Olympics

As the summer heats up I have started to gear up for the Games!  Here at Sailogs.com you will be able to find updates from US sailors Andrew Campbell (Laser), Team MB (Men’s 470), Nick Scandone (SKUD) and hopefully others.

Also, we’ve refreshed the look of the site to get in the Olympic spirit!  The NBC Sports widget in the sidebar is a nice way to get the latest updates (I can’t figure out how to get the drop-down to default to sailing).

Speaking of which, NBC Sports has a great collection of news and videos and the official Beijing 2008 site has the sport-by-sport schedule posted.  Sailing will run from August 9th all the way to the end of the Games on August 24.  Everyone expects the light wind and delays to use up all of the lay-days and scheduled off-days.

Check back soon for more updates!

Original post by kward and software by Elliott Back

Why is it that the recent decision by ISAF to drop multihulls as a sailing event in the 2012 Olympic Games has produced an outcry of complaints that a bunch of idiots are ruining the Games, that it will reduce the spectator interest in the Games, and that it will be bad for the sport of sailing…

While at the same time the likelihood that the next America’s Cup may well be a match between two multihulls has produced an outcry of complaints that a couple of idiots are ruining the Cup, that it will reduce spectator interest in the Cup, and that it will be bad for the sport of sailing?

Original post by Tillerman and software by Elliott Back

The cat is dead.

The ISAF Council has decided that the 10 sailing events for the 2012 Olympics will not include a catamaran. I’m sure there will be a huge outcry from the catamaran sailing community.

I really don’t care.

The cat is dead.

Original post by Tillerman and software by Elliott Back

Enough about me. The US Olympic Selection Trials for Lasers and Laser Radials are under way at Third Beach Newport and several of the contestants are blogging about their experiences. So check out the following sites for some news of top class Laser sailing by real Laser sailors.

In the Laser fleet Brian Raney is in 30th place after ten races.

The first race I got flushed off the start. I tried keeping up with the shifts, but it was tough. I just wasn’t comfy hiking out. I wasn’t working through the chop well. I was deep at the top mark. We were raciing the inner trap. My run was adequate but nothing special. My second beat was another challenge. I finally got passed on the last run to end up DFL. Sad.

Brian you are a winner just by making it to the Trials. Don’t lose heart.

Marc Jacobi is currently in 17th place. Hmmm. Just below the mid-point. I know that feeling. Marc, by the way, is one of the most friendly and helpful Laser sailors on the circuit, always ready to pass on tips and advice to back-of-the-fleet duffers like me. He may be middle of the fleet in the rankings but one day at the Trials he led the fleet at the first mark in both races. Wow!

new day, new wind direction and racecourse, this time at the mouth of the river where it meets the atlantic ocean. big swells and lots of wind to start–very similar conditions to what i sailed in a month ago in the same spot during a masters event. armed with that prior knowledge, and backed by observations i made before the race, i had great confidence in my game plan: start at the committee boat, tack right away, and get to the right hand corner.

confidence helps at these times, because in a good fleet it’s easy to second-guess oneself, or assume other sailors might know more. it was a bit nerve-wracking to take that tack away from the fleet after a great start at the boat, but in a few short minutes it was obvious that things were looking good. to be conservative i tacked before getting all the way to the right hand corner for the long sail back to the middle of the course. was my research and action plan correct? or would i have the fleet pass in front and take my air?

i knew if the wind held i’d be near the front. as i neared the mark i was sailing faster than the boats below me, and things were really starting to look good. i tacked to get back to the right, taking the wind of front-runner clay johnson and forcing him to tack back. i called the tack back to the mark perfectly and rounded the top mark in first, with a healthy 10 boatlength lead!

managed to extend the lead a bit on the first reach, but top sailors andrew campbell and clay johnson reeled me in on the run, sailing incredibly fast in the big waves. i stayed even on the next upwind leg, and held off regatta-leader brad funk on the run and reach to the finish to score a third!

the next race started in less wind but from the same direction, and my strategy remained the same. got another start right at the boat and tacked immediately, and once again led the fleet to the first mark–what a rush! once again held the lead to the next mark, and once again got passed by campbell and this time funk and emory wager on the run. the breeze really started to back off, allowing the four of us to extend away from the rest of the fleet to finish in that order. how cool to get two top-5 results at the olympic trials!

ok, i’m sore and it’s getting late. time to stretch, take a nice shower and hit the hay.

