Olmps

242 HOW TO WATCH THE OLYMPICS

Game On: Sailing Basics

Competition Racing

There are two forms of sailing race: match racing

and fleet racing.. Match racing is simple: two boats race head- to-head, with competitors trying to outmanoeuvre each other and force their opponents into rule violations and penalties.. Fleet racing involves more than two boats, usually many more, and generally consists of more than one race.. Points are awarded according to race position (the higher the position the lower the score) and are accumulated over a series of races..The boat with the lowest total wins..

At the Olympics, after many years of varying formats, a more uniform system is now in place..The women’s Elliott 6m class will be a match race event..All other competitions begin with an opening series of fleet races (ten in all classes except the 49ers, who have to do fifteen)..The vagaries of wind and current being what they are, crews are allowed to discard their worst score after five races and their two worst after nine..The top ten boats then

go into a final medal race on a shorter course.. Double points are awarded for positions in this race and these are added to the opening series scores to determine the winners..

Two different types of course are used: trapezoidal and wind- ward return..Their precise location and orientation will depend on the prevailing patterns of wind and current on race day..

The trapezoidal course has a separate start and finish line and three points around which boats must turn to complete the fourleg course..The windward return course is simply a two-leg affair but orientated so that the first leg is a leeward sail against the wind (called a beat) and the second leg a sail with the wind (called a run)..When boats are sailing neither with nor against the wind, the leg is called a reach..

The Law of the Sea

The rule book of international sailing is long and

complex..A century of fearsome competition has produced a vast case history of wrangles over what constitutes a right of way when two boats want to occupy the same space or path.. Broadly speaking, when the boats are on opposite tacks (angles to the

wind) the onus is on the port-tacking boat (lying to the left of the wind) to stay clear..When two boats on the same tack overlap or sit side to side, the boat closer to the wind must stay clear of the other boat..

Sailing remains a highly self-regulated sport in which, like golf, competitors are expected to declare their mistakes and violations.. If competitors think they have committed a violation they can avoid disqualification by performing a voluntary 360 turn in the water (some formats specify double turns or 720s).. However, in the case of a really serious breach of the rules, boats are expected to retire.. Injured parties may protest after a race to a panel of five judges, which can disqualify perpetrators..

Olympic Sailing Classes

Yachting was once all about how big a boat you

could afford and how much you could spend on technology. . In its survey of the 1920 Olympic competitions, Yachting World asked: ‘Are they intended to be a test of seamanship or a test of Yachts? Or both?’ While ocean-going racing retains elements of both, Olympic sailing is now focused on seamanship, as the degree of variation between boats has diminished to the point where Olympic events are raced with virtually identical equipment..At London 2012, seven different classes will be used across the ten events – a windsurfing board, two keelboats and four variants on the dinghy.. Dinghies have movable centreboards that can be taken up into the boats; keelboats have fixed ones..

470 (dinghy). Crew: 2; Events: men and women; Olympic debut 1976. Designer: André Cornu (France). Exactly what it says on the tin: the light and manoeuvrable 470 is 470cm long..The two crew members are usually little and large: a lightweight skipper who steers, and a heavyweight second crew member who hangs outside the boat in a trapeze to balance it on sharp turns and in high winds..

Laser (dinghy).Crew:1;Events:men and women;Olympic debut 1996. Designer: Bruce Kirby (Canada). Since making its Olympic debut in 1996, the laser has become the most popular one-person sailing boat in the world..Women will race the Laser Radial, which has

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a reduced sail area and a shorter mast, making it easier for light sailors to sail in heavy winds..

RS:X (windsurf

board). Crew: 1; Events: men and women; Olympic debut 2008. Designer: Jean Bouldorres and Robert Straj. . The RS:X was introduced at the 2008 Olympics, replacing the Mistral class windsurfing board.. While former Olympic-class sailboards were all the

classic long board shape, the RS:X is a compromise between traditional longboards and the wider formula racing boards not used at the Olympics..

Star (keelboat) Crew: 1; Events: men; Olympic debut 1932. Designer: Francis Sweisguth (USA). The Star class boats were introduced at the 1932 Los Angeles Games and have been raced at every Olympics since..

