Responding to British Olympic competitor Ben Ainslie's description of this summer's Olympic venue as "a sailor's nightmare," coaches have a plan: think light.

Britain's newspaper The Times reports that members of Britain's Olympic sailing team are on a low-fat, high-protein diet and a strict exercise program in an effort to burn off body fat before the Games in August. Team members are aiming to lose an average of one-tenth of their normal body weight in an attempt to deal with the light winds expected at the sailing venue in Qingdao. The Royal Yachting Association (RYA) will also equip athletes with lighter clothing and sail cloth. China's northeast coast is known for light winds, strong currents and fog.

"The average wind speed at that time of year is six knots and at last year's test event it was less than four knots," British Olympic team manager Stephen Park is quoted as saying. "The tide can run at up to two knots. So you can't be lardy or you won't go anywhere."

One thing in the team's arsenal will be heavy, however -- the Gatorade trailer.

According to a Times Online report: "The team will... be taking 12,000 bottles of a specially formulated rehydration sports drink - high in electrolytes - to deal with humidity in Qingdao of nearly 100 per cent. Each sailor drinks five to six litres a day."

Let's see -- light wind, heavy current, fog, high heat and humidity. Missing the flight over might be a better plan than starving to race on a slow boat in China. But as Noel Coward said in 1932: "Mad Dogs and Englishmen Go out in the midday sun."