Two years out from the 2008 Olympic sailing competition, the brand new Qingdao Olympic Sailing Centre is being put through its paces for the first time this week at the 2006 Qingdao International Regatta the first of the Olympic Test Events for 2008.
RYA Olympic Manager Stephen Park shares his thoughts on the new facility and how Qingdao itself is gearing up for its first big Olympic classes regatta .
The first point to note is how much of a big deal the city of Qingdao is making for this event you would think it was the Olympic Games itself! observes Park.
There are flags on pretty much every lamp post in the city, and banners on hotels and other buildings throughout the city welcoming us all to the 2006 Qingdao International Regatta and urging the local people to 'be a good host'.
The media centre at the venue is also buzzing with Chinese media reporting on the event, all desperate to know what Skandia Team GBR and the other competing nations think of the facilities, the organisation and their welcome. They are immensely proud to be hosting this event.
The venue itself is good. It s been built pretty quickly, as it was really just a building site when the team visited here 11 months ago, but there was never any doubt about the venue s readiness for this first test event.
The site layout has been divided up well it s a big marina but the areas and facilities that the sailors themselves need to access is relatively compact, certainly more so than Athens. The dinghy park is more compact, and athlete services, the jury rooms and ISAF offices are all close together, housed in the same building, whereas the docking and management of rescue boats and RIBs is looked after in separate area to where the coach boat pontoons are.
The athletes lounge and officials offices are all impressive, and what s more they re housed in a permanent structure, which was not the case for Athens, or for Sydney where more temporary buildings were used. For 2008 these buildings will have morphed again this time into the Poly-clinic.
The officials boats are all in good order, are rigged and ready to go, and look impressive, and there s an eight-pump fuel dock at the marina, with fuel working out at just under 40p per litre.
Security on site is good and the security and accreditation staff are doing their job well, but in a friendly and courteous way. Airport-style scans are made to accreditation passes and bags etc as you enter the venue, just as they are for the Games, and there are also accreditation checkpoints by the various zones within the venue.
All in all, it's working pretty well so far, but there is still some work to be done to make the venue 'Games ready'. The supply of water and electricity to the container area still needs to be sorted, and there s a bit to do on the pontoons for the coach boats to take them to the edge of the water, otherwise there s a risk of damage. The ramps at the edge of the dinghy park are also quite steep, and the cranes for the keelboats will also benefit from a little customisation. It is likely that most of this work will happen before the week is out.
The Olympic Village, which is expected to become part of the Intercontinental hotel chain, will house all the athletes and team officials, is still being constructed but is due to be completed and operational for next year s test event. So, when we come back here in 2007, and with only one boat per class I expect it really will be like the Olympics have come one year early.
Operationally everything s looking good, so now we just need to hope the weather plays nicely and we ll be in for a good regatta!