7th August 2024

One day last week I had the TV on at lunchtime and caught a little of the Olympic sailing. It was the final (known as the “medal race”) of the men’s skiff. I have never followed sailing, so this was quite a learning experience. I discovered that a skiff is a small, shallow boat, with two sailors hanging horizontally off the sides and attached to the boat with ropes. The course requires the competitors to sail out to a buoy, round it, and sail back. There were ten teams taking part in the final (yes, including the British team).

It was fascinating to see the skill of these sailors. Constantly leaping around the boat, using their bodies as counterweights to the pull of the wind. Tacking back and forth to change direction. Hitting their mark within meters of the half-way buoy, then… nothing.

The wind had gone. All ten boats were floundering around. Sailors were throwing themselves back and forth, pulling on the ropes, try to get some motion into the skiffs. To no avail. The wind had gone. The boats were going nowhere. The race was abandoned.

All the skill of the sailors, all the technology that had gone into the boats’ design, all the planning of the event – all worthless before the force of nature (or lack thereof). There was something quite humbling about that.

“The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8).

Ian Waddington