Visiting the Olympics at Weymouth

We took the plunge and drove down to Weymouth yesterday to watch the medal races for the Star and Finn with British favourites in both. As everyone will know, Andrew Simpson and Iain Percy were pipped for gold by the Swedish pair but Ben Ainslie managed to play a ruthlessly tactical race and beat the Dane Hogh-Christiansen and get his record breaking Gold medal. People are comparing his achievement with the greatest ever Olympic sailor Paul Elvestrom (another Dane). He is certainly the equal of Elvestrom and in pure medal terms has more than Elvestrom since he got a silver in Atlanta as well as the four golds. Though we must remember that Paul Elvestrom continued competing at the Olympics till 1988 when he entered the Tornado class with his daughter as crew.

As a teenager I went through a phase of wanting to go dinghy racing and harboured dreams of entering the Olympics myself. It was never to be. Not least since there was no interest in dinghy racing in the town where I grew up. Also, I doubt if I would have had the inclination or dedication to seek out that extra tenth of a knot that makes a crucial difference on the race course. My interests in sailing definitely move at a slower pace than is needed to win races. Hence, sailing a Rival rather than a First 30 or some such.

For a while, I found that quite saddening but then I thought back to the buzz from arriving in Cascais after a long fast sail down from Porto. There was also the last few miles from Tarifa to La Linea which brought last years cruise to an end and I fancy that there was a similar sense of achievement as winning a race.

Here is a picture of one of the races taking part after we had discovered that the breakwater at the harbour entrance is not a ticket only area.

So, no sudden change of tack and selling Sarah G to buy a 470! However, I am hoping to get back down to Weymouth to watch the final for the Women’s' 470 regatta. I am also starting to seriously dream about visiting
here in 2016!

Another highlight was finding The Boat Project on display in the harbour.