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Lasers: its all plain sailing

By Jacqueline Hewett

When we are searching for news, one of the keywords we use is “laser”. This generally returns a long and varied list of potential news stories but in summer, and especially every four years when the Olympics are on, searching for “laser” often brings up news of sailing regattas. And the reason? The Laser class.

So with the Olympics just round the corner, I called the press office of the UK’s Royal Yachting Association this morning to get the lowdown on what a Laser is and the chances our Laser sailors have of bringing home a medal.

Laser 101: What is a Laser? The Laser is the world’s most popular single-handed dinghy and made its debut at the Olympics in 1996. The boat itself has a single sail and must conform to rigorous design specifications leaving no room for technical gains. It’s all about the sailor’s skill. There is a video guide to sailing Lasers on the RYA website if you want to learn more.

The Laser is a single-handed dinghy for men while the Laser Radial is a single-handed dinghy for women. For the UK, we’ve got Paul Goodison going for gold after coming 4th at the Athens 2004 games and Penny Clark making her Olympic debut.

At the 2008 Olympics, the sailing will take place at the Qingdao Olympic Sailing Centre, approximately 340 miles south east of Beijing. The regatta kicks off on Saturday 9th August, with the Laser races starting on Tuesday 12th August.

Back in July, we covered the Doppler lidar system that will be monitoring the wind conditions across the lake at Qingdao. “The major users will be the meteorologists at the Olympic Sailing weather service,” researcher Zhi-Shen Lui of the Ocean University of China told optics.org. “The wind is constantly changing speed and direction so athletes need to have the best information at the start of a run. The meteorologists will use Doppler lidar data as well as other traditional weather stations to guide the schedule.”

I also learned that sailing is Britain’s most successful Olympic sport. Fingers crossed for Beijing!

Posted by Jacqueline Hewett on August 6, 2008 10:59 AM | Permalink