USA Yngling crew report on life in Qingdao

by Team 7 Media on 15 Jul 2008 Hello Everyone,

Team 7 is back in the USA and as we packed up after our month of training in Qingdao it was obvious around the boat park that the days to the Olympics are counting down. Hearts are beating faster, energy is building, deadlines are approaching and the ultimate crunch time is close.

Shuttle to the Olympic sailing venue

Everywhere in Qingdao we can see the stepped-up pace. It’s visible in the final stages of China’s massive effort to host the Olympic. You can see small details on every street corner or watch the thousands of hands adding the finishing touches to the masterpieces. It’s obvious that China, the largest country in the World, the home of 1.3 billion people which is more than one fifth the world’s population, is anxious to start the show. The country is putting in an incredible effort, spending upwards of 30 billion dollars to host the Games. In our travels to China over the past two years we have literally been a part of that transformation.

While Beijing will host the games, the Olympic sailing event is 342 miles southeast in the coastal city of Qingdao. Similar in population size to New York, with nine million residents, Qingdao has been undergoing an entire remake. We have seen high-rise after high-rise break into the sky, an entire airport recreated, new highways, a ship-building yard turned into an Olympic Harbor and venue, and hundreds of fishing boats and coastal vessels assigned to clean the waters of Fusan Bay.

Waiting for instructions during hotel fire drill

As intensity built this past month amongst the athletes training here, the wind and weather conditions became much less cooperative. If we had waited for 'ideal' conditions then we might never have sailed. Each day we had to deal with one or all of the following factors: thick fog with dangerous low visibility, light winds, strong currents, vile smells on the water, endless clinging algae floating islands. Did this stop Team 7? No way! We had great training. We just had to broaden our learning, make specific game plans and go for it.

We are happy to report that the algae outbreak seems to have been successfully tackled by the hundreds of dedicated ships, fishing boats and thousands of workers. Efforts have even extended to a seemingly-endless floating boom to protect the waters of Fusan Bay. However, if the algae does make a comeback, we are ready to deal with it!

We are often asked about sailing in light winds. Sailing in light weather conditions just turns the game towards 90% mental and 10% strength. Sailing is a game of chess. We do not race in a circle like a track runner or race car driver. We have to factor in the moving ocean currents and changing wind conditions. We must also consider wind 'blocks' from other boats as our courses change to reach each mark.

We would love to have fresh breezes next month and muscle the boat around, but this event in Qingdao looks like being different. We may be sitting inside our Yngling, moving slow and steady but that won’t make the race any less exciting. It will just be less focused on the physical. And you never know, a typhoon may come through and it will be 'hold on to your hats windy.'

Athlete accommodation with ensuite bathroom

We had three days off while here and on one, we took a tour of the Olympic Village here. Sailing has its own Olympic village, on a much smaller scale than that in Beijing, which should make life much less distracting. This way we won’t bump into some swimming hunk in a speedo on the day of our medal race! The housing will evolve into a brand new InterContinental Hotel after its role as home to Olympic sailors. The hotel is on-site overlooking the Olympic Harbor. This was an organized visit and we had an eventful day, including a full test run of the check-in operation, a fire drill complete with real smoke, a tour of all the amenities and an authentic Chinese buffet lunch. Then we went back to our hotel for a second lunch!

We know we have been extremely fortunate to have spent such a considerable amount of time at the sailing venue this year as well as the two pre-Olympic events in 2006 and 2007. Your support helped to make that possible. Learning the wind and water patterns has been part of our strategy for all of our big events. Now it is for the real deal. Olympics . . . here we come!

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Remember, our Team 7 site is at http://www.team7sailing.com

Carrie Howe for Team Seven Sailing - Sally Barkow, Debbie Capozzi & Carrie Howe