KEY POINTS:
The creeping green weed that has been choking the Olympic yachting course in Qingdao is still a problem and fears are beginning to surface that it may affect the regatta - making it into something of a lottery.
Weather elements have combined to bring in some especially thick
fog for Olympic sailors training before the regatta begins on August 8.
They have also boosted the proliferation of an ugly, smelly weed that is being picked from the water by an armada of boats and taken to shore for trucking away.
New Zealand Olympic Finn sailor Dan Slater, speaking from Qingdao, has first-hand knowledge of the conditions after eight days there and said the fog was so thick and could come in so fast that he one day he had to use GPS to locate the harbour to return to shore after training.
"The fog's one thing - you can't do anything about Mother Nature - but the weed is still a big problem," he said. "I am looking out the hotel window over the sea through the fog and smog and I'd guess there are about 500 boats out there.
"On a clear day, there are about 1000 boats. They are your classic Chinese fishing boat, which look a bit like junks or sampans, and they seem to have a one-cylinder putt-putt engine. They put three guys on board each boat and they are just hauling it in, shifting it to shore where trucks take it all away."
Well, not all of it.
Slater says two days of unseasonably warmer weather not only promoted more fog but also lifted the production of the weed even as the flotilla of boats took it away.
Slater didn't think the weed would still be so much in evidence that the regatta would be delayed.
"I don't think so," he said. "You can't underestimate what China can do when they really have a go at things - I don't think there's any doubt that the regatta will start all right."
However, Slater said he was not at all sure that enough would be weeded out to make the regattas fair and even.
"They have a long, long way to go before they get all of it," he said. "I know they are behind where they wanted to be in terms of clearing it, so that's a bit of a worry. If there is still some hanging around, it could be a bit of a lottery, a bit of the luck of the draw whether you are on a part of the course that's got the weed.
"It's not like seaweed which doesn't stick. This is green and hairy - it's a bit like clearing clotted lumps of hair from your bathroom sink.
"The problem is that it slows you down so if you're on a part of the course with the weed, you could be disadvantaged. If you are in a boat with a centreboard or rudder, it slows you down heaps. You can be going along fine but then you suddenly find you have all this hairy stuff hanging off the boat."
Slater also said it was difficult to pinpoint where the weed would be as it "comes up to the surface off the rocks on the sea bed". "It smells pretty bad - like sticking your head down a drain."
The fog was also a hazard and could prevent some racing if it persisted into next month. "It gets pretty thick," he said. "Sometimes you are lucky if you can see 50m and, on the shore, you sometimes can't see the driveway from the hotel."
The weed-sweeping boats also presented an interesting challenge in the fog when training sailors were heading out to the course and returning.
But Slater said Qingdao's air quality had much improved since his previous time there in 2006.
"I was here for a regatta then and used to go for a run. Well, I tried but you ended up feeling as though you'd smoked a whole ashtray. It was pretty bad.
"But this time round the air seems to be a lot better and I am going for a run with no problems at all. I'd say the air quality isn't all that great still but it's certainly not causing anyone any problems that I know about."
Slater said he did not know if Qingdao had improved the air quality by clamping down on car use or closing construction sites.
"I am not sure how they have done it but they have done a pretty good job," he said. "Maybe they closed the factories down because so many of the workers had to go on the boats and pick up the weed."
