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Juliette Ferrington

So far so good for Team GB on coast of Yellow Sea


Qingdao

Ben Ainslie, Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson are right where they want to be at the midway point of their events - you couldn't have asked for more.

Top of the leaderboard in both the Finn and the Yngling with just four more races to go before this weekend's grand finale.

It's no mean feat when you consider how difficult it is to sail here.

You need to show great resilience to pick your way through the course and make the best of the situations that present themselves to you because you never know what to expect, conditions out here are very unpredictable.

It could be anything - any wind strength, any direction.

Even Ben, who many expected to storm his Finn class, is finding it hard!

In his opening race everything was going to plan until he was caught out by the nautical banana skin as he was heading for the finish line.

The wind shutdown, Ainslie stopped, and sailors from nine other nations slipped past. He finished tenth. Ooooppps!

However, nothing - not even the weather - messes with Ben Ainslie and he's back in front. It's going to be a tight tussle right to the end.

I'm sure he'll welcome his day off today. He told me he'd love play a round a golf, but instead he'll be working on his boat and doing his homework on the tide conditions.

The Yngling trio are also having a well deserved break. Sarah Ayton and her crew have that bouncebackability, as they say in football.

ayton_ap438.jpg

It hasn't all been plain sailing and they have yet to win a race here, but what they are proving - time after time - is that when things do go wrong they have both the ability and resource to put it right.

It comes down to consistency, and as Ayton said last night "we're feeling pretty cool now."

Unlike Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes who had to endure the walk of shame through the press area after being first out of the water following a nightmare day on their 49er.

Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong for the boys.

They even managed to pick up some tar on the centreboard underneath their boat. At least they managed to keep their sense of humour.

Morrison likened it to being on a fairground ride, "we did a lot of sliding".

Thank goodness it's a long event!

Juliette Ferrington will be reporting on sailing at the Beijing Games. Our FAQs should answer any questions you have.


Comments

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  • 1. At 3:45pm on 12 Aug 2008, NBeale wrote:

    I wish we could see more of the sailing. It is one of the UK's most popular participatory sports and one in which we have proportionately more world champions than any other, but I think the BBC considers it "elitist" or something because the coverage is very limited.

    Where is the table of results in each regatta for example - they must exist but there are no links.

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  • 2. At 3:48pm on 12 Aug 2008, Heavens2Murgatroyd wrote:

    I think the reason the coverage is limited can be illustrated by the amount of comments on this blog. It was published at half nine this morning and I'm the second person to write anything.

    Tells its own story I think.

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  • 3. At 4:02pm on 12 Aug 2008, specialistnce21 wrote:

    Surely the lack of coverage has a bit to do with how hard it is to film and see what is going on?

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  • 4. At 4:10pm on 12 Aug 2008, alexbvi wrote:

    Shame people aren't as interested in these events when our sailors are going so well. Check the RYA website for good updates, sign up and they'll drop you an update every day.

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  • 5. At 4:19pm on 12 Aug 2008, Justin49 wrote:

    Sailing is on the Red Button every morning on the BBC! Most of the other sports don't get this sort of coverage! A different class is shown every morning and commentary is given by Richard Simmonds and double Gold medallist Shirley Robertson.

    As mentioned above, the RYA Olympic site is very good for updates and full results and is updated very quickly.

    Get behind the sailors, along with the cyclists and the rowers they pose the greatest opportunity to add to our already encouraging medal tally.

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  • 6. At 4:26pm on 12 Aug 2008, aitchw wrote:

    It's difficult to comment other than in a general way when you don't get to see any of the racing. Not knowing what went right or wrong for our competitors leaves you with either congratulating or commiserating and not much more. On top of that it isn't the easiest sport to broadcast and in the light winds out there it can be a bit like watching paint dry unless you are you sail yourself. It would be nice to have the chance of watching though despite that.

    As for the team, well, they are a great bunch and doing us proud which is what we all expected.

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  • 7. At 4:46pm on 12 Aug 2008, BassoV wrote:

    sailing .org the official ISAF website has up to date coverage with mark roundings auto updating so one can follow whats happening in a race even if you can't see it on the TV

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  • 8. At 4:54pm on 12 Aug 2008, warriorWarlord wrote:

    You can get mark roundingsfor each race from the events and results section off the ISAF web page, also they have a variety of news articles on there.

    For more sailing comment subscirbe to Scuttlebutt, free, through Seahorse and they will send you a daily email covering all things sailing including the olympics.

    Another OK day today but the medal races are going to be scary seeing how quickly it can all change.

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  • 9. At 5:09pm on 12 Aug 2008, Scillyvanvan wrote:

    The reason the bbc is not covering sports such as Sailing and Cycling very well is so it does not seem to be an eleatest org. Problem is it now spends so much time on chav sports like Football and pub fights in Eastenders it is eleatest. Chavs, their sport and soap's should be sent back to ITV where they belong.

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  • 10. At 5:36pm on 12 Aug 2008, NBeale wrote:

    jimmy: No that's self-fulfilling. "we don't cover it because not many people watch, but not many people watch because it's not much covered"

    others: thanks for the tips. But there is great footage when you go live - why isn't it archived for example? And why are their no links here?

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  • 11. At 7:33pm on 12 Aug 2008, kenilworth_nick wrote:

    I agree with NBeale - why don't we have more coverage? Where is the leaderboard?

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  • 12. At 1:05pm on 13 Aug 2008, bonaqua12345 wrote:

    After sailing for more than 20 years, i can honestly assure you that whilst sailing is a fantastic sport to do, it is incredibly boring to watch on TV.
    Some more highlights would be good, but not a whole race - trust me, you would watch it for 5 minutes ans then be bored!!!!

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  • 13. At 09:49am on 14 Aug 2008, aka_bluepeter wrote:

    Sailing boring to watch, I don't think so. Even in light winds the tension is palpable, probably more so. The problem is definitely that commentary is dull and coverage is distant.
    Just imagine the excitement when Ben Ainslie went in to a last race needing to finish many many places ahead of a competitor. Because it was so unlikely he only had one option and what he did was outmanouevre his opponent within the rules who eventually got himslef disqualified and Ben won gold. Death threats followed but nothing was said or reported. Passiion and excitement in abundance. Master tactician.
    I'll grant you that speed is difficult to pick up but TV has the technology to give us this and all sorts of other information such as tides and currents and so on.
    And what about the most exciting events to watch, the multi-hull racing. It's being scrapped. What a travesty.

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