Nova Scotia sailors Jacob Saunders and Oliver Bone are trying to qualify for Tokyo 2020 in the 470 sailing competition but have hit a rough patch. The 470 world championships and the Olympic qualifying events have been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and their boat is stuck in Spain. – Contributed
Olympic 470 sailors Jacob Saunders and his partner Oliver Bone are applying the skills developed on the water to ride the COVID-19 wave that is sweeping the world.
Saunders, who competed at the 2016 Rio Olympics, and Bone, who raced at the 2008 Beijing Games, have teamed up in an attempt to qualify for Tokyo 2020.
The Canadian duo should be competing at the world championships this week in Mallorca, Spain. The worlds were an opportunity to prepare for the S.A.R. Princesa Sofia, the Olympic qualifying event at the end of the month.
But the coronavirus pandemic forced the cancellation of both events, along with most major competitions throughout the world.
Instead, Saunders is in Chester, Bone is self-isolating in Montreal and their boat is stuck in Spain with no timetable on when they might have access to it.
“There’s always situations on the water when you think you’ve got a race under control and then the winds change or the conditions change,” said Saunders. “There’s a lot of unknowns normally in sailing but this is pretty unprecedented.”
Last week, Bone was in Mallorca while Saunders was preparing to leave for the airport to join him when the news about the cancellation of the events broke.
The escalation in the warning from the Spanish government and sailing management committee caught Bone by surprise.
“At that specific time (last Thursday) the only talk was don’t congregate into big groups but you are welcome to stay on the island and train,” said Bone.
“The U.S. team, who we are close training partners with, decided to stay for a few days to do some extra training so I was out with them. On the Friday, we went out training in the morning with plans of training for the next four days, to coming ashore and finding out we had to pack up and leave the island before it goes under lockdown.”
Bone packed his belongings and prepared the boat for shipping.
“We packed up and in that sense, the boat is as safe as it can be,” said Bone. “It’s on a trailer and has the covers on and everything else, but because we were uncertain about the Olympic trials selection, we had no idea what was going to happen so the idea was to leave it in Europe.
“Spain is under such a heavy lockdown that even container ships are not going out. Even if we had planned to send this boat to Tokyo, that was not going to happen.”
The sailors are now playing a waiting game, one they have no control over. The International Olympic Committee announced it does not plan any “drastic” decisions about the Tokyo 2020 Games, saying on Tuesday it remains fully committed to the event being staged in four months’ time despite the global spread of the coronavirus.
With that in mind, the sailors have no choice but to prepare for the Olympic qualifying even though they have no idea where or when it will take place.
“The last we heard it was potentially going to happen in Tokyo at the World Cup at the end of June,” said Bone.
If the qualifying event is in late June, Bone said it would be difficult to get their boat to Tokyo in time.
“Sending the boat by container to Tokyo takes quite a long time,” said Bone. “Had it left today (Tuesday), it would have arrived end of May beginning of June. If Spain miraculously comes out of lockdown in a month, we couldn’t get our boat to Tokyo potentially for the World Cup.”
The Olympians are left with only one real choice. Buy a new one.
“Nobody is dealing with the ideal right now and because our boats are highly customized and highly catered to the individuals sailors, the ideal is to get the boat that was in Spain to Japan and that is no longer looking possible,” said Saunders, who estimated a new boat could run upwards of $20,000.
“Right now Plan B is to buy a new boat over there (Tokyo). That seems to be the ideal solution for us.
“Unfortunately, we have to make that decision to buy the new boat before we would know if the Olympics are going ahead. That’s a tough decision because that’s a lot of money.
Bone said that buying a new boat brings other challenges.
“We are kind of in a lucky position that we have this option but the unlucky part, I guess, is we don’t have a money tree.
“With the state of panic that everyone is in right now, I don’t think a lot of people are going to be very receptive to us asking for money.
“I think if we sent out a bunch of emails today asking for money, a lot of people would be pissed off at us, at least that’s our sense. Hopefully, someone will step up and say we have some money for you or the builder can help work with us.”
Bone has had a couple of days in self-isolation to reflect on their dilemma.
“In sailing, you’re going to be thrown a bunch of different things and you have to work the best you can with the unforeseen circumstances and this is definitely a very big unforeseen circumstnce. We are trying not to panic and be level-headed.”
The 38-year-old sailor said he’s feeling fine and is symptom-free of the coronavirus.
“I feel great. On my route back home from Mallorca, they took my temperature coming off the plane in New York and the agent actually told me I had the lowest temperature of anyone. I said great, at least some news
