Women's keelboat showdown

We look at the Yngling class and check out who the major players will be over the next few days in Qingdao

The Yngling was introduced to the Olympic Games for 2004 as the Women’s keelboat equipment. The boat is regularly criticised for being a little dull to sail or watch sailing as well as for attracting small numbers to events. However, this year a very strong fleet of contenders must make people sit up and take notice of what can be viewed as the Star for women.

While it was only selected recently, the Yngling is relatively old, a design by Jan Linge from Norway for his son in 1967 – the word Yngling actually means ‘youngster’. At the time, the Soling was extremely popular and was being used as an Olympic class and as such the Yngling has got a reputation as a scaled-down Soling. This is not the case though as the design alters in a number of ways, with more beam and higher freeboard for example. This reputation is not entirely amiss though as the boat was designed in part a small sistership to the Soling. By coincidence the year the Yngling was selected for the Olympic Games was also the one when the Soling was removed.

Typically the three sailors in a Yngling will be of very different builds, with the middle person the biggest and required to do much of the ’grunt’ work such as spinnaker trim downwind and provides the most righting moment upwind. The bow person tends to be very small but is by a long way the busiest of the three sailors. They are charged with controlling the jib upwind as well as launching and retrieving the spinnaker and handling the spinnaker pole downwind. Finally the helm has a relatively easy life sticking with the tiller and the main both up and downwind.

At the last Olympic Games the selection of equipment by various teams was not very broad and this is likely to be similar in Qingdao. Doyle Sails and North Sails are still the two most popular choices, with Doyle edging ahead slightly in popularity. For the most part these sails are still being set on a Proctor mast though some teams have been using Selden as well.



Hull-wise there is slightly more variety in those being used. Principally the most popular hull remains the Canadian-built Abbott but the slightly stiffer Danish Borrenson is also widely used. Several teams have recently been using a UK-built Petticrow hull, including current Skandia Team GBR’s World Champions, Ayton, Webb and Wilson. This hull is said to be slightly better for light wind performance so it will be interesting to see how the various hulls get on in Qingdao.

In terms of how the Yngling will performance in China, due to it being a keelboat it takes a long time to get up to speed in the expected light winds expected off Qingdao. Due to this many of the teams will have been working hard on manoeuvres as one messed up spinnaker hoist is certain to lose a team a lot of distance on the race track. In addition there is likely to be very little physical pumping and such going on as the boat does not really react to this. Downwind in these conditions it will all be about soaking as low as possible. Because of all these factors it is unlikely we will see many major place changes over the course of the regatta and it should be an event based on consistency.

In many classes the predicted light winds have seen crews slimming down in preparation for Qingdao. However, with a boat weighting in at 645kg and a crew weight limit of 205kg any crew dieting regimes will have less affect on performance than it does for the dinghy sailors. Because of this most crews have not really bothered to lose that much weight and have been concentrating harder on their boat handling.

Finally it is interesting to note just how competitive the – relatively small – Yngling fleet is going to be. Included in the list of competitors are two of the Gold medalists from the Yngling in Athens (Sarah Ayton and Sarah Webb), the Europe gold medalist from Athens (Siren Sundby) and the 470 gold medalist (Sofia Bekatorou). Also competing is the 2005 Laser Radial World Champion (Krystal Weir) and three separate Yngling World Champions. While the Yngling itself may not be a boat to set the world on fire, expect competition to be razor sharp.

Contenders:

Ayton Webb and Wilson (GBR):

Without any doubt this trio must be the favorites to take the gold medal in China. Sarah Ayton and Sarah Webb won the gold medal crewing in the Yngling for with Shirley Robertson in 2004. However, with Robertson starting a family Ayton took the helm and they teamed up with Pippa Wilson and new coach Paul Brotherton to create an extremely dominant team.

This season they have won the World and European Championships and also the Pre-Olympic Test Event in 2007. In the whole time the team has been together they have only been off the podium at two events, the Olympic Test Event in 2006, where they were fourth and the Rolex Miami OCR this year where thy were fifth. Within the ranks of Skandia Team GBR they are the most successful campaign second only to Ben Ainslie. It would be a genuine surprise if these three did not medal.



Barkow, Howe and Capozzi (USA):

The impressively consistent team of Sally Barkow, Carrie Howe and Debbie Capozzi (USA) will be right with the Brits throughout the competition. The Americans have been extremely successful over the last four years, and recently came second to Ayton Webb and Wilson at the European Championships. In 2005 they won the World Championships and were on the podium for the following two years and then finished in fourth this year.

However, over the course of the last two Olympic Test Events, Barkow, Howe and Capozzi have only managed a fourth and a fifth. They are also not quite as consistent as the Brits, occasionally finishing outside of the top five.



Mulder, Bes and Witteveen (NED):

This is a very hard team to work out. The Dutch Sailing Federation has been holding an odd trial system over the last three years whereby nine Yngling sailors – three helms, three middles and three bows - go to regattas mixing up who sails with whom. Finally they selected from these nine sailors one helm, one crew and one bow at the last possible opportunity. Whether this ‘x-factor’ approach to Olympic selection will pay off remains to be seen, but it certainly gives them the element of surprise.

Weir, Gojnich and Farrell (AUS):

Another interesting team to watch... At the end of last year Nicky Bethwaite was the Yngling helm for Gojnich and Farrell. However, she was involved in a very serious bicycle accident breaking both arms which meant she would be unable to attend the Olympics. 2005 Laser Radial World Champion, Krystal Weir had just missed out on selection for the Olympic Games in the women’s single hander and so was asked to step into the breach.

At the team’s first event, the Yngling World Championships earlier this year, they showed a promising start coming second, behind Ayton Webb and Wilson. However, since that time they have struggled a bit, finishing 11th at the Europeans and 14th at Hyeres regatta.

Song, Yu and Li (CHN)

The local team of Xiaqun Song, Xiaoni Li and Yanli Yu were third at the 2006 Test Event and followed this the next year with a sixth. Since then the team have struggled only managing a 22nd position at the Worlds in Cascais and a 20th at the Worlds earlier this year. However, Song, Li and Yu train and live in Qingdao so are likely to be a major threat to the more established teams on their home waters.



Skudina, Krutskikh and Ivanova (RUS):

The 2007 European Champions rarely win events but are almost always in or around the top five. They were third at the Olympic Test Event last season so they have a solid record in Qingdao. Certainly the Russians have been significantly stronger in the last two years and the Yngling team will be hoping to secure a medal for Russia.