Andrew Campbell is in second place after ten races but definitely in contention for the single US Laser Olympic slot. Of course, I’ve written about Andrew here before and his blog was one of the Top Ten Sailing Blogs of 2006. Prior to the Trials, Andrew had some interesting observations on the interpersonal dynamics between American sailors as they head into the Trials.

The system of Olympic Trials promotes a funny atmosphere at the training site in the weeks leading up to the selection regatta. Americans who have depended so heavily on each other as training partners, roommates, confidants all of a sudden find themselves necessarily isolated and awkwardly independent of each other while they live and practice. Foreign training partners are brought in and quiet alliances are bonded between groups of two, three and four boats that can be seen sailing together all across the expected square mile racecourse area. Full-time campaigners are shunned by their part-time counterparts who are on site only for the final weeks leading into the regatta, not wanting to give them the benefit of larger training groups. And reciprocally the sailors with training partners make their sessions exclusive from outsiders to ensure self-interested benefit. Aside from waving to one and other, and at times less than that, former friendships are apparently put on hold for the month in attempts to abandon any emotional connection that might only get in the way during the impending regatta.

And then we have Brad Funk who is currently leading the Trials. I had the pleasure of sailing with Brad when he was the guest instructor at the clinic I did in Florida in 2005. Here is his account of the last day of racing before the mid-regatta lay day.

Normally at this stage of a big event, I’m feeling the negative effects of expending a lot of physical exertion and mental energy. If this were a regular ISAF Grade 1 event, it would be all over except for the 20-minute double-points “Medal” race for the top ten sailors. Not this time. There’s an Olympic berth at stake.

Today I won two closely-contested races. The races were run in a shifty 12-14 knot northeast wind which presented many tactical opportunities. No two legs were the same and position on the first leg wasn’t where the races were decided. Far from it. The big gains were made on leg 2 which was the first downwind leg, and leg three, the second upwind. Fortunately, I had a good game plan today to deal with these tricky conditions.

Because we’ve now completed eight races, each competitor is able to discard his worst score. And that means that my point advantage over Andrew Campbell has narrowed. Campbell who posted 2-5 finishes today was able to drop his 20th place, while I dropped a 9th. As it stands tonight, I hold a slim three-point margin over him in the low point scoring system.

And then we have the ladies in the Laser Radial Trials. As I predicted (it wasn’t exactly hard) it is turning into a showdown between Paige Railey and Anna Tunnicliffe. Anna is currently leading Paige by five points.

Anna was flagged by the judges for pumping on Day Four but still managed to beat Paige after completing her penalty turns.

Our second race was one to remember. Paige won the start and had a handy lead at the weather mark but I overtook her on the run before the judges yellow-flagged me. After my two penalty turns, I chased Paige down on the run to round the leeward mark just two boat lengths behind her. We got into a really good tacking duel on the beat but she still led round the last weather mark. I passed her again on the run but she had luffing rights and carried me out to the side of the course on a big reach until I was able to break the overlap. We duked it out from there. Paige kept attacking but there wasn’t enough race course left and I won that one.

Good luck to all the competitors. It’s going to be a close fought regatta in both fleets and I look forward to reading all about it on their blogs and websites.

Update: If you know of any other sailors at the Trials who are blogging about the experience please let me know in the comments. I will add links below.

John Pearce

Original post by Tillerman and software by Elliott Back

Regular readers of this blog will have noticed that I have a thing about Anna Tunnicliffe. No, I’m not an Anna groupie. I’m too old for crushes on athletic young women who can sail a Laser better then me. Besides Tillerwoman wouldn’t approve.

