Youth Olympics Singapore - a competitor's view

by Elise Beavis on 31 Aug 2010
Elise Beavis represented New Zealand in the Girls Byte class at the recent Youth Olympics in Singapore and placed 11th in a fleet of 26 from the same number of nations. Jack Collinson represented New Zealand in the Boys Byte placing 15th in a fleet of 26. Sadly there were no NZ representative in the Boys and Girls Tech 293 windsurfing event.

Here's Elise's report:

20 000 volunteers, 3600 athletes, 26 sporting disciplines – these were the figures most commonly cited at the amazing spectacle of the first Youth Olympic Games (YOG).To be part of the N.Z. team competing at this event was truly a privilege and the most wonderful experience of my life. It was completely unlike any other regatta, being away from my family, mixing with athletes from other sports, living in a village with communal bathrooms and dining hall all with insane levels of security- It was very different.

The Youth Olympics was run much like the actual Olympics but there was an emphasis on having fun and learning about other cultures through the CEP (cultural education program). Over the course of the event, school groups set up booths, one for each county as well as organizations such as the Red Cross and Red Crescent, there were booths about Olympic history being healthy and so on. There were concerts many nights in the village square. In our free time there was heaps to do, way more than any sailor (longest competition) could have time to do. As well as all the CEP activities which had prizes available for completing different components, there were table tennis rooms, dance club, pool rooms, a pool for free swimming, board game room, movie room, gaming rooms, computers which we could use… the list goes on.

The opening ceremony followed Olympic traditions but the performances, light show and fireworks were truly incredible. The setting on a floating stage in Marina Bay was incredible.

The accommodation was a decent walk from the dining hall which was located just beyond the booths the stage and the ‘transport mall,’ where the buses left from and down some stairs. The walk wasn’t too long, but after a day of sailing, with a bag of wet sailing gear, it would have been much nicer if we were just dropped at the doorstep. There were 2 people per room which worked okay for me because my roommate didn’t compete until the day of the medal race but it was hard at times because we wanted to get up and go to sleep at different times.

There were 4 sailing events, the girl’s and boys windsurfer(Techno) and the girl’s and boys single handed dingy (Byte CII). Countries were permitted to send one male and one female athlete for sailing (unless given an extra place after all the qualification events). New Zealand, as part of Oceania could qualify New Zealand in the Laser 4.7 in Australia which had two qualification places for Oceania or in France at the Byte CII Worlds. I didn’t go to Australia but New Zealand gained a qualification place for both the boys and girls in the dinghy class. If I was to be considered for selection to go to the YOG I had to participate in at least one qualification regatta which meant I needed to go to the Byte CII Worlds.

The Byte CII has a hull similar to a Laser and is designed by the same man, Ian Bruce, although it is shorter and the control lines run differently. The standard byte rig uses a Radial mast but the CII rig uses a tapered carbon mast with a fully battened (6 battens) mylar sail. It was designed to accommodate a wide weight range although the optimal weight is 59kg. Compared to other boats, it goes fast in light conditions, beating 420’s and all types of lasers when it is light but doesn’t go as well in windier conditions. At the Byte CII Worlds they said that they would not start a race over 19 knots, and would abandon a race if it got to 23 knots. They also used a triangular (could have windward leeward’s) course so that a downwind could be avoided in heavier wind. I thought they were a little cautious as I didn’t have any problems sailing downwind or in windier conditions.

After convincing my parents that I was capable with my Starling results, up to and including 2010 Nationals, we hired a Byte CII (1 of the 2 Bytes we are aware of in NZ). I started sailing , but I was still sailing my Starling at the same time so when I left for France I had sailed it no more than 15 times. In France I was incredibly lucky to have and greatly helped by having Andrew Murdoch as a coach. My event fitted in nicely between his regattas and it was great having such an amazing coach and someone so experienced to help me. I had no idea how I’d do, what the standard was compared to home and with it being my first international regatta I was very pleased with my result, seventh.. After the event, I was chosen as the female sailor for New Zealand (Jack Collinson was chosen as the male).
Returning home, I built up my hours on the water and when Andrew returned, he coached Jack and I. He also accompanied Jack and I to Singapore for a week to participate in the Singapore Byte CII nationals. My results were poor, mainly due to my hopeless starts which I had managed to overcome in France but had now returned. We returned home knowing what we needed to work on which was good.

North Sails' Andrew Wills (Wilzy) was chosen as our coach for the YOG because Andrew would be away sailing at the time. We only had one sail with Wilzy before we left NZ but he understood the boat pretty quickly and by that stage, Jack and I were pretty sorted on boat setup, boat handling and we knew we had good boat speed.

