First the boat, then fried food, but Singapore’s team are up for the fight

LEAN AND MEAN - Men’s Hobie 16 pair Jonathan Chew (left) and Low Wen Chun will set off on Saturday.

TWO years ago, Singapore’s sailors won seven gold medals at the SEA Games in the Philippines.

They became the region’s best, and last December, they were crowned the continent’s best, when they won five golds at the Asian Games in Doha.

On Saturday, they begin their quest to remain on top in Southeast Asia and will not let the mysterious sinking of one of their six coach boats rattle them.

The coach boat is of fibreglassmade Boston Whaler material and is used for training purposes.

Supposedly unsinkable, it was found fully submerged at the mooring off Pattaya’s Ocean Marina Yacht Club on Thursday morning by SingaporeSailing officials after they were notified by hotel staff.

Barely 48 hours before the start of the sailing competition, numerous conspiracy theories cropped up, made up by members of the Singapore sailing squad themselves.

There were quite a few laughs over the incident and team manager Andrew Sanders told TODAY:

“While it remains mystifying how a supposedly unsinkable boat sank, we have ruled out foul play.

“We’ve sent the boat to a boat builder at the Ocean Marina Yacht Club here to find out why it sank. There were no cracks, neither was the weather bad. Instead, we just had a good laugh about it and treated it as one of those freakish, oneoff incidents. We don’t see it as an omen or anything.”

The Singapore team are treating the food seriously, though. The sailors have been warned to avoid “unauthorised” food, including hawker fare.

Indeed, food provided by the organisers on Friday was rejected by the team’s coaching staff, ahead of the weekend’s opening races, where strong wind conditions of around 18 knots are
expected.

“We couldn’t accept the food because it was deep fried,” said Sanders, who is also Singapore-
Sailing’s chief executive officer.

“There’s nothing wrong with deep fried food, but when you’re talking about preparing for a competition, proper nutrition is absolutely vital. Eating the wrong food can leave the sailors feeling sick out on the water, and obviously, that cannot happen.”

Instead, the coaching staff, led by the Singapore Sports School’s strength and conditioning coach Quintin Roman, have been busy preparing food such as sandwiches, salads and pasta for the sailors.

The sailors’ hydration levels are also checked daily.

The sailing competition begins today with the dinghy classes jousting off the Ocean Marina Yacht Cluband the windsurfers doing battle off Jomtein Beach.

Singapore is competing in all 18 sailing events and four of the six in windsurfing. Of the 25-strong squad, 18 are SEA Games debutants, and even though they have sailed in numerous
international competitions, Sanders believes the SEA Games is a unique experience.

“The SEA Games will be a new experience for many of them, especially the rookies,” said the
Aussie. “Unlike international regattas where the fleets are much larger, the fleets in the SEA Games are much smaller, around six per class. So the points will be far closer and tighter and the sailors must adapt to this.

Competition will be tight and spread out too, with Thailand strong in the windsurfing, optimist and keelboat classes, Myanmar in the 420s and 470s, and Malaysia in the Laser classes.”

“Our sailors did well in the practice races, finishing in the top places regularly, but it’s hard to say how they’ll fare until the actual competition gets going,” Sanders added.

“We have to manage them carefully, because although it may not be as big as some other international regattas, the SEA Games is special, and with it comes a lot of expectation and pressure on the sailors to deliver.”

Read more stories on the 24th SEA Games here.