We have had sunshine with some fairly strong winds this week, it has now clouded over and the forecast is that the weather will be stormy over the next couple of days with winds gusting up to 50 kts. Many local fishing boats have come into the marina and moored up against the wall for shelter.
However, the winds have been great for water sports. Surfers, windsurfers, and kite surfers have all taken to the water.
Also the high wind has not stopped the Italian, English, Argentine and Austrian crews of the Nacra 17 foiling catamarans taking to the water to practice and prepare for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics (still referred to as 2020 even though it now takes place in 2021)!
Apparently there was a lot of research done to choose the best location to train as they are not allowed to travel to Japan until early July. They decided on the tourist port of Marina di Ragusa as the gulf is oriented almost exactly like Enoshima Yacht Harbour, the thermal and wind shifts, waves, seabed and depth are all very similar, and soon the temperature will be similar to Enoshima in July, around 30 degrees.
Work started here at the beginning of April to build new launching ramps to put the cats into the water safely and prevent damage.
The Nacra 17 is a high performance catamaran, 17’22” long with a beam of 8’5”, it is a very lightweight boat at 141kg and in favourable winds, it has the potential to reach speeds in excess of 20kts. First produced in 2012, it was introduced as an Olympic discipline starting from the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games. The Nacra 17 has since evolved with the foiling version which will be present at the Tokyo Olympics.
The Italian team seem to be confident that they will come home with a medal this year and hope to take the title from Argentina who were the previous gold medal winners
I was unable to get a close up picture of them in action but found this one on the internet.
Sailing competitions at the summer Olympics in Tokyo are scheduled to take place from 25 July to 4 August 2021 at the Enoshima Yacht Harbour. The heats for the Nacra 17 foils begin on 28 July with the medal race due to be on 3 August.
But for now we will all batten down the hatches here and wait for the forthcoming storm to pass!
Maybe we will do some of those inside jobs which still need finishing!
Sailing ZigZag 
5 replies on “Tokyo 2020”
As mentioned we have bright, but cold days here, in stark contrast to your stormy weather.
I am sure there will be quite a buzz about the place with the teams out training there. Clearly not a sport for the faint hearted in those conditions, but it looks like great fun.
And who doesn’t love a good ‘inside job’ when the weather is so inclement. Hope all goes to plan.
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Paul, Sue,
you have certainly picked the right spot to hole up, and it must be quite atmospheric with the waves crashing and wind gusting.
Great pictures and story to start another Friday.
Dan
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Thanks for that final picture it reminds me of many of the jobs still to do on Azura, thanks a bunch! Glad you’re both well and looks like it’s been an interesting winter.
Take it easy,
Chris and Sue
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Haha, there’s never a shortage of jobs to do! Hopefully it won’t be too much longer before you’re back onboard Azura, look forward to seeing you both out here again soon.
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With the weather as it is why don’t you two start practising for Paris 2024? I can see you both leaning off the side of the catamaran like the picture of the Italians. Sunshine here for the week ahead and no storms forecast so we will be the opposite and doing jobs in the garden! 😎🌞
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