Anchors Aweigh

How did you get started sailing? My mum used to play saxophone in a jazz band, and the guy who was the bass player also built boats. He was really nice and got me hooked on sailing. How old were you then? 12. I heard you then became a Scottish sailing champion. What kind of competitions were you in? In my first racing competitions, in a junior boat, I was usually ranked in the top five or even the top two. Then I moved on to an Olympic class boat. I sailed in the national championships for the whole of Britain, then the European championships, then the worlds. So will you be a part of this year’s Olympics? No, after the worlds I went to university and then started teaching. I also started sailing yachts, and there are no yachts in the Olympics where it’s all small boat racing. Is there a lot of interest in sailing in China, with the Olympics coming up? Well, the sport of sailing hasn’t really hit China yet, so it’s mainly expats who sail at the moment, but Chinese don’t really understand sailing. They see the boats and say “why is there no motor?” I think the Olympics will expose people to a lot of different sports, though. Are there any perils off the Chinese coast, like pirates or tidal waves? There are no pirates and no massive waves or anything. We’re quite safe where we are, thankfully. It’s a nice place to be, which is why we’re here. So what's so difficult about sailing? There are so many different kinds of boats, things that can happen, waves, tides etc. Every time is different and that’s part of the challenge and also the joy of sailing. Hitting a tennis ball is the same every time, but I enjoy the challenge of sailing.

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For more information on the Beijing Sailing Center, visit their website at http://www.beijingsailing.com.