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MainSail

Episode 36

Olympic Sailing

This month’s MainSail is all about Olympic sailing, as the push to qualify for Beijing 2008 intensifies. Many top Olympians gathered on the Cote d’Azur for the 39th French Sailing Week. This is one of the last big events for the Olympic classes on the road to qualification and over a thousand competitors from 50 different countries took part – including MainSail presenter, Shirley Robertson.

Team Shirley Robertson

Shirley Robertson is a two-time Olympic sailing gold medallist. She wants to make it a hat-trick at Beijing, but to do that, she first needs to qualify, and she has serious competition.  After Athens, she split from her two former crew members, who have now formed their own team. While they have been in full training mode for two years, Robertson has given birth to twins and began her own campaign later than expected. MainSail goes behind the scenes of her Olympic campaign, as she strives to make it to the world’s greatest sporting event.

39th French Sailing week

The light conditions on the Cote d’Azur should provide valuable experience for the sailing venue in China, Qingdao. Mainsail speaks to the General Manager for French Sailing Week, Bernard Bonneau about the importance of this event for all the sailors.

Velux Five Oceans

A round-up of the solo round the world race, just won by Swiss sailor Bernard Stamm, who led all the way from the start in Bilbao. Despite the lack of competition, the race threw up great drama, including a mid-sea rescue and the successful finish of Robin Knox Johnston who came third at the age of 68, almost forty years after becoming the first man ever to sail non-stop around the world. His daily e-mails from his boat Saga Insurance harked back to a bygone era of sailing, as he complained about his new-fangled equipment and dwelt on the joys of his whisky and claret.

Hagara and Steinacher

Like Shirley Robertson, Austria’s Roman Hagara and Hans-Peter Steinacher are double Olympic gold medalists from the Sydney and Athens Games in the Tornado Class. MainSail interviews Hagara and Steinacher and their long-standing coach Georg Fundak who is also an experienced Olympian.