-size, with gears and all the accessories. The next lowest down rank (like me) have a bike bought locally for about 350 RMB, or about Euro 30.

Funny how markets work; the light I bought and brought with me - top quality design and all the functions you can cram into a few square centimeters of space - and use to keep me safe going home (it gets dark here about 19:00) cost about the same as the bike I have!

All eights: 08/08/08

With eight being an important number in Asian cultures BOCOG (Beijing Organising Committee of Games) is planning to formally open the Games at eight minutes past eight in the evening of the eighth day of the eighth month of the eighth year of the century. That time is in one and a half days time. Except the football has already begun (in women's' football CHN beat SWE 2:1) and the Yngling and Finn have their practice race tomorrow in Course Area A, just off the breakwater of this magnificent sailing centre.

The BBC are here in force - great to see them finally taking a serious interest in sailing! Shirley Robertson is here with Richard Simmonds doing the interviewing with APP (Andrew Preaces' company) doing the production. Which is just great.

The CHN team and the GBR team have been put next to each other in the boat park - or Athlete Preparation Area to IOC - and so we have a direct line of view of all the interviews. There is a 'mixing' zone between the dinghy ramps and the boat park - sorry, Athlete Preparation Area - which allows the media very close access to the competitors as they come off the water. But it also allows competitors to walk straight through, if they choose, without being followed into the Athlete Preparation Area.

The CHN team had their Press Conference this afternoon; lots of questions about expectations, of course. The team manager played them down, of course. Seriously though, Qingdao is a particularly tricky venue - anything can, and does, happen. So even the most favorable competitor should not 'count chickens', as they say ............

What I am certain of is that if the CHN team do at least reasonably well then the Earth will be their Oyster. They will get the kind of backing that even GBR would dream of and in 2012 ...... who knows.

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.