Member pages -

List of national Associations and contact details

Member pages

Posted: 2011-12-16

Success with 450 sailors

QINGDAO INTERNATIONAL SAILING CAMP

The 2011 Qingdao International Optimist Sailing Camp and Regatta was once again held in Qingdao from August 16 to 24, 2011. 450 sailors - 35 teams from 12 countries and districts participated in the event, including teams from Kiel of Germany, Brest of France, Negeri Sembilan Sailing Association of Malaysia, Gyunggi Yacht Association of Korea, SAF Yacht Club of Singapore, Yachting Association of India, National Sailing Centre Karachi of Pakistan, Moscow of Russia, Seven Feet Yacht Club of Russia, Yangon Sailing Club of Myanmar, Macao S.A.R./ AVM, HKSAR and teams from Mainland China.

This year’s sailing camp focused on both the competition among high-level sailors and those new to sailing. It was the first time that the event was divided into two camps according to sailing levels, Junior Camp and Advanced Camp.

qingdao sailing camp - participants

| Results Boys | Results Girls |

Go to top of page

Posted: 2010-12-08

An Introduction to Youth Sailing Sport in Qingdao

Qingdao is a cradle of Chinese contemporary sailing sport and also successful sailors. A quite lot of coaches and sailors of China national team are from Qingdao. Thanks to its favorable geographic conditions, long history and splendid culture, strong urban strength, endless charm, Qingdao successfully held high-level Olympic and Paralympic Sailing Competitions with distinctive features in 2008. While sharing the success of organizing the grand event of the Olympic Games, Qingdao issued the Implementation Program for Promoting Sailing Sport in Schools in 2006 in accordance with the strategy to enhance social awareness that Qingdao is a city of sailing.

A five-year plan was made for the Program, which was integrating and mobilizing the social resources and technical forces, such as education, sports, scientific research, sailing training bases and boat-building enterprises to promote sailing among students in nearly 1,400 schools, and to channel youths to participate in sailing. The target was set that the youth involved in regular sailing training should account for 10% in Qingdao urban area. Youth sailing bases and clubs, schools with sailing programs were set up to develop Qingdao a city of sailing and young sailors.

In June 2006, the Program was officially started and 16 schools including colleges, secondary and senior middle schools and primary schools were selected to carry out sailing sport. 200 students were chosen for the first training camp, which received 700,000 RMB worth equipment and 100,000 RMB fund donated by HOCH Int’l Sailing Club. To encourage the development of sailing sport in Qingdao, Chinese Yachting Association (CYA), and Water Sports Administration Center under General Administration of Sports jointly recognized Qingdao China’s City of Youth Sailing Sport Promotion in November 2006.

The year 2007 is widely recognized as an important year for hosting the International Regatta of the Olympic Games and also for promoting sailing sport in schools in Qingdao as the so-called "Double 1000s Plan" was issued, aiming to synchronize the "Set Sail in Qingdao in 2008" program with the pace of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. The project has been sponsored by Qingdao Municipal Government and listed in the Report on the Work of the Government. To ensure smooth carrying out of the Program, Qingdao Municipal Government decided to list sailing as a key sport in schools and annually allocates special fund to support these schools of sailing sport. In Feb. 2007, activities for social donation were launched with the slogans, saying "Donate a boat, Contribute your enthusiasm, Give your support-Student today and Olympic star sailor tomorrow". In less than 2 months, 46 enterprises of financial service, insurance and real estates donated 8.68 million RMB, a big step toward the goal of 1000 boats.

Qingdao-Kiel Sailing Camp, also called Qingdao Youth Sailing Camp is another program of Promoting Sailing Sports in Schools. It attracts about 1000 youth sailors a year to learn sailing knowledge and receive training on the sea. Since the founding in 2006, the camp has trained about 10,000 youth sailors of whom, the youngest is 8 and oldest 18. Experienced coaches from home and abroad work for the camp, a quite lot of youth sailors are trained and become successful in sailing sport and the Camp attracts attention of sailing professionals and the society. Mr. Peter Horst, Project Representative of Kiel Sailing Week (Kieler Woche), spoke highly of the training camp in terms of scale, outcome and training organization and believed that Qingdao Youth Sailing Training Camp is the largest one of its kind in the world so far. Mr. Jacque Rogge, IOC president, and Mr. Goran Peterson, President of ISAF, who has been in sailing for more than 50 years, and guests from sailing field of different countries spoke highly of the Program and believe the move could be expanded in the whole Asia to make sailing more poplar in the continent.

