If you are planning to visit the sailing Olympics here's all our tips of where to watch and what to do
If you’re planning a visit to Weymouth this weekend to see the sailing and the culmination on Sunday of the Finn and Star classes, here’s the latest from my outpost on the beach. I’ll update if anything changes.
There have been significantly more people everywhere in Weymouth today, including the live screens at the town end of the beach. That area looked quite full for the first time, although there’s still plenty of room for more.
There were also more than enough seats on the trains running into Weymouth and reportedly traffic has been running OK and there are no shortage of park and ride places.
The weather has been great all week and though there are boisterous winds for the fleets today it’s been fantastic on land.
So I’ve nothing negative to report at all. The water’s fine; come on in.
If it stays this way there are likely to be the largest crowds on ‘Ainslie Sunday’ as that’s when Big Ben does his double-points medal race, and after their gladiatorial crusade all week it will probably run close between him and the Danish sailor Jonas Hogh-Christensen. Get here and claim your spot if you can by 1100. Racing will start at 1200.
I’ve posted quite a bit about the options for watching the racing in Weymouth, so do read these top tips, FAQs of reader questions and other of my observations, which are all linked below.
https://www.yachtingworld.com/olympics-2012/beach/532271/a-brilliant-day-at-the-sailing-olympics
In case there’s any confusion, the short version is that you have six options:
1. Sit on the beach and watch racing on big screens. It’s free. That gives you all the commentary, live coverage of all the fleets and animations that make sense of it all. The atmosphere is good and it’s a short stroll from town. However, the harbour wall obscures the racing areas so you cannot see the real-life racing from here.
2. Walk to the Stone pier (see annotated map at the foot of this story) for a view of the Nothe medal course and bring binoculars.
3. Go to Newton’s Cove and see the top mark rounding just offshore (see annnotated map at the foot of this story)
4. Go along the bay to Ringstead or Osmington for the outer courses (see course map here) and bring binoculars.
5. Get the best of options 2, 3 and 4 and bring along a mobile device eg smartphone or tablet and watch the live TV and commentary on BBC (video site here) at the same time. The 3G network here is very good and from what I’ve found the coverage has been streaming well.
According to the BBC, watching 30 minutes of video ‘may consume between 25MB and 112MB of data depending on your connection speed’. More info on this here.
6. Spectate from your yacht, but only if you’re already in Weymouth. There are only two remaining berths for this weekend (as of Thursday 2nd) with special permission for access to the race area. After this weekend there are many more places. More information here.
I think we have probably covered most things that you might need to know, from bringing a dog to the state of the toilets and provision of paper (the things I do for you, dear reader), so please do check over the various links above and you will most likely find what you’re after.
