Slap and dash- images from day 7 at Qingdao

by Guy Nowell, Sail-World Asia on 16 Aug 2008
A bit of a mixed day at Qingdao – but it ended with sunshine, and smiles from at least one photographer!

There was an early start this morning – everything brought forward an hour – to try to make up for yesterday’s wash-out. That didn’t work, as there wasn’t much breeze out on Course A, which might have been the lull before a threatened storm that sent the Star and Tornado fleets running for the boat park.

The storm didn’t come to pass, and eventually the AP came down and once again it was a dash out to the boats followed by a dash out to the race course. We were rewarded with some late afternoon sunshine to send the two fleets away on the first races of their respective series.

Both boats - Star and Tornado - have a speciality trick that looks good on camera – the Tornados of course get the photographers’ attention by flying a hull, while the Stars ‘slap’ the water with their forefoot which makes for a very satisfactory splashy shot.

It didn’t last long, but while the light was good the pictures were great. Enjoy!