LIGHT TO NON-EXISTENT WIND TESTS PATIENCE OF SOME, DELIVERS FOR OTHERS AT ASIAN OLYMPIC QUALIFIERS IN PATTAYA

There are those who joke that sailing is a sport where one sits around waiting for the wind all day. Day Four of the 2023 Asian Sailing Championships was such a day, sailors hoping to qualify for Paris 2024 finding their patience tested rather than their sailing skills.

After several days of 8-11 knots, the wind faltered. Light wind in the morning allowed for two races, but then it dropped below the threshold for racing. When it did eventually begin building again, course corrections were needed as it had changed direction by 180 degrees. Only around 3pm did the wind finally gain enough strength for racing, but, by then, as one ILCA race officer commented, “we had no customers left”. Exhausted after four hours in the sun on the water, many sailors had already headed to shore, wagering the wind would not fill in. The 470s stayed however and got two more races in, ending just as the sun began to set.

The races that were held may be consequential. In the 49erFXs, the very light wind enabled two Japanese teams to claim higher positions on the leaderboard. In the 470s, China held onto the top two spots, a Korean team snuck in a top three result, and the Malaysians remained in the game for a place on the podium.

In the double-handed female skiff, the 49erFx, Japan’s Misaki Tanaka and Sera Nagamatsu are now second overall with 31 points to the Chinese fleet leader’s 21. Singaporean’s Kimberly Lim and Cecilia Low closely follow with 32 points, and Japan’s Anna Yamazaki and Sena Takano at 34. The two Japanese teams delivered a second day of top results, each winning one race, placing third in the other, and the Singaporeans managed another second-place finish. With two more races scheduled for Monday and a medal race where points are doubled on Tuesday, the Chinese team of Xiaoyu Hu and Mengyuan Shan cannot rest just yet.

The Japanese may well be wishing for continued light conditions. As Sera Nagamatsu said, “Sailing in these conditions has been a point of focus for us since the second half of the year, so we are happy to have been able to show the results of our practice. We will try to do the same tomorrow and close the gap between ourselves and the leaders.”

Her helm Misaki Tanaka added, “We were able to catch a good wind connection in the light wind. Our speed was not particularly good, but I kept communicating with my crew and we raced well. Now we are closer to the leader, and we will do our best tomorrow.”

Anna Yamazaki, currently in fourth place overall with her crew Sena Takano, echoed the feeling. “We were able to maximise our boat speed in light winds, which is our strength. We are happy to have been able to prove we can perform, albeit in the second half of the competition. It is difficult to predict what kind of wind we will have tomorrow, but we will do our best until the end.”

In the mixed male-female 470 fleet, Chinese teams are poised to take all three medals, but a poor performance by any of them on the water on December 18 or in the medal race on December 19 could give Malaysian’s Muhammad Fauzi Bin Kaman Shah and Juni Karimah Binti Noor Jamali a bump onto the podium, the duo just one point behind third-placed China’s Wenju Dong and Jingsa Wang.

The final day of fleet racing will take place on December 18. The race committee hopes to get in two more races in the 49erFX, 470s and Nacra 17, three each in the ILCA 6 and 7, and four in the 49er. It will be a long day, at the end of which only the top ten sailors in each fleet move onto the medal races on December 19.

The 2023 Asian Sailing Championship and Asian qualifier for Paris 2024 is organized by the Yacht Racing Association of Thailand and the Royal Thai Navy, with the support of World Sailing and the Asian Sailing Federation. Sponsors include the Sports Authority of Thailand, Chonburi Province, and Pattaya City. The event is being staged at the Royal Varuna Yacht Club in Pattaya, Thailand, which also hosted the ILCA Asian and Oceanian Championship and the ILCA Master Worlds Championships in the past year.

For results, see https://www.pattaya-olympic-qualifier.com/results/

To follow live tracking for remaining races, click here.

Report by Nima Chandler

Photographer – Saksiri Subying