The International Sailing Federation (ISF) wants the 2008 Beijing Olympics to be moved from the end of July to September to avoid the “serious problem” of the typhoon and monsoon season. IOC member and ISF president Paul Henderson will ask IOC president Jacques Rogge – a yachtsman in three Olympics – to consider the change.
Henderson said, “both Tokyo in 1964 and Seoul in 1988 held the Games in September to avoid the monsoon-typhoon season coupled with the intense heat and rain they bring. It is sincerely hoped that the new IOC executive board will address this serious problem immediately”.
The 2008 sailing events will be held in Qingdoa, 350 miles southeast of Beijing in the Pacific Ocean. Henderson said Qingdoa would provide a “unique experience” for Olympic sailors.
The Daily Telegraph said that Beijing’s Olympic organizing committee had given July windspeed figures of 4-5 metres per second between noon and 5 p.m., when racing usually is held. It’s the equivalent to 8-10 knots, or very light winds.
The paper also said that during the Optimist World Championships, which ended Sunday at Qingdoa, only one race was possible in the first three days. It said, dominating the 208-boat, 45-nation fleet were Asian sailors who were used to the light winds.
Fiona Campbell, the meteorologist to the British team at the championships, said weather problems in July were two-fold. “The monsoon can bring heavy rain, which will squash the light wind. The heat drawn off the land mass to the west will be intense. There is also the risk of typhoons curling up the coast from the southeast. September is a calmer period”.
