Ben Ainslie could be forgiven for thinking that he was being forced to sit through the aquatic version of a British Rail weather announcement. There was plenty of weather at the Olympic sailing regatta here, just the wrong sort to allow him and Great Britain's Yngling crew - Sarah Ayton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson - to tighten their grips on gold medals.

Ainslie, going for a third successive gold, had spent much of Wednesday resting in the bilge of his Finn class dinghy waiting for the wind to blow and competition to start. When it did, they could manage only a single race. But yesterday was more frustrating as organisers were forced to call off the event, desperately hoping for a breath of air to allow them to fit the postponed races into today's programme.

If the wind blows as forecast, Fushan Bay will be like the M25 with sails today, when Ainslie and the Yngling team take to the water, as organisers try to clear the backlog. The final medals races - in which points count double - are not until tomorrow, but Ainslie and the Yngling crew could deal a psychological blow to the pack if they can conquer the conditions and keep their bows in front of their opponents.

So much depends on the weather, and there was not much joy at the Olympic rowing in Beijing because of it. Beijing was hammered by an electrical storm, which forced the cancellation of yesterday's competition, in which three Britain crews were attempting to join the eight that have qualified for finals weekend. Hester Goodsell and Helen Casey, and Mark Hunter and Zac Purchase are in the women's and men's lightweight double sculls semi-finals, while Richard Chambers, James Lindsay-Fynn, Paul Mattick and James Clarke row in the men's lightweight four semi-finals. All compete today.

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Why didn't they ring me up before they decided to hold the Olympic Games in Beijing in August? Don't do it, I'd have said

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If the weather in Beijing is erratic, in Qingdao it is predictable. Frustration was etched into Ainslie's brow, but surprise certainly was not. Qingdao is a maritime showpiece, with its magnificent new £250million waterfront and what is described as the best viewing platform in sailing, which gives spectators a prime perspective of the action.

It has only one rather tricky problem when it comes to sailing: the wind does not blow often enough or hard enough. Britain's 18 sailors were aware of what faced them long before they arrived here and they have prepared down to the last puff of wind. Stephen Park, the Royal Yachting Association's Olympic manager, has spent 30 weeks here in the past four years trying to assess the impact of the combination of light winds and strong tides. “The weather has been pretty much what we expected,” he said. “We would not have bet our mortgages that we would have had four days' sailing at the start of the regatta.”

So, mortgages are secure, but the sailors are anxious to get started again. Mercifully, the Britain sailors are a balanced lot, partly because they are more highly physically trained than ever. They - and their boats - were put on a diet to ensure that they could make the most of whatever wind was available. If the dinghies are trimmer, using high-tech, lightweight materials, the sailors have become true Olympic athletes, physically able to deal with the long hours in Fushan Bay when they have had to alternate between waiting for the wind to rise and then bursting into action.

Sailing is one of Britain's most successful disciplines and four medals are expected, although that could rise to six, given a fair wind. Britain's success has driven the rest of the world to catch up, but Ainslie is

driven harder than most. A gold medal-winner in Sydney in 2000 and Athens four years later, he has no intention of relinquishing his crown. “Sailing is such a funny sport,” he said. “But I will be disappointed if I don't win.”

The Yngling crew are also close to their moment of history. Ayton and Webb took gold in Athens, but this is a first time for Wilson, so her team-mates want her to be able to celebrate a victory like theirs.