No. It’s more that I became somewhat tired of the Paige Railey PR machine. A year or two ago it seemed that Paige was always in the news. Youth phenom. Rolex whatever. And nobody seemed to be paying attention to the fact that the US had another top class female Laser Radial Sailor named Anna Tunnicliffe. So, in my contrary way I started blogging occasionally about Anna.

In January 2006, Anna won the Miami Olympic Classes Regatta. Wow, I wish I could hike like she is doing in that photo.

In February my granddaughter Emily and I had a discussion about hiking styles after she saw that photo. She’s even more precocious now. Emily not Anna.

In December I had a little patriotic outburst about the dominance of British Olympic sailors in the ISAF rankings, along with a quiz asking who was the only American ranking number one in an Olympic class. Of course the answer was Anna.

In May of this year I did a post about the top two American Olympic campaigners in the Laser and Laser Radial classes. Of course Anna was mentioned.

In July I wrote a couple of posts about Anna’s performance in the ISAF Worlds.

Get the picture? I guess I am an Anna fan. Been following her sailing career and blogging about her successes for a couple of years now. So imagine how thrilled I was this week when Anna won the gold medal at the Good Luck Beijing - 2007 Qingdao International Regatta in Qingdao, China, the second test event before the 2008 Olympic Games. Not quite an Olympic Gold but the next best thing I would guess.

Surely she is one of the USA’s best hopes for a sailing gold medal in the Olympics next year. But first she has to win the Trials. I’m rooting for you girl.

Original post by Tillerman and software by Elliott Back

The hero is not fed on sweets,
Daily his own heart he eats;
Chambers of the great are jails,
And head-winds right for royal sails.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Original post by Tillerman and software by Elliott Back

Congratulations to Andrew Campbell and Anna Tunnicliffe on their performances so far in the ISAF World Championships currently being sailed in Cascais, Portugal. They are the leading US sailors in the Laser and Laser Radial fleets respectively and have made the cut for the gold fleets in the second half of the championships.

What I find particularly impressive about these two leading contenders for spots on the US Olympic team for 2008 is that they not only have the energy and ability to go out and race their Lasers against the best in the world in crazy winds and huge waves, they also have the creativity and commitment to blog about their experiences after every day’s racing.

Good luck guys. Keep on blogging.

Original post by Tillerman and software by Elliott Back

In the early days of the online sailing simulator, Tacticat (now sailx), some bright spark discovered that, by causing the skiff class boat to execute a certain combination of unseamanlike maneuvers, it was possible to fool the program into allowing you to keep flying the spinnaker when heading up to a close-hauled course. For a few days, anyone in the know was able to make huge gains by using this trick to sail upwind with the spinnaker flying, as the rest of the fleet looked on in awe and claimed that it was all totally unfair.

It didn’t take long for the Tacticat overlords to identify what was obviously a bug in the program, and it was soon fixed.

Who would have thought that this weird anomaly from the world of sailing software would be replicated in real life? And at the Olympic Games no less?

In the Tornado catamaran class, the Dutch and American Olympic teams have developed so-called code 0 gennakers which are designed to be carried upwind as well as downwind. Although they may be slower downwind than a normal Tornado spinnaker, the code 0 sails are apparently so much faster upwind in the expected light wind conditions in China that these two teams are almost certain to win the gold and silver medals.

So now those energetic and competitive Australians are rushing to copy the Americans and Dutch.

The British, superior and aloof as only true Brits can be, say they already tried that idea and it will only work in a narrow wind range.

And the Austrians, dour and disgruntled, are threatening to boycott the whole regatta.

Ohmigod. The Olympics are just like Tacticat. All it needs now is someone hailing, “The darker the windier” or “My tailor is rich” all the way round the course and they will be identical. (Sorry. Tacticat in-joke. You had to be there.)

Apparently there is nothing in the Tornado class rules that prohibits using a smaller spinnaker or the use of it upwind. Just to be sure the Aussies posed a couple of questions to the Chief Measurer and, according to SailJuice Blog received the following answers…

Question:
Does the non-one design ‘code zero’ upwind spinnaker contravene the class rules?

