Sailing at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Tornado

The Mixed Tornado was a sailing event on the Sailing at the 2008 Summer Olympics program in Qingdao International Sailing Centre. Eleven races (last one a medal race) were scheduled and completed. 30 sailors, on 15 boats, from 15 nations competed. Ten boats qualified for the medal race.

Course areas and course configurations
For the Tornado course areas A (Yellow) and E (Pink) were used. The location (36°1'26"’N, 120°26'52"E) points to the center of the 0.6nm radius Yellow course area and the location (36°2'44"N, 120°28'9"E) points to the center of the 0.75nm radius Pink course area. The target time for the course was about 60 minutes for the races and 30 minutes for the medal race. The race management could choose from several course configurations.

Windward-leeward courses

 * W2: Start – 1 – 1a – 4s/4p – 1 – 1a – Finish
 * W3: Start – 1 – 1a – 4s/4p – 1 – 1a – 4s/4p – 1 – 1a – Finish
 * W4: Start – 1 – 1a – 4s/4p – 1 – 1a – 4s/4p – 1 – 1a – 4s/4p – 1 – 1a – Finish

Weather conditions
In the lead up to the Olympics many questioned the choice of Qingdao as a venue with very little predicted wind. During the races the wind was pretty light and quite unpredictable. For the Tornado competition several races had to be postponed to the next day and the spare day had to be used.