1896 Athens

The strands of the modern Olympics came together at a meeting in Paris’ Sorbonne in 1894. German Johann Guts Muhts founded modern gymnastics at the end of the 19th Century. Britain’s Dr William Penny Brooks founded the Much Wenlock Olympic Society in 1850. And in Greece, Major Evangelis Zappas organised a Pan Hellenic sports festival in 1859.

But it took a French aristocrat, Pierre de Fredi, Baron de Coubertin, to put together a cohesive plan to revive the sporting competition first seen in Olympia in Ancient Greece. The International Olympic Committee was born at the Sorbonne conference and planned Games every four years. From the outset water sports were to be included: rowing, sailing and swimming.

But sailing was absent from the Athens Games of 1896, one of only two occasions this occurred.

1900 Paris

Some 32 boats in six classes contested the Olympic sailing regatta, or was it 49 yachts in five classes? The entries and the results are not clear-cut.

“In common with other sports at the 1900 Games the yachting results are varied, incomplete and contradictory,” concluded Ian Buchanan, president of the International Association of Olympic Historians who, with Swede Tore Widlund, ploughed through contemporary accounts in French, German and British periodicals.

The racing was split between the River Seine at Meulan, some 30km downstream from Paris, and where the Seine disgorged into La Manche, at Le Havre. All competitors were required to participate in a Concourse d’Honneur on May 20th at Meulan but only seven finished inside the time limit. Two, Mamie and Carabinier were disqualified for “using other means of propulsion than sail.”

The classes were determined under the Thames Tonnage Rules with the 10-20 and Over 20 Ton classes competing on the coast. In fact the big boats just had one race to determine their medal while the smaller classes on the Seine at Meulan had two separate races with medal winners in each.

This is one reason for the inconsistent results because some sources have aggregated the two races in the modern style as an overall series score.

Prize money was on offer: FF1500 for Race 1 in the 3-10 Ton Class, rising to FF2000 in Race 2- substantial sums.

The Linton Hope designed ½ Ton Scotia was sailed by Britons Lorne Currie and J H Gretton not only won her class but an Open competition too. So Scotia won two gold in one Games!

Count Hermann de Pourtales of Switzerland, winner in the 1-2 Ton class, was the oldest sailor at 53, whilst his wife Countess Helen was the oldest woman in any sport aged 33.

1904 St Louis

Old Man River, the Mississippi, may be good for melodies and stern-wheel paddle steamers, but alas not for sailing. The 1904 Games were so riddled with controversy – the marathon winner had used a car and there were Anthropology Days for Aboriginal peoples - that an interim Games were held in 1906 to restore flagging belief.

1908 London

From just 200 odd competitors in all events of the inaugural Games of 1896, London saw 2,000 passed for the first time.

The first appreciation by the IOC that sailing has unique aspects too are evident at the 10th IOC Forum were it was noted that it was the only Olympic sport which cannot take place in a stadium. Still the sport was declared an “integral” part of the Games.

Like the Paris Games, the London Olympics saw yachting in two locations. The 6-metre, 7-metre and 8-metre classes raced off Ryde, Isle of Wight, and the larger 12-metres competed at Hunter’s Quay, on the Clyde.

As there were no overseas entries, the British Olympic Committee thought it pointless to ship boats to the Solent. And as there were no entries for the 15-metre class, racing was cancelled.

In these early days, the racing demands were not onerous. The 6-metres were required to sail only three, two laps of 13 miles, starting and finishing at Ryde Pier. It was the same for 7-metres though as Capt R Sloane-Stanley’s Mignonette did not start, Heroine was required to complete just one lap of two races to win.

The Fife-designed cutter Cobweb won the Eights, again with two wins, as scoring was still not done on aggregate. In 3rd place was Sorais, owned Constance Edwina Cornwallis-West, the then Duchess of Westminster. She was the first female medallist. Her role onboard is variously described as passenger or in Charles Newton-Robinson’s report for the Yacht Racing Association, “the pilot”. A contemporary photograph by Kirk of Cowes shows her sitting, in a prominent wide brimmed hat, in front of the helmsman.

Of course this was an era when professionals were the norm in yacht racing, though they were explicitly banned under the Olympic rules. Yacht designers were another matter: both Gilbert Laws and Alfred Mylne competed.

Laws skippered Dormy and won a gold medal. Her owner, Mr T D McMeekin was awarded a silver gilt medal, the crew received silver medals whilst pewter was given to the others crews.

1912 Stockholm

The competition was rationalised into just four classes, the 6-, 8-, 10- and 12-Metre classes of the International Rule. But sailing was still a fledging sport. Compared with 13 boats from five nations which competed in 1908, the 1912 regatta mustered 21 boats from five countries with France’s victory in the 6-metre class by Amedee Thube the only non-Scandinavian or Baltic region winner.

Nationality was an issue. Finland had to compete under the Russian flag but took silver in the 10-metre class and bronze in the 8- and 12-metre classes.

Racing took place at Nynashamm, some 60km south of Stockholm.

Noteworthy winner of the 12-metre class was Norwegian Johan Anker with Magda IX. He was a partner in the Anker and Jensen yard, builders and designers. In 1927, Anker produced a 29ft 6in three-person keelboat, the Dragon, for a competition organised by Sweden’s Royal Gothenburg YC. It was intended to be cheaper alternative to the 6-metre and gained Olympic selection in 1948. As a gesture of goodwill after World War II the Norwegian Anker family waived the royalties on British built Dragons.

American Ralph David won both the sprint events in the Athletics competition, only to return to the Games in 1948 as a reserve on the US sailing team.

1920

Berlin was to have hosted the 1916 Games. Indeed Germany was still going ahead with preparations in 1914, believing the impending war to be a brief affair.

Given its proximity to the worst of World War I, Antwerp, Belgium was a surprising choice. Less surprising was that Germany and the rest of Allies’ opponents – Austria, Hungary and Turkey – were not invited. New Zealand appeared for the first time in its own right. Previously Kiwis appeared in the Australasian team.

Only 14 nations took in all competition, not surprising given the human and economic ravages of the war. In keeping with the unusual circumstances, the yachting regatta featured no fewer than 14 classes. Four of them were doubled up with the 6-, 8-, 10-and 12-metres classes each racing in Old Rule and New Rule formulae.

Seven classes had one solitary entry, which must have resulted in some of the easiest-earned gold medals in Olympic history.

Ostende hosted the sailing and there were two positive aspects. For the first time dinghy classes were introduced: the 12ft and 18ft classes. And the duplication of the International Rules classes prompted rationalisation in the future and interest in one-designs.

Belgian Leon Huybrechts became the first medallist in different Games adding the 6-metre New Rule silver to the one he’d secured in 1908.

The sport was exercised about the objective of the Olympic races. “Are they intended to be a test of seamanship or a test of yachts? Or both? “asked Yachting World. The question was posed because one of Belgium’s gold was won by a Linton Hope designed boat built by Frank Maynard in Chiswick, London.