Since 2006, several local races have been created to promote sailing in schools, such as the Mayor Cup Student Sailing Championship, Qingdao Sailing Race for Schools with Sailing Programs and Sailing Clubs, and Qingdao Youth Sailing Championship. The Sailing Race for Qingdao Sailing Schools and Clubs, created in 2009, has become a key test race for youth sailing on completion of the training course. The races play a significant role in improving the enthusiasm and sailing skill of the young sailors.

Activities are also carried out to facilitate exchange of sailing between local and overseas youth sailors and to establish close relations between Qingdao and foreign countries with well- sailing sport. In 2006, Qingdao sent a delegation to Kiel of Germany, resulting in the Qingdao-Kiel Youth Sailing Program inked and implemented. In 2007, 12 young sailors from Qingdao were selected and sent to Kiel for training and exchange on the 1st Qingdao-Kiel Sailing Camp. In 2008, Kiel Sailing Delegation paid a visit to Qingdao Youth Sailing Camp and took part in the Sail Show, as part of "Set Sail in Qingdao 2008" program to celebrate the Olympic Torch Relay on July 21. In 2009, invited by Australia, 10 young sailors were sent there for sailing training and exchange. In June 2010, as the only invited city in Asia, Qingdao delegation, led by Mr. Xia Geng, the Mayor of Qingdao, participated in the 128th Kiel Week in Germany. They visited the Youth Sailing Training Camp-Camp 24/7 and had a talk with the organizer. In July in 2009, Qingdao sent team to participate in the sailing championship held in Vladivostock to celebrate its 150th anniversary. Zhang Yuchen, the young sailor from Qingdao won the 3rd place in optimist class for girls. The regatta not only provided the young sailors with an opportunity to broaden their vision and richen their experience but also laid a good foundation for future exchange and cooperation between two cities. Based on the wide implementation of “Promoting Sailing Sport in Schools”, with the aim of building Qingdao as the world optimist sailing training base, Qingdao held the 1st International Youth Training Camp Regatta (Optimist Class) during 2010 Qingdao International Sailing Week.

A total of 300 young sailors from 31 teams, including teams from 10 foreign countries and regions, such as Germany, Korea, Japan, Burma, Taiwan, Hongkong and Singapore, teams from more than 10 provinces and cities in China, such as Jiangsu, Guangdong, Chengdu, Jinan, Sichuan and Shenzhen took part in the Camp. During the camp, the young sailors attended the 1st Olympic City Mayors and International Sailing Summit Forum and had a face-to-face dialogue with famous sailors in the world, such as Sir Robin Knox Johnston, Peter Gilmour and Zhai Mo. Various activities such as the Great Party for the Youths from the World, the tour of the sailing museum, and the International Optimist Sailing Regatta were organized, which impressed the campers deeply.

Through five years’ effort, Qingdao has made great achievements in promoting sailing in schools，which has been properly standardized and systemized. The functional system has been achieved for sailing sport in Qingdao with powerful support of governments, society and sponsors and participation of enthusiastic students. Currently, sailing sport is conducted in 64 schools, 74 sailing clubs are established for middle/primary school students and the educational program on sailing sport is carried out in all schools. In addition, youth sailing teams are organized by three-level sponsorships from Qingdao Municipal Government, local district government and school administration. About 10,000 youth sailors are trained. 1000 boats and 140 sailing training simulator sponsored by society are allocated to sailing schools and clubs. Some regulations are promulgated to standardize management of youth sailing sport. About 110, 000 publications and teaching courseware were compiled and provided to schools. The first cartoon film series on sailing in China, named Sail with Joy-Optimist Little Supers, Set Sail were made as animation textbooks to popularize sailing knowledge among youths, each with 36 episodes. Sailing is included in the Sunshine Sports Campaign in schools. A sailing training system with classroom lectures, land practice and water training has been established, achieving the goal of the "Double 1000s Plan".

For more information please contact Qingdao Yachting Association, Fiona Lin: fiona_lin@163.com

| Qingdao International Junior Training Camp Regatta 2010 |

Go to top of page