At 798 days to go to the opening of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, this column travelled to the sailing venue in Qingdao. We asked if the city's 2.2 million population were interpretive of the Chinese as a whole, having little interest in the sea and the leisure to be found upon it. The sailing centre was an old dilapidated port in the first stages of a makeover; algae blooms of international importance were a distant nightmare. The only sailing club of size, the Yin Hai International Yacht Club, had many a pontoon and other yachtie pretensions in its vast marina complex. Members were pledged names on a whiteboard in the finance office, and the expansive clubhouse was ghostly empty, and there was no vista of sails apparent from the viewing platform. Only one boat worthy of mention was moored in the 100-berth marina, a 35-foot gin palace that belonged to a government department. The previous two Olympics - Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 - were already blessed with a rich and lively sailing culture, as is the next host London 2012, which will use the breezy harbour of Weymouth. Olympic legacies, though welcome, are not as vital. Experts who spoke to this column over two years ago argued the legacy of Olympic sailing in Qingdao would be a damp squib. Officials seemed only concerned about the grandiose cosmetics of boating - the polished blazer buttons of the posing rich, and the lucrative guanxi the backdrop could create. They did not seem to care much for the grass roots potential where successful Olympic boating nations are made. There were two small, seasonal sailing schools joint-run by Europeans, one of which closed because of a lack of interest, and no evidence of a boating culture in terms of chandlers, sail makers and other marine specialists needed for a business sector to thrive. Nor were there navigation lights, charts, a Coast Guard alerted to the needs of the leisure boater. There were no attractive inshore destinations to sail to, let alone the permission to go there. All the polished hardware appeared to be forthcoming but none of the vital software existed - interested people. The crowds might be ordered to flock to the shore-side spectator areas come August 2008 and watch the bizarre spectacle of bronzed European and sophisticated Asians messing about in boats, but they would walk away disenchanted, and remain forever ignorant of their nation's once illustrious seafaring heritage - pre-Columbus explorer Zheng He - and remain empty of the pleasure of boating. All that seemed to matter was the visiting international competitors, VIPs and Olympic chiefs would be impressed in 2008, and the governors in Beijing more so. Add to this polluted waters, light winds and strong currents, one imagined how the International Sailing Federation and the International Olympic Committee might be ruing the day they agreed to stage the sailing in Shandong. Far better, perhaps, for Hong Kong with its established, strong sailing community ... Today, over two years on and after several test regattas, a few boats shows, and passing yachting celebrities such as Ellen MacArthur and that now infamous green sludge, much has changed in Qingdao. Like many parts of Beijing, the port city is barely recognisable. The smelly old central docks have become the best competition sailing facility in the world, according to many of those who have sailed there. It is at the Yin Hai yacht club and the several other smaller sailing clubs that have sprung up where the change is most evident. 'We've seen a massive increase in interest among the Chinese public,' says aptly named Stormy Xin, the vice-president. 'More and more parents are bringing along their kids and signing them up for our sailing classes.' Inside the marina, over 40 private boats are now moored. The surrounding outbuildings are rented by chandlers and other marine retailers, and the harbour wall is now a visitor's attraction replete with a small Olympic museum. Along the harbour wall are now statues of the great seafarers - Magellan, Prince Henry the Navigator, Columbus and Zheng He. How apt that each looks inland instead of out to sea, as if trying to hypnotise and entice the mainlanders back to their seafaring routes with their metal stare. The small Olympic sailing and maritime museum was packed with schoolchildren from Hubei on their six-day school trip from that landlocked province hundreds of kilometres to the north to learn about their Olympics nation's seafaring history. Their teacher had to bawl at them though a loudhailer to inform them of the Sea Datum of China monument, but the message seemed to be getting through. This new presence of sailing has been boosted by the 32 national teams who are using the club's new slipways and lifting cranes to launch their crafts for numerous training missions. After the fog lifted this week and with algae bloom all but gone, the sight of a several small fleets of the Olympic class dinghy's tacking in the modest force 3-4 breeze on a sparkling sea was a sight to behold. What a change to a few years ago when the monotonous chug-chug of the battered inshore fishing craft and the ghostly cargo ships on the misty, distant horizon were the only craft on the water. The sailing might be tough given the challenging natural elements, but the hardest task has been conquered - creating a platform to raising enough awareness for a popular relaunch of the country's natural seafaring talent. And what of the host's medal chances next month? Sailing was one of those medal-rich, soft sports the central sports planners identified in 'Project 119', the strategy to train from scratch winning sailors. The Chinese sailors hauling their rigs on the slipway refused to talk, but one coach, on the condition of anonymity, offered a rare insight into the confidence of China's Olympic sports machine. 'We believe we have a good chance of medals in the Laser and windsurfing classes,' he said. What a turnaround it would be to see the Chinese flag raised alongside the prime sailing nations. This column wrote 798 days ago: 'If one is to believe the 'on-message' hyperbole issued from the plethora of official Olympic portals - including the hastily formed Test Regatta Organisation Committee - this modern seaside city of 2.2 million is fast becoming a sailor's paradise.' The 'hyperbole' is fast proving to be far from a fishy tale, and the already evident Olympic legacy deserves a 21-gun salute. Second to none Facilities at Qingdao are among the best in the world National teams training at the Olympic venue: 32
