Rio Bound...Norths showcase loft...New record for Comanche

by . on 4 Aug 2016 Welcome to Sail-World.com's New Zealand e-magazine for August 4, 2016

Only a few more sleeps until the start of the Rio Olympic Regatta, which gets under way on August 8, local time.

Expect to see the first sailing results coming through on the morning of August 9, NZT.

Racing has to stop, for poor light at 4.30pm in the afternoon in Rio - that's 7.30am the following day in New Zealand.

I will be heading out on Sunday evening and arrive just before 11.00pm all going well - also on Sunday.

This will be my third Olympics, as a photographer - well short of others in the media pack - some of whom have been to 12 Olympics or more.

I will be the only Sail-World representative on the ground in Rio. We had planned for two or three more but the Zika risk and other unforeseen circumstances, unfortunately, took their toll. In the past two Olympics, Sail-World has had the biggest team at the sailing event, but we have had all our eggs in the one basket on site.

This time, for the first time, we will have a good backup team on deck around the world and are looking forward to being able to provide 24x7 coverage of the regatta from August 8th through to the 18th - assuming the resail day set down for August 19th isn't used.

In terms of preparation, this regatta has been easily the most difficult and fraught, due largely to a lack of information from organisers. However, we are used to working in this type of environment and have not been beaten by any of the technical and other challenges we have had to face to date.

Our intention is to produce a world-wide Olympic newsletter every other day, in addition to our usual news on our website and social media.

It is not wise to make a lot of promises about what will be provided as coverage at this juncture, as we have to adapt to the environment and do the best we can with the opportunities that are presented.

We will be providing an honest and independent view of the regatta, and probably like no other Olympics Rio has become synonymous with bungling and undelivered promises.

Whether those hash-tags continue to be attached to the regatta remains to be seen. Certainly, the sailors we have talked to have not complained about the issues that have received so much publicity. The people we have been talking to on the ground seem to be positive and relaxed, and most of the hysteria seems to be generated outside the Rio bubble.

We'll find out if the sailors and teams are just toeing the party line, or if Rio really is the great place that we have been told.

For New Zealand, the question will be how many medals?

The betting pools and sweepstakes mostly have the Kiwis coming back with the same return as the 2012 Olympics - one Gold and one Silver.

My view is that all of the team are genuinely capable of medaling as were those three who were not selected.

We will have a better idea after the first day of competition for each class. Sailors don't win the Olympics on the first day of the regatta but sure can lose it with a couple of bad races, from which they never really recover.

Talking to the sailors, and we have two interviews in this edition, with a third to come from the Men's 470 crew, there is a diversity of courses, maybe more so than Weymouth where there were four courses in play. In this regard the Olympics are quite different from a regular World Championship and that is why some new faces appear on the podium.

The other factor is going to be the water quality and whether sailors fall ill in any numbers.

To date the strategy seems to have been to spend a lot of time training at the venue, become as acclimatised as possible and hopefully the chances of picking up an infection are greatly reduced, plus the body becomes attuned to what is inhaled and ingested.

Gut feel, if you'll excuse the pun, is that these Olympics will have more of a random factor than usual.

One of the great things about being sideline on the water is that you see the drama played out in front of you, hear the on the water noise and feel the wind that the sailors are experiencing.

On TV you get a different view for sure, in some ways it is better, in others it is not.

As a photographer, we miss a lot of the action. We can't be on every course at once, but ashore is the time to catch up and get the first-hand comment in the mixed zone. Of course, if you are sharp-eyed and have your wits about you, the signs of what is about unfold are obvious and the moment can be captured for posterity.

Hopefully, we will be able to give our Sail-World readers a unique and first-hand view of the Olympic regatta, which combined with what you see on television should make it your best Olympics yet.

Let the Games begin!

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Good sailing!

Richard Gladwell
NZ Editor

sailworldnzl@gmail.com

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