Decision:
The concept of a smaller gennaker does not contravene the class rules. Class Rule G.5.3 does not specify minimum dimensions.

Question:
Is a “dolphin strike” permitted on the bowsprit?

Decision:

No. The addition of a compression strut and associated rigging below the bowsprit spar would contravene class rules F.5″

I have no idea what “non-one design” means or what a “dolphin strike” is but it’s all starting to sound more like the America’s Cup than the Olympics. It’s only a matter of time before the lawyers jump into the fray.

My immediate reactions….

• I’m glad I sail a strict one-design class where such shenanigans are almost inconceivable.

• Who would have thunk that even a bug in Tacticat would emulate real life so well?
• If the Tornado class had aimed to ensure that they will never ever ever be invited to sail in the Olympics ever again, could they have devised a better strategy?

As they say in Tacticat, “Why cats are not olympic any more?”

Original post by Tillerman and software by Elliott Back

In the early days of the online sailing simulator, Tacticat (now sailx), some bright spark discovered that, by causing the skiff class boat to execute a certain combination of unseamanlike maneuvers, it was possible to fool the program into allowing you to keep flying the spinnaker when heading up to a close-hauled course. For a few days, anyone in the know was able to make huge gains by using this trick to sail upwind with the spinnaker flying, as the rest of the fleet looked on in awe and claimed that it was all totally unfair.

It didn’t take long for the Tacticat overlords to identify what was obviously a bug in the program, and it was soon fixed.

Who would have thought that this weird anomaly from the world of sailing software would be replicated in real life? And at the Olympic Games no less?

In the Tornado catamaran class, the Dutch and American Olympic teams have developed so-called code 0 gennakers which are designed to be carried upwind as well as downwind. Although they may be slower downwind than a normal Tornado spinnaker, the code 0 sails are apparently so much faster upwind in the expected light wind conditions in China that these two teams are almost certain to win the gold and silver medals.

So now those energetic and competitive Australians are rushing to copy the Americans and Dutch.

The British, superior and aloof as only true Brits can be, say they already tried that idea and it will only work in a narrow wind range.

And the Austrians, dour and disgruntled, are threatening to boycott the whole regatta.

Ohmigod. The Olympics are just like Tacticat. All it needs now is someone hailing, “The darker the windier” or “My taylor is rich” all the way round the course and they will be identical. (Sorry. Tacticat in-joke. You had to be there.)

Apparently there is nothing in the Tornado class rules that prohibits using a smaller spinnaker or the use of it upwind. Just to be sure the Aussies posed a couple of questions to the Chief Measurer and, according to SailJuice Blog received the following answers…

Question:
Does the non-one design ‘code zero’ upwind spinnaker contravene the class rules?

Decision:
The concept of a smaller gennaker does not contravene the class rules. Class Rule G.5.3 does not specify minimum dimensions.

Question:
Is a “dolphin strike” permitted on the bowsprit?

Decision:

No. The addition of a compression strut and associated rigging below the bowsprit spar would contravene class rules F.5″

I have no idea what “non-one design” means or what a “dolphin strike” is but it’s all starting to sound more like the America’s Cup than the Olympics. It’s only a matter of time before the lawyers jump into the fray.

My immediate reactions….

• I’m glad I sail a strict one-design class where such shenanigans are almost inconceivable.

• Who would have thunk that even a bug in Tacticat would emulate real life so well?
• If the Tornado class had aimed to ensure that they will never ever ever be invited to sail in the Olympics ever again, could they have devised a better strategy?

As they say in Tacticat, “Why cats are not olympic any more?”

Original post by Tillerman and software by Elliott Back

Ross Bennett is a Laser sailor.
I am a Laser sailor.

Ross is 21, (or thereabouts).
I am 60.

Ross has a blog about Laser sailing.
I have a blog (mainly) about Laser sailing.

I live on the East coast of the United States.
Ross lives on the West coast.

In 2007 I sailed the Laser North Americans and was the last boat that finished every race.

In 2008 Ross sailed the Laser US Nationals and was the last boat that finished every race.

