Team GBR Olympic Team Announcement

The team so far picked has just been announced. http://www.rya.org.uk/NewsAndEvents/newsroom/news/teamgbrbeijingsquad.htm

Those selected for definite are:

Yngling – women’s keelboat
Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson
49er – skiff
Stevie Morrison and Ben Rhodes
Laser – men’s one person dinghy
Paul Goodison

Then come a group who will be selected subject to the agreement of, and delivery against, certain performance targets:

RS:X – men’s windsurfer
Nick Dempsey
RS:X – women’s windsurfer
Bryony Shaw
470 – men’s two person dinghy
Nick Rogers and Joe Glanfield
470 – women’s two person dinghy
Christina Bassadone and Saskia Clark
Tornado – multihull
Leigh McMillan and Will Howden

In the Laser Radial class (women’s one person dinghy) the trials process will continue for a shortlist of four sailors – namely Charlotte Dobson, Penny Clark, Andrea Brewster and Lizzie Vickers – whose performances will be assessed at a number of regattas in the spring of 2008.

In the Finn (heavyweight dinghy) and Star (men’s keelboat) classes, the RYA’s selectors have deferred their selection decisions, pending further discussions with the sailors concerned.

The latter decision has to refer to Ben Ainslie and Iain Percy being declared earlier this week with major roles to play in the British America’s Cup challenge http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/sailing/6994764.stm

So my ex-crew member Annie Lush didn’t make it ( crewing for Shirley Robertson). Twice – so near and yet so far. My heart goes out to her.

‘Corinthian’

Scuttlebutt, the daily internet sailing news www.scuttlebutt.europe , has come up with two stories today. This first one, from John Rousmaniere, I find fascinating since the term ‘corinthian’ is bandied around every so often in defense of all sorts of traditions, yet in fact the original meaning is very different:

‘The image of a "Corinthian" as a buttoned-up, blue-blazered, stiff-necked amateur yachtsman is relatively new. The word originated with the citizens of the ancient port of Corinth who were famous both as fine sailors and as exuberant risk-takers in numerous activities, legal and otherwise. "It was a place of proverbial wickedness, energy, riches, noise," A.N. Wilson says of first-century Corinth. A.N. Wilson says of first-century Corinth. Evidence of the rebellious nature of the Corinthians can be found in the New Testament in St. Paul's chiding letters to the city's early Christians. Centuries later, Shakespeare had wild young prince Hal describe himself as "a Corinthian, a lad of mettle, a good boy."

So when young American and British amateur racing sailors 150 years or so ago called themselves and their yacht clubs "Corinthian," they were identifying their efforts as a revolution. The skill and courage required for a volunteer sailor to prepare, command, and crew a big, fragile racing sailboat in a very professional (and very rough) game were noteworthy. So too was the love of risk that lay behind it - a daring not always found among professionals and their wealthy patrons.’

Team GBR in SPYING ROW WITH CHINA

And here is the second Scuttlebutt article. This may have more fiction than fact in it, but it sounds amazing:

BRITISH SAILING TEAM IN SPYING ROW WITH CHINA Britain is embroiled in a bizarre spying row with China after the confiscation of weather monitoring equipment used by the British Olympic sailing team.

The gear was taken when Chinese police officers raided the team's flat, which is near a Chinese Navy submarine training base in the northern city of Qingdao.

They removed two 5ft tall weather stations, worth 8,000, from the apartment and sent them for analysis.

The team is in China preparing for next year's Olympics and had been using the equipment to download data on temperatures and wave and wind directions.

Stephen Park, the Royal Yachting Association's Olympic manager, said last night: "We have been told by friends and sources in China that the authorities thought our equipment could be used for spying. In fact, it is purely so we know the precise weather conditions we will encounter."

He added: "We have informed Foreign Office officials.

"We'd like the equipment back."

The raid took place in March last year and the equipment has not yet been returned.

Zhao Shangsen, spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in London, said: "I am not in a position to comment on the details of the incident." -- The Daily Mail, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=480806&in_page_id=1770&in_a_source=