5th August 2008
By Peter Campbell
Three members of the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron are among the strong Australian team contesting the sailing regatta of the Beijing Olympic Games, with competition starting at Qingdao next Saturday, 9 August.
Australia will be represented in all classes except the RS-X men’s windsurfer, with the team regarded as one of the leading contenders for gold medals, notably in the Laser, 470 men and Tornado classes. Some 400 sailors from 62 nations will contest the regatta.
Iain Murray & Andrew Palfrey
Representing the Squadron in the sailing regatta at Qingdao will be Iain Murray (Star class helmsman), Karyn Gojnich (Yngling mainsheet) and Nathan Outterridge (49er helmsman).
For Murray, the oldest member of the team, this will be his first Olympic Games, the climax of a remarkable sailing career that has included World Championship wins in 18-foot skiffs and Etchells, challenging for and defending the America’s Cup as a skipper and designer, and winning the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race, also both as a skipper and as a yacht designer.
Murray and his crew Andrew Palfrey have been sailing the Star keelboat for the past six years, steadily lifting their performances in international regattas. They are considered the ‘dark horses’ for a medal among the Australian team.
Karyn Gojnich, Angela Farrell & Krystal Weir
Karyn Gojnich is a veteran of two Olympic Games, partnering Nicky Bethwaite (also a RSYS member) in the women’s 470 dinghy class at the Seoul Olympics in 1988 and in the Ynglng keelboat class at the Athens Games in 2004.
She will join with two younger sailors, Krystal Weir (helm) and Angela Farrell (bow) in sailing the Yngling at Qingdao, a team that has come together well despite Nicky Bethwaite being replaced as helmsperson after being injured in an off-road cycling accident late last year.
Nathan Outteridge has come from sailing Sabots and Flying Elevens and then internationally in 420s and 470s to world success in the high performance 49er class. Between 2004 and 2008 he has recovered from a car accident, which broke his back, to gaining Olympic selection in the 49er class with Ben Austin as his crew.
Racing Format & Scoring
At the 2008 Olympic sailing competition a new Olympic Format will be used for the first time, decided on at the ISAF Council at the 2005 ISAF Annual Conference in Singapore.
For each event the sailing competition will consist of an opening series and a medal race. Eleven races are scheduled for each event in which Australia is represented - of the 11 races, 10 are scheduled as opening series races and one as a Medal Race.
During the opening series, competitors score points equivalent to the position in which they finished the race (i.e. first place scores one point, second place two points). There are a number of letter scores awarded for breaking the Racing Rules of Sailing (such as crossing the line early etc), which usually incur a points score of the equivalent of a last-place finish +1 point.
The series score of each boat is the total of their race scores, except after five races they shall discard their worst race score.
The top ten boats (i.e. the ten boats with the lowest series score) at the end of the opening series progress to the Medal Race (for the other boats the competition is over and the positions from 11 upwards are final). The Medal Race is sailed over a shorter course close in to the shore, with a race target time of approximately 30 minutes.
Scores in the Medal Race are doubled (i.e. you score two points for first place, four points for second place etc) and any letter scores (for crossing the line early, kinetics etc) are calculated based on a fleet size of ten. The Medal Race is officiated by on-the-water umpires, with sailors required to make any protests during the race.
For the top ten competitors, scores from the Medal Race are added to their score from the opening series to decide the final positions. Any ties in the overall score at the end of the Medal Race shall be broken in favour of the boat that recorded the better finish in the Medal Race.
The Events & Boats
Australia will be represented in ten of the eleven Olympic sailing events:
Laser – Men’s one-person dinghy
Total fleet: 40
Australia’s representative: Tom Slingsby (NSW), ISAF ranked No 1 and back-to-back World Champion.
Laser Radial – Women’s one-person dinghy
Total fleet: 26
Australia’s representative: Sarah Blanck (Vic), Olympian 2004 and 2002 World Champion.
RS:X – Women’s windsurfer
Total fleet: 28
Australia’s representative: Jessica Crisp, (Malaysia), Olympian 2000, 2004.
Finn – Heavyweight Dinghy
Total fleet: 26
Australia’s representative: Anthony Nossiter (NSW), Olympian 2000, 2004.
Star – Men’s Keelboat (Two-person)
Total fleet: 16
Australia’s representatives: Iain Murray (NSW), helm & Andrew Palfrey (NSW), crew. First Olympic games for Murray, one of Australia’s most successful yachtsman and yacht designer.
470 – Men’s two-person dinghy
Total fleet: 30
Australia’s representatives: Nathan Wilmot (NSW) & Malcolm Page (NSW), ISAF World ranked No 1 and current World Champions.
470 – Women’s two-person dinghy
Total fleet: 19
Australia’s representatives: Elise Rechichi (WA) and Tessa Parkinson (SW), Won 2007 Olympic Test event at Qingdao.
High Performance Skiff – 49-er
Total fleet: 19
Nathan Outteridge (NSW) and Ben Austin (NSW). 2008 World Champions
Tornado catamaran
Total fleet: 15
Darren Bundock (NSW) and Glenn Ashby (Vic). ISAF World ranked No 1 and 2006 World Champions.
Women’s keelboat – Yngling
Total fleet: 15
Krystal Weir (Vic), helm, Karyn Gojnich (NSW), main, Angela Farrell (NSW), bow. Finished 2nd in 2008 Yngling women’s World Championship.
Website links
www.sailing.org/olympics - The ISAF Olympic Games microsite will have live competition information, international news and photography. Key Documents, background information and Olympic sailing history will also be available here.
http://www.sailing2008.org/en/ – The official site of the Olympic Sailing Regatta in English
http://www.sail-world.com - Australian/International sailing web site team will be reporting from Qingdao.
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