For some reason this gives me a feeling of kinship with Ross. It seems we both have the same stubbornness and persistence in the face of adversity. On the other hand, a disinterested observer might just conclude that Ross and I both suck at Laser sailing.

Among other things, Ross blames his weight for not doing better. At 168 lbs he thinks he is too light to do well in over 15 knots.

Among other things, I blame my weight for some of my recent bad race results. At 196 lbs I think I am too heavy to do well in 5-10 knots.

168? What a coincidence. When I was Ross’s age that was what I weighed. Or “12 stone” as we used to say in England. Just wait Ross. Just wait.

Ross has a good laugh at his misadventures while racing and blogs, for example, about capsizing when his lifejacket snagged his mainsheet.

I have a good laugh at my misadventures while racing and blog, for example, about capsizing when my neck snagged another sailor’s mainsheet.

Ross thinks he can improve and in the title-bar of his blog says he is writing about his “quest and aspirations for Olympic Gold in 2012, 2016 and beyond in the Laser.”

I think I can improve but have more modest ambitions, really aiming only to “cheat the nursing home.”

I allow comments on my blog because I enjoy the feedback and banter with fellow sailors, especially the sometimes surreal comments from the likes of Edward, Carol Anne and O-docker.

Ross doesn’t allow comments on his blog.

I wish Ross well in his Olympic quest. He is young and ambitious and has plenty of time ahead of him to raise his game up to the lofty levels required for Olympic qualification. If you want to support Ross, check out Ross Bennett Sailing. You are also free to express your support in the comments here.

Original post by Tillerman and software by Elliott Back

Congrats to USA Laser Olympian Andrew Campbell who led the Laser fleet all the way around the course and scored his first win of the Olympic regatta in Race 3 in Qingdao. I can’t find any news reports of the race online yet but the official results are here. Andrew started the regatta with a couple of finishes in the teens which he attributed on his blog yesterday to first race jitters and being over-conservative.

Meanwhile some of the early favorites in the Lasers such as Tom Slingsby from Australia are placing well down the fleet.

Can we hope for a medal for Andrew? Can’t wait to read about this race on his blog.

Meanwhile Anna Tunnicliffe of USA leads the Laser Radial fleet…

Original post by Tillerman and software by Elliott Back

Whoah. What happened? I blinked, and the Olympics (at least for the Lasers which is all I really care about) are almost over. Days with no wind. One day with too much wind. Hey, sounds just like any other regatta.

So the medal races are tomorrow, or tonight, or something like that. I’m not staying up till the wee hours of the morning to watch the medal races on the Internet, so it will all be over by the time I wake up tomorrow.

So who to root for in my sleep?

Well the Brit of course. Paul Goodison only needs to come 9th or better in the 10 boat medal race to clinch the gold medal. Should be a piece of cake.

Is it just my imagination or is good old GBR dominating the sailing again at this Olympics?

And then there’s a bunch of guys close to each other in contention for the silver. But I’m going to be rooting (while sleeping) for Gustavo Lima of Portugal because…

• he’s the only one of the bunch that I’ve met (though I doubt he remembers our conversation in the line for the BBQ on the beach in Cabarete)

• he’s the only one that I’ve raced against
• he’s the only one that I’ve beaten to the windward mark in a race (OK a practice race)
• I think that my fifteen seconds of minor glory story will be even more dramatic if I can bore folks with the line “did you hear about the day I beat an Olympic silver medalist?”

And then there’s the Laser Radials where Anne Tunnicliffe (USA) is assured of some kind of medal and goes into the medal race with a 7 point lead over her nearest rival.

The great thing about being of one nationality (GBR) while living in another country (USA) is that you have twice the chance of being able to support a winner at the Olympics. (Though Tillerwoman with her Australian roots is even better placed to be able to cheer a sailing gold medal winner in any given event.)

Anyway, regular readers of this blog (all three of you) will know that I’ve been something of an Anna groupie for over two years now with post such as Anna Wins Gold, Go Anna!, and Anna Wins Gold in China.

