Will and Leigh sail a blinder in final Olympic cat race

[Robert]

Leigh McMillan and Will Howden pulled out every stop and sailed a brilliant final win in the Tornado race today at Qingdao in exciting conditions. Apparently they did a similar job to get into this Medal Race. The light conditions made everything a bit random earlier in the series and unfortunately they couldn't get a podium place. However they did really show what a fantastic class the Tornado is for the Olympic games.

Unlike the 49er Medal Race, where the result was totally random and based on which crew capsized the fewest times, the catamarans creamed along and gave the viewers an exciting and attractive taste of the fast end of the sport of sailing. The onboard camera system worked perfectly, giving great images of the crews working the boats upwind and downwind. You could see the crews thinking and responding to the conditions very clearly for extended periods at speed, with the spray flying madly.

It is such a shame that the vested interests who wielded their influence during the ISAF selection of events for the 2012 Olympic Regatta in Weymouth have stolen away from the viewing public such an entertaining and exciting representation of fast sailing. What a disgrace.

Well done Will and Leigh for such a great finale. It was the only Tornado race I was able to view, live or otherwise, because there seems to have been no other coverage. Shame on the broadcasters too.

This race was as good as any of our medal winning performances and worth getting up at 6.00am every day for a week in order to finally see what should have been available all along.

My vote is to maybe even remove the 49ers in favour of cats as their medal race was just a joke. They couldn't even bear away in a few waves and perfectly sailable winds. However I am sure there are other even less deserving sailing categories planned for 2012. What relevance does ISAF have for catamaran sailors now and how can it possibly be representing the best interests of the sport as a whole when such excellent scenes won't be part of the Olympics and won't be encouraging more people to take part in this accessible, rewarding sport?

Robert

[Carl from Gurnard]

Seems like Robert has won Gold in the latest Olympic sport - Find the Tornado coverage. I have searched every day and have found none, either with my red button or on-line (even when the BBC web link has listed the Tornado).

[Steven Tunnacliffe]

Me neither Carl, Robert must know something we dont

Hi Robert, see you at the September TT at Carsington

[Bob Carter]

Did you try Freeview chanel 302?
It is where the red button takes you.
Cheers
Bob

[Carl from Gurnard]

Hi Bob,
I have Sky and no freeview at home.
My dad said that he found the Tornados on a Sky Sports channel not that he was looking I think it was half time in the football.

[Steven Tunnacliffe]

We are with Tiscalli which seems to be Italian for dont bother trying

[Bob Carter]

Why not view it on line?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00csjk6

Cheers
Bob

[Carl from Gurnard]

Thanks Bob,
It looks like the same link that I tried this morning when I got was the Star.

[Kevin Dutch]

Cheers Bob for posting that vid, I like many others have not had the chance to see any of the racing on the tele. Was good actually to see some, even with some decent wind also.

[Robert]

During one of the early morning broadcasts I heard the boring, repetitive commentator, when he was desperate for something slightly different to say, that they would be showing all of the medal races. Hence the Tornado race started at 6am prompt this morning. Cracking stuff, I thought.

[Bob Carter]

The commentator is Richard Simmonds, who used to be the MD at Performance Sailcraft, who used to sell the Dart 15. Nick & quite a few of us know him quite well. I think he is quite good*. The only problem is that they keep cutting to that twit in the RIB (Rob Walker?) at the most inopportune times, just when the race is going through a critical stage. It is not even as though he has got anything interesting to say. This morning they had Ben Ainsley with Richard Simmonds and he was adding some really good insights. It would have been much better without Rob Walker & Shirley Robertson in the rib.
Cheers
Bob
* you have to remember that the broadcast is not only for experienced sailors.

[Robert]

I bow to your superior knowledge Bob. I do recognise what he had to do regarding non sailing viewers and also that people may cut in and out of viewing the race. He did give an ongoing picture of the race and his info on overall placings was useful. I thought Shirley Robertson's insights were better from the commentary box and would have like to hear more from her as the race progressed. What I found is that watching and listening to his commentary every day became very tedious because of the very repetitive nature of his content, necessary or not.

What was more testing was the amount of time wasted by commentators in all situations when it would have been really nice to have seen more racing, rather than just what was closest to the shore. I'm sure that all the races would have been recorded, but I expect that the BBC, or whoever was responsible, decided not to give air time to them.

Rob Walker was not needed.

[Bob Carter]

Hi Robert
I did not see many full races - just a couple when Ben Ainsley was helping. The pictures of the races & graphics was nothing to do with the BBC - they just added the commentary and the comments. Evidently the only races that were televised by the Chinese were those on the closest course to the sailing centre. You could sometimes see other races going on in the background but they were not being televised.
When you watch them back on line on the BBC website they seem to edit out quite a lot of the Rob Walker bits - so they must realize that they are not great. At least Richard Simmonds does not get worked up into a fury over nothing.

[Andrew Hannah]

I've had a look at the BBC link that Bob has provided. Compared with the Tornados, the Stars look quite matronly.

[Robert]

Hi Robert
Evidently the only races that were televised by the Chinese were those on the closest course to the sailing centre. You could sometimes see other races going on in the background but they were not being televised.

So most of the sailing was not filmed? That's a huge contrast with lots of other sports, but I guess just pointing cameras at a track in a stadium or velodrome is more productive in terms of viewers. There's still loads of filler, nevertheless.

I'm sure I remember seeing a clip of the end of a laser race that wasn't shoreside.