The testing Test Event

Chinese resident of the last seven years, Alistair Skinner gives his impressions of Qingdao

Sadly the first thing that hits you as you enter the Qingdao Olympic Marina and pass through the metal detector, as our camera slides through the X-Ray machine beside you, is the level of security necessary at a global gathering such as the Olympic regatta. This is heightened as you walk past a Qingdao SWAT vehicle - and be in no doubt they can do exactly as it 'says on the tin'.

Not that I am being critical, as having lived and worked in China for almost seven years, and despite the snipes from the west about human rights, no where is that most basic human right of feeling and being safe stronger than here.

In contrast to the security ‘cordon’ the smiles and willingness to help from the volunteers was a welcome reminder that the Olympics are supposed to be - and indeed are - a celebration of sport.

My accreditation had been held up in Beijing, something to do with the photo, perhaps they didn’t believe that anyone could be that ugly, so I was asked to wait “not many minutes”. My correction to wait a ‘few minutes’ was met with a smile and genuine thanks for my help and sure enough I was free to proceed.

To say that Chinese people are not behind these games would be an inaccurate statement as the volunteer numbers are oversubscribed something like seven times and even when I was told I couldn’t enter the competitor’s area until after a certain time it was softened with a gentle sorry.

Qingdao isn’t saddled with Beiing’s pollution of which CNN delighted in highlighting the other week. Being a coastal city with prevailing onshore winds the air is clean, even though it doesn’t move around at much more than 2-3 knots according to my trusted Silva so that the most noticeable feature in the Olympic Marina on Saturday were the Answering Pennants flying from the flag staff in the middle of the marina.

However I am glad to report that on Sunday I was not sitting in windless Qingdao - almost but not quite.





I have to echo some of the criticisms aimed at the organisation on TheDailySail the other day as sitting the media centre having watched the first 49er sail into the harbour an hour ago we have only just seen the updated overall results posted. Currently Morrison & Rhodes are lying in seventh overall. From watching them today it would seem their downwind speed is a little a little off the pace as they relinquished three places down the final leg in today’s final race.

A long time ago one of the UK’s top sailors said that any fool can make a boat go fast when there's a lot of wind, the real test is when it is light. Well here in Qingdao that sentiment seems to being borne out.

Pre-regatta fears of it being somewhat of a lottery seem unfounded with the Skandia Team GBR, true to the form book, currently posting some good results.

Of particular note is of course Mr Ainslie who, after yet another year driving a boat where he could have parked his Finn on the foredeck, seems to have lost none of his magic touch in what can only be described as 'testing conditions out on the water posting two firsts and two seconds in the our races so far..

The one thing truly missing from this regatta is the wind, with comments from some competitors like “The wind was pretty good for Qingdao”, attributed to Ben Ainslie after the racing a couple of days ago. This is certainly a fair comment given that the halfway point in the regatta is approaching and already a couple of days have been lost to no wind and on the days there was racing the wind never got anywhere near double figures in knots. Sadly the forecast promises more of the same.

Yes, the organisers have challenges, a steep learning curve and sometimes the translations are not 100% accurate, but you certainly have to give the Chinese an ‘A’ for effort and a similar mark for trying to get it right. Many people forget that a ‘Test’ event isn’t just for the competitors, it is also for the organisers to practice and to discover where they need to improve.

Will they make it?

Well I know some of these organisers and National Technical Officers personally. They know what is at stake and they know what still needs to be done so I wouldn’t bet against them.