But you know what will happen if Mrs Funk (yes Anna married Brad Funk earlier this year) brings home the gold in the Laser Radial class? Thousands of young American women will be inspired to take up Laser Radial sailing and major Laser regattas will be inundated with hordes of nubile young women wearing tight outfits of Lycra and Neoprene and asking for advice on how loose their vangs should be. The prospect for a dirty old Laser geezer like me is enough to make me drool in anticipation.

(Just looking dear, just looking.)

Go Anna!

Original post by Tillerman and software by Elliott Back

Let’s kick the 49er out of the Olympics. This week’s 49er medal race demonstrated once and for all that this fragile little boat is unsuitable for sailing in conditions that other classes would consider as ideal winds for exciting racing.

According to Tim Wadlow of the US 49er team, the race started in 19 knots and 5 foot seas. Woo hoo. Wait for me. Perfect Lasering weather.

Of the 10 boats in the race, 4 were damaged and at one point 7 were capsized. It seems it was one of those races where he who capsized least would win.

DEN started the race almost 5 minutes late in a boat borrowed from CRO, and finished 7th which was enough for them to win the gold medal. Then they were protested for borrowing a boat. Ain’t Olympic sailing fun?

The Yanks failed to finish and requested redress saying the race committee shouldn’t have started the race. In 19 knots? Ain’t 49er sailing fun?

Apparently the race was even terrifying for the spectators. The mother of Chris Rast, Tim’s team-mate, wrote this to Scuttlebutt.

I watched in total terror as one boat after the other disappeared into chop and flipped. At one point Mr Jobson asks, “What happened to the USA team? Where is the USA team? Nine out of ten boats are now flipped!” I was sick. Do these conditions qualify putting our loved ones and our friends at risk of losing their lives, let alone the extreme damage done to almost all the boats? Who made the final decision to hold these races that day? It was not a “race”; it was a a survivor training course held in extremely dangerous conditions. Although, I am sorry my son and Tim Wadlow did not finish the race, I feel my fervent prayers were answered as I witnessed this race—both of them made it back to shore alive.

When it’s too scary for the Moms to watch it’s time to call the whole thing off.

So let’s chuck ‘em out.

Original post by Tillerman and software by Elliott Back

So far the US Olympic Sailing Team has won only one gold medal. And the winner of that was a girl.

I don’t think that our guys are eating properly. They should copy that annoying Phelps kid who has won all those gold medals for swimming. Just check out what he eats for breakfast…

Three fried egg sandwiches; cheese; tomatoes; lettuce; fried onions; mayonnaise; three chocolate-chip pancakes; five-egg omelet; three sugar-coated slices of French toast; bowl of grits; two cups of coffee.

Sounds good to me. If it’s fast for the Phelps kid it should be fast for Laser sailing, right?

I start my new diet tomorrow.

Original post by Tillerman and software by Elliott Back

I am shocked…

Every Olympic Games we read about how unfair it is that some countries support their athletes financially much more generously than others. There’s usually some whining about how the Brits win so many medals in Sailing because the sailors receive support from the National Lottery when anyone with eyes to see would realize that Brits are just genetically superior when it comes to sailing.

Anyway I am shocked…

According to The Sun (the authoritative source on such matters) the female Laser Radial sailor from Germany, Petra Niemann, raised money for her campaign by posing nude for the German edition of Playboy. This is a terrible example to young women sailors around the world and I sincerely hope that no other female sailors follow Petra’s example. It just isn’t cricket.

Petra sounds like an extremely smart young woman. The Sun quotes her as saying, “I work extra hard with my psychologist. He advised me to concentrate on the high point of the year above everything else.”

That’s the way to approach the Olympics… concentrate on the high point… let’s see no more of these tacky nude photos.

I am shocked.

Original post by Tillerman and software by Elliott Back

The genius who thought up the “medal race” concept for Olympic sailing should be fired. The whole idea is a dismal failure. Let’s scrap the medal race fiasco now.

