Andy Rice Dinghies

Is it time to be realistic about what makes a great sailing venue, and stop going to sub-par locations out of a misplaced sense of loyalty?

On my first visit to the Land of the Rising Sun, it was ironic that the big, hot yellow dot in the sky barely broke through the rain clouds. I was in Gamagori, Japan, for a week of TV commentary at an Olympic classes regatta, the first leg of the not-so-catchily titled World Sailing’s World Cup Series.

It poured with rain pretty much the whole time, and there wasn’t much in the way of wind either, at least not until the second half of the final day when Typhoon Lan made landfall, bringing with it gusts in excess of 100 knots, by which time we were holed up in our hotel with a good supply of Asahi beer and a well-stocked karaoke machine.

It was probably the most consistently dire weather I’ve ever witnessed at a sailing regatta, which was a real shame for Gamagori. The onshore facilities were excellent, and the Japanese Sailing Federation has designated this as the future venue for world class competition, the country’s version of Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Centre, you could say. I think we were just extremely unlucky with the weather that was thrown at us that week, and I hear the Tasars enjoyed a very good world championship there a few weeks earlier.