Elliott 6m (keelboat). Crew: 3; Events: women; Olympic debut 2012. Designer: Greg Elliott (New Zealand). The Elliott 6m makes its debut at London 2012, having been selected for its robustness in match racing..

49er (dinghy). Crew: 2; Events: open; Olympic debut 2000. Designer: Julian Bethwaite (Australia). The 49er is the fastest craft in the Games, but speed comes at the price of instability, so both crew members need to get outside of the craft in a double trapeze to balance it..

Finn (dinghy). Crew: 1; Events: open; Olympic debut 1952. Designer: Richard Sarby (Sweden). In 1949 Richard Sarby, a Swedish

polymath who combined marine engineering with hairdressing, designed the Finn, a single-handed dinghy considered to be the purest athletic experience in sailing.. Getting the best from its large sail area and heavy boom requires a lot of strength.. Introduced in 1952, the Finn is basically unchanged from its original design..

The Finer Points

On the Start Line

Sailing boats don’t begin a race from a standing

start; they are already in motion..Timing your run to the starting line is a crucial element of the sport.. If crews go too fast or too early and cross the line before the beginning of the race they are sent back to start again.. However, if a crew plays it too cautiously they will begin the race behind bolder boats and at a lower speed..

Tacking and jibing

Tacking is the most basic manoeuvre in sailing. When

a boat is sailing into the wind, it must chart a zig-zag course to use the wind’s energy to move it forward.. Boats accomplish this by shifting the direction of the bow (the front of the craft) and altering the position of the mainsail.. Jibing is a similar manoeuvre used by boats that are sailing with the wind or downwind; it involves turning the stern (the back of the boat)..

Keep an Eye on the Numbers

apart from match racing classes, which are head to

head, first to the line occasions, Olympic sailing events are won on a cumulative points basis, with extra points awarded for the final race.. Keep an eye on the boats’ points totals before the race..A crew might only need to come in fourth or fifth to win a gold medal..

Sailing Goes to the Olympics

For its first three decades at the Games, the event

that was known as yachting until 1996 was characterised by a prevalence of upper-class participants and an element of chaos, as it lacked an international sporting body, agreed rules or defined boat classes..

A sailing event was planned for the inaugural Olympics in Athens in 1896, but the weather in the Bay of Piraeus made racing impossible. .Things picked up in Paris in 1900, but only marginally. .There were two separate courses: on the Seine at Meulan, for smaller boats; and on the coast at Le Havre, for larger vessels.. In contrast to the values of amateur sportsmanship that De Coubertin and the IOC had hoped to showcase at the Games, the sailing events were contested with considerable prize money at stake, and skulduggery duly ensued – two boats were disqualified for using means of propulsion other than sail.. High society was well represented in the 1–2 Tonne class, with Édouard Alphonse James de Rothschild losing out to his Swiss rival, Count

Hermann de Pourtalès..

in the Finn class (1948–60).. Elvstrøm came out of retirement to sail with his daughter Trine in 1984 in the Tornado class and finished fourth.. Four years later,at the age of sixty,he competed in his eighth Olympics and finished 15th. .Tenacious and skilled, he brought new levels of innovation and experiment to the design of racing boats, inventing new rigs, sails, bailers and training techniques.. In 1996 he was voted ‘Danish Sportsman of the Century’.. Separate women’s events were established in 1988, the year of Elvstrøm’s last appearance..

Over the last two decades sailing has become an ever more professionalised and technocratic sport.. It has also become more open, with champions emerging from a host of newer sailing nations.. In 1992, on home waters, Spain won four gold medals.. Hong Kong claimed its very first Olympic gold medal when Lee Lai Shan won the women’s windsurfing at the Atlanta Games.. Gal Fridman did the same for Israel in the men’s windsurfing in 2004..Austria, an entirely land-locked nation, won two sailing gold medals in the now discontinued Tornado class..

Yin Jiàn won China’s first sailing gold in the women’s wind- surfing at Beijing 2008, while Brazilians Robert Scheidt, Torben Grael and Marcelo Ferreira have four golds between them..The leading sailor of the era, though, is Britain’s Ben Ainslie.. The son of a round-the-world racer, he started sailing at the age of four and began competing at ten..A silver medal at Atlanta 1996 has been followed by a gold at each of the last three Games..