It was all supposed to make sailing easier to understand for the general public. Supposedly we dumb sailing TV viewers didn’t understand how a sailor could do so well in a long series that he could skip the final race and still win the gold medal. The genius who thought up the medal race probably imagined that the winner of the medal race would win the gold medal. It would be an exciting final showdown to the Olympic regatta. It would turn sailing into a popular TV sport.

So the aforementioned genius came up with the idea of a medal race… compulsory race for top ten boats, double points, no discards. Brilliant.

Problem is that it hasn’t worked. Just look at this week’s medal races…

• In the men’s 470, the Australian team had such a huge points lead going into the medal race that they could have finished last in the medal race and would still have won the gold. Thrilling.

• In the 49ers, the Danish team sailed the Croatian boat, started four minutes late, finished seventh, and still won the gold medal. Logical.
• And here’s the real kicker. In the Lasers, the Swedish sailor ended the fleet racing in second place behind the Brit in first. But the Brit had such a large lead that, to win the gold, he just needed to ensure that he wasn’t last and the Swede wasn’t first in the medal race. So the Brit match-raced the Swede and they finished ninth and tenth in the medal race. The Brit got the gold. The Swede, arguably the second-best Laser sailor at the Olympics, finished sixth overall in the rankings, with no medal at all. I don’t blame the Brit for what he did, but here’s the real irony. If the Swede had had a point or two less in the regular fleet racing the Brit would have not need to have match-race him to win the gold, and the Swede may well have won the silver or bronze medal. So the medal race concept can actually incentivize a sailor to do worse in the earlier races in order to win a medal. Explain that to your average TV viewer.
• It was all supposed to be about making TV exciting for the Olympics, right? What TV? There was no TV coverage of sailing in the Olympics this year in the USA, the largest, most lucrative TV market in the world.

So let’s scrap this medal race nonsense now. It’s a crock.

Original post by Tillerman and software by Elliott Back

There’s been a lull in posting here caused by a trip to the UK (without my laptop) and then my laptop going kaput on the day I returned. Perhaps it was lonely?

I’m still catching up on the US news while I’ve been away… why is this hockey mom who looks like she escaped from a Lenscrafters ad on the TV so much now? … the Yankees are how many games behind? … and it can’t be football season already surely?

Anyway I haven’t read much about what the US is planning to do improve on its relatively dismal medal performance in Sailing at the 2008 Olympics. I did listen to John McCain’s speech last night… but I don’t think he mentioned this vital element of national policy. At least I didn’t hear anything about sailing before I fell asleep somewhere in between his story about how being a POW is perfect preparation for being a POTUS (amazing nobody thought of this before), and the bit about his new friend Sarah “working with her hands and nose”. What was that all about?

Sorry about falling asleep Big John. Blame the jet-lag. But I’m not going to vote for you if you don’t promise that the US will win a medal in every class in the sailing competition at the 2012 Olympics. Forget all that irrelevant stuff about offshore drilling (gets in the way of sailing) and the bridge to nowhere (I hate sailing under bridges anyway). At least the Democrats did show a sailing video at their convention.

Anyway I offer two observations for anyone in the US who is interested in raising the level of US sailing Olympic performance based on a couple of Olympics news snippets I read while in the UK.

• The British Track and Field team had a target to win five medals in Beijing. They “only” won four. So this week they fired the “director of elite performance”, which I think is Britspeak for head coach.

  Has anybody responsible for the US Sailing Team been fired?

• Apparently the English professional football (Britspeak for soccer) teams hire a lot of promising youngsters of which only a few are kept on for professional careers with the teams. So someone came up with the bright idea of testing the kids that don’t make the cut to assess their potential to excel in other sports… cycling, track, volleyball, cheese-rolling, midget-tossing, whatever… with a view to developing the best of the bunch for the Olympic teams. Sounds like a brilliant move to me. Here you have a source of fit, ambitious, highly motivated young men ready for a new challenge. It would surely be a shame if they all went off to be accountants or estate agents (Britspeak for realtor) or yobs (Britspeak for Red Sox fans).

  So what are the plans for finding the next generation of top sailors in the US?

Original post by Tillerman and software by Elliott Back