At the Youth Olympics, my starts were better than at the nationals, but on a number of them I was slightly back, and on the wrong angle when the gun went – I wasn’t getting the last 20 seconds right. The format for the racing was a practice race two days after the opening ceremony. We than had two days on, one day off, two days on, one day off, three days on. The last day only had the medal race followed by the medal ceremony. The first lay day came at the right day, we’d sailed every day we could up to the day of the practice race not taking a day off before the regatta started. The second lay day came too soon, due to a lack of wind, we’d only got two races in on the previous two days. The final three days were intense and I was tired at night, I would have rather had three days instead of two between the lay days.

We had to use the boats ‘as supplied’ which meant using all there lines etc. We couldn’t even use things such as our own handles on our lines and if a block broke, we had to tell the measurer, who would get a brand new one, even if we had identical spares our selves. There was a very good center board fixing operation, as they frequently got chipped down the back from not pulling it up on the correct angle. We would drop them off at the workshop after sailing if they needed fixing, then we would find them perfectly fixed in our boats under the cover the next morning.
When we were waiting for wind, or on the other hand, a thunderstorm to pass, it was fun hanging out with the Europeans that I had met at worlds and with the Aussie sailors which Jack and I spent a lot of time with at the Singapore Nationals.

On racing days, there were always ‘purple shirts’ (volunteers who had a uniform which was a purple shirt) to grab our trailers although they were all sailors, many failed to understand the concept of ‘dead to wind’ because the boats tip over on their trailers, and in the water easily due to the fully battened mylar sail.

The jury was very strict and there were yellow flags everywhere with people whipping their boats round as they were picked up on rule 42- I was never pinged although I got involved in a protest. There were numerous protests in the girl’s fleet.

I was hoping to finish in the top 10 and I ended up just outside, 11th out of 32girls (boys fleet only had 28). My mission now is to become a great starter because I have realized what a difference it can make.

The whole experience was amazing and I’d like to thank Yachting New Zealand for their support and especially Leslie Egnot who first told me about the YOG and then provided answers to a million questions. Ian Neely also allowed me to join in with the Radial Youth team coaching before they went away which was great as it gave me someone to sail with. I’d also like to thank Mike Pasco for the great gear he gave me. Jim Maloney who had faith in my ability, Rob Salthouse who helped me to achieve a good result at Starling Nationals which led on to the decision to go to France, Andrew Murdoch and Andrew Wills for the Byte coaching and taking time away from home to help me. Of course I have to thank everyone at Murrays Bay, the coaches over the years and especially all the Starling sailors, not just the ones from Murrays Bay(who have been incredibly supportive) but all the Starling sailors who have created the very high standard in the fleet.

Overall we had the right amount of time in Singapore before the regatta started and I think it was very beneficial going to the Worlds, not the Australian regatta and going up to Singapore for a week 2 months before the games. It was good having another Byte CII sailor but I did the majority of my training (5 days per week) alone as it was hard organizing to sail together and in retrospect we should have made a greater effort to sail together.

For future Youth Olympics, I think the sailing event should be promoted well beforehand and everyone who is the right age made aware of the event. I didn’t know that there was a YOG until last December when my focus was on the Starling Nationals. It was difficult getting hold of the boat and if YNZ had a couple, say four then more kids could sail them together and more would be keen to try the Byte CII. From New Zealand, the four (for example) best, two boys and two girls, could go to the Worlds to qualify. I don’t think qualifying in the laser 4.7 is suitable because it is a different boat and I would assume that most people in contention for going to the YOG would be Starling Sailors and it’s hard enough learning to sail a Byte CII, let alone a Laser also.

These four, or however many more should be aware that they could go to the YOG at least a year in advance so that they can continue sailing their usual boat to maintain fleet experience but still allow time to learn how to sail the Byte CII because it is different. For the last couple of months, I’d suggest just sailing the Byte to get really comfortable in it instead of swapping and changing between two similar sized, but very different boats. Having this longer time period allows more time to fix personal problems, for me that was starts, and between April and August there is little fleet racing so I couldn’t get on a line with many other boats. It is important also to learn about protest procedure, what to do etc.!

I think the key thing for future youth Olympians is the coaches. They need to be experienced in the Byte, I learnt so much more in my first couple of days in France about boat setup. Both Andrew’s know a lot about the boat, and as do Jack and I, even if someone with the boat knowledge isn’t a full time coach, they should start them off so that boat setup is good from the start –hint: don’t watch the designer’s videos; it’s not the fastest way to sail.
Of course it was impossible for us, but as above with boat setup, knowledge is useful, having a talk about experiences from Singapore; how it differs from all other regattas, how sailing differs from the other sports and what could be expected- though expect everything, you never know what will happen till you’re there.

I have learned to much and it’s been a great experience and now I’m keen to get back in my Starling to see how much it has helped. I would definitely recommend the YOG to all sailors which are the right age for the next one (1998-99 if same age group used) because it is the most amazing experience and one that will be hard to beat.