Weymouth and Portland provide some of the best natural sailing waters in the UK, with facilities on land to match. Creating the venue involved regenerating a the former Naval Air Station at Portland, now known as Osprey Quay and it will be a fantastic Games-time destination.
Heading up Australia's medal hopes will be five-time World Champion and 2010 International Sailor of the Year Tom Slingsby in the laser radial, World Champion 470 racers Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page and World Champion 49ers Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen. Slingsby will be out to avenge his disappointing Beijing result meaning the lasers will be a hot race to watch. Page is out to become the first sailor to defend his 470 Olympic title.
Beijing 470 champion Elise Rechichi has returned to race with Sydney 2000 champion Belinda Stowell. The pair were 9th at the 2011 World Championships in Perth and are improving with each regatta. Women's match racing makes its Olympic debut in 2012.
SAILING FORMAT
Sailing competition is run in different classes, or types of boats and in any race, only boats of the same class compete against each other. At the Olympic Games all racing boats are built to the same strict rules, so no competitor has a design advantage over another with their boat.
There are single-handed, double-handed or three-person classes. Changes to the Olympic sailing program for the 2012 Games mean there will be in six men’s and four women’s classes. The Finn Heavyweight Dinghy and Two Person Dinghy 49er classes will become male only events. The second change is that Keelboat Match Racing - Elliot 6m will replace Yngling Women’s Keelboat. The Tornado Multihull class has been removed.
Points are awarded equating to the position where the boats finishes (i.e. 1st receives one point, 2nd receives two points etc). All classes sail 11 races in an Olympic regatta except for the 49er class which sail 16. Classes will sail up to three races on a day dependent on the weather.
QUALIFICATION AND SELECTION
Six athletes have been selected to the sailing section so far: Mat Belcher and Malclom Page (470); Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen (49er); Tom Slingsby (laser) and Jessica Crisp (RS:X). To view their profiles click here>>>
Each National Olympic Committee (NOC) has a total maximum of quota places of 16 in the Olympic sailing competition (9 men - 1 boat per event and 7 women - 1 boat per event).
75% of each event's entry quota shall be qualified from those best ranked NOCs in each of the relevant events at the 2011 ISAF World Championships.
25% of each event's entry quota shall be qualified from each event’s 2012 World Championships or other event sanctioned by ISAF, to finish by 1 June 2012 at the latest. Those NOCs already qualified from the previous qualifying regattas shall not be considered. The 2012 Women’s Match Racing qualifying regatta will be sanctioned by ISAF but does not need to be a World Championship.
For all the Nomination and Selection documentation click here>>>
AUSTRALIAN OLYMPIC HISTORY
The first Olympic sailing (or yachting, as it was known up to and including 1996) events were conducted in Paris 1900. After a break from Olympic competition in 1904 due to problems transporting boats and equipment from Europe to inland USA, sailing commenced its unbroken run as an Olympic sport at London 1908.
The first Australian Olympic sailors were Alexander “Jock” Sturrock, Len Fenton and Robert French in London 1948. Two Olympiads later in Melbourne in 1956, Australia grabbed their first medals - a bronze and a silver in the 5.5 Class and 12 Metre respectively. The first of seven gold medals was achieved eight years later in Tokyo.
To read more about Australia’s Olympic sailing history, click here>>>