Sailing Competitions and Seaside Attractions at the 2012 Olympics

The seaside resort towns of Weymouth and Portland in Southern England, separated by a picturesque bay, are home to the 2012 Olympics sailing competitions. According to statistics from the tourist organization VisitEngland, the Olympics have brought an extra 60,000 people a day to these already popular tourist destinations during these competitions.

The 30-kilometer long Chesil Beach protects the bay from storms on the open sea. It is part of the Jurassic Coast and is one of four natural UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Britain. People go there to take walks along the sea and to look for shells and fossils on the beach, while the cliff behind forms part of a nature reserve for birds.

During the Olympics, Weymouth and Portland are holding ten categories of sailing competitions. Three hundred eighty professional sportsmen from 65 countries have come to take part in these. Weymouth and Portland will also host the Paralympics sailing competitions with 80 participants from all over the world.

The public can watch the competitions right on the town beach, where giant screens have been set up showing the races.

The roads along the sea front have been closed to traffic and various attractions have been set up there. An arts festival is also underway, exhibiting, amongst many other things, a yacht with words of welcome written on its sails in many different languages.

In the calm, shallow waters of Weymouth Bay, members of the public can have a go at sailing under the tutorage of an experienced instructor.

One of the town’s newest tourist attractions is the Sea Life Observation Tower which opened this June.

From its 53-meter height, you get a breathtaking view of the bay and the surrounding areas in Dorset.

From here you can even see the famous limestone Osmington White Horse cut in the side of a hill. It was sculpted in 1808 for King George III, who had visited Weymouth 15 years in a row. The horseman was cleaned up and restored for the Olympics.

Another tourist attraction is the stone quarries on the Isle of Portland, where Portland stone comes from, which was used to build St Paul’s Cathedral, the Bank of England, Buckingham Palace and many other famous buildings across the country.

The old stone quarries have been turned into open-air art galleries.

Nearly all the houses on the Isle of Portland are built from local Portland stone.

The Olympic Rings on the square by Weymouth train station are made from the two types of Portland stone, the rougher gray kind and the more valuable cream variety.

The Neo-Gothic Pennsylvania Castle is made from this latter stone and was built on the orders of John Penn, the grandson of the founder of U.S. state of Pennsylvania, William Penn. The 4.5-acre grounds by the sea were given to Penn by George III, who later celebrated his wedding anniversary with Queen Charlotte in the castle. At the start of this century, the grounds and the castle were owned by British solicitor Stephen Curtis, who worked for Russian Yukos Oil Company and Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky. In 2004, Curtis was tragically killed in a helicopter accident.

In 2011, Curtis’ widow sold the castle to an Australian who renovated it and now rents it out for private parties and ceremonies, weddings in particular. Of particular note is the table in one of the front reception rooms at which British Prime Minister Winston Churchill sat with U.S. Supreme Commander Dwight Eisenhower and, as legend has it, planned the allied assault on the coast of Normandy.