Qingdao Knots- the new sailing wind measurement

by Ken Dool on 21 Aug 2007 The Head Coach of the Canadian sailing team Ken Dool wrote a couple of days ago after a blown out day from the Pre-Olympic Test Regatta about a new marine measurement.

Patience – 'patience is a virtue' – I have often preached patience and realize within the sailing world we must surely test all of our respective partner’s patience in some way or another. Qingdao has taken this to a new level – wind or lack there of, it was once again the topic of discussion around the boat yard, in the athlete lounge and for that matter pretty much anywhere you could find a sailor to talk to.

To the complete credit of the Race organizers, today they waited, no pulling the plug early, no long and arduous waits on the water in 30+ degree temperatures with humidex ratings somewhere in the mid 40’s, simply the task of killing time ashore and then re-focusing your efforts to put up some solid scores.

The winds did cooperate in some regard with a gentle breeze finally covering the complete race area with a 4-6 knot sea breeze. Some courses were fortunate enough to steal two races, while others racing against the shadow of darkness stole a single race, all important to everyone concerned as we fight to get in enough races to kick in the much talked about 'Medal Races'.

Canada’s hopefuls didn’t light it up today but then again they didn’t sail themselves out of contention either. Chris Cook in the Finn, Oskar Johansson/Kevin Stittle in the Tornado and Mike Leigh in the Laser all lurk just outside the medal race target, and each team looks forward to raising the stakes tomorrow to find a way into the now infamous final race.

Conditions look like they may even cooperate for the race committees with forecasts suggesting breeze in excess of six knots throughout the day.

As a side bar we are all quietly hoping that is six real knots and not six 'Qingdao knots' as they have already affectionately been named.

These 'Qingdao knots' are those forecast by the weather gurus in an effort to keep everyone’s spirits up, by my math skills a Qingdao knot is about ½ a North American knot and definitely less than a ¼ of a true European sailors knot.

Whether it is a Qingdao knot or not, everyone would be happy to see any pressure at all, particularly something that allowed the scheduled races to be executed.