In September 2005 the Olympic organisers were predicting no more than 15,000 visitors to Weymouth and Portland during the current events (Echo Letters Sept 16 2005) because sailing is not essentially a spectator sport.

Indeed, in the August 2008 edition of the SAGA Magazine, Rodney Pattisson, Olympic sailing medal winner at Mexico 1968, Munich 1972 and Montreal 1976 wrote: “Yachting is not a spectator sport.

“The only people who follow the races are the competitors’ relations.

“Everyone else finds them too boring and that includes me!”

So, who has been responsible for hyping up the numbers to create the dire situation ?

Geoff Kirby Weymouth