Sailing

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Sports Argument Stadium > Summer Olympics > Sailing

exe cummings: Jan 22, 2005

Often overlooked and niche, sailing (called yachting until 2000), is a sport with serious Olympic heritage that is still pushing the boundaries of technology and skill today. It began in the 1900s with inshore and offshore classes with no standardized design, from one-man dinghies all the way up to two-masted 20+ ton yachts.

Today, the sport is standardized into "one-design" boat classes, including windsurfing, various one or two-person monohulls and multihulls. The US, Australia, and GB have historically shared the medals, although European countries like Norway, Spain, France, Denmark, and Italy do very well, reflecting those countries' Age of Sail heritage and coastal cities.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwNQ0mbh3qM

Intro to Olympic sailing

Schedule and Results

Windsurfer - RS:X (medal race was July 31st Tokyo time)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lgow2Gy9Dog
Basically a surfboard with a sail. I don't know much about these but it looks fun.

Mixed Foiling Monohull - Nacra 17 (medal race was July 31 Tokyo time)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUwAe6SQvtA
If you want a good idea of where sailing as a sport is going, watch some of the Nacra 17 races. It's one of the only true mixed-gender Olympic sports (the other being equestrian events). It has all the complications and skills on display: foiling, trapeezes, and spinnakers. These boats are fast and fun to watch, especially when they lift up out of the water and ride the hydrofoils. This catamaran is the newest on the Olympic schedule and this is the first year that foiling has been introduced.

One Person Dinghy - Laser and Laser Radial (medal race was Sunday August 1 Tokyo time)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nY00bSdHyKY
The Laser is a smaller one-person dinghy with only a mainsail. It's a physically challenging boat to sail at a high level, especially since this year the rules allow the sailors to pump the sails for the entire course. Lots of sailors get their competitive start in this class before moving up to the bigger boats. This boat is very popular worldwide, and if there's a sailing club near you, there's guaranteed to be a few Lasers.

Two Person Skiff - 49er and 49er FX (medal race is Monday August 2nd Tokyo time)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUYp5A-LKF8
The 49er (named for its 4.99m length) is a two person monohull skiff, with a huge sail area and is arguably the most competitive class.

Heavyweight Dinghy - Finn (medal race is Tuesday August 3rd Tokyo time)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCSmgORVI8U
Known as the 'heavyweight dinghy' (lol) the Finn is the boys-only big boy of the one-boy boats, and has the longest heritage in the Olympics since 1952. Great Britain has dominated this class since 2002, but the field is wide open this year.

Two Person Dinghy - 470 (medal race is Wed August 4th Tokyo time)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-BeCbDOUCM
Lightweight with a crew trapeze and spinnaker, the 470 requires less physical strength to sail than some of the other boats, but makes up for it by being tactically demanding.

I'm new to sailing myself, so I don't know too much about the athletes or rivalries. I have raced sailboats, including Lasers, so I can try to answer some questions. I posted the schedules above in Tokyo time, but they seem to be live around 10pm CDT, assuming you can actually find NBC's terrible coverage.

exe cummings fucked around with this message at 20:35 on Aug 1, 2021