100 sailors from 60 different nations including Owen Siese competing in the inaugural Youth Olympic Games headed out for their practice race this afternoon.
Two fleets of Byte Cll dinghies and Techno 293 windsurfers left the beach at the National Sailing Centre in Singapore for a practice race scheduled to start at 15.00 hrs local time.
At lunchtime a storm passed by, bringing good winds of around 12 knots with choppy waters. However, it did not last long and by the time the Race Committee started the Boys Byte Cll division, the breeze on both courses had dropped to around six knots. As the leader was halfway up the first leg the fickle breeze dropped to a mere two knots.
The current was also opposing the direction the sailors were heading for the windward mark. These sailing conditions were going to push the patience and tactical prowess of the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) sailors to the limits.
Even though they were not ideal, the athletes had a strong drive to try and get the best out of this practice race just one day before the real YOG competition starts.
Half an hour before the start of the race, the sailors were already out on the water conducting their pre-race routines. This saw many of them pacing each other to check their boat speed, sailing up and down the course to check which side of the course is more favourable, checking for any line bias at the start lines and checking the speed of the current, etc.
The Boys Byte Cll start was a rather tricky one, with the wind shifting during the five minute countdown. This meant that the biased end of the start line shifted from port side to starboard side. This massive wind shift caught many sailors off guard and they ended up stuck on the less favourable side of the line as they couldn't reach the starboard side on time. In the end, Peter Batho of Hungary got the best start out of the fleet off the starboard side of the line.
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