Sailing at the 1948 Summer Olympics

Sailing/Yachting is an Olympic sport starting from the Games of the 1st Olympiad (1896 Olympics in Athens, Greece). With the exception of 1904 and possibly 1916 sailing was always a part of the Olympic program. The Sailing program of 1948 consisted of a total of five sailing classes (disciplines). For each class seven races were scheduled from 3–12 August 1948 Torquay/Torbay, on England's south coast.

The sailing was done on the triangular type Olympic courses. The start was made in the center of a set of 8 numbered marks that were places in a circle. During the starting procedure the sequence of the marks was communicated to the sailors. By picking the mark that was most upwind the start could always be made upwind. This system is, at least in certain German lakes, still in use.

Great Britain's last surviving Gold Medal Champion from the 1948 Summer Olympics, was David Bond who sailed for Great Britain in the Swallow Class.

Venue

As we quote from the official report: "Torquay was, perhaps, an inevitable choice as the venue. It is exposed only to easterly winds, which are rare in summer. Moreover, it is remarkably free from strong tides and currents and other navigational hazards, and thus there is nothing or next to nothing to be gained from the " local knowledge " which is so profitable in difficult waters."

The sailing event had, since the distance to the London area a, separate opening ceremony which took place in Torquay. The opening was made by IOC chairman: Mr. J. Sigfrid Edstrom.

A 14-nm course was created for the Dragons and 6 Metres. The Star and Swallow sailed a little more inshore on a 10-nm course, while for the Firefly a 6-nm course was set close to the coast.

The closing ceremony was observed by 10,000 spectators. The medals were handed by Sir Ralph Gore, President of the International Yacht Racing Union.

Competition

Overview

Continents	Countries	Classes	Boats	Male	Female	Reserves
4	23	5	75	221	0	37

Continents

• Africa
• Oceania
• Europe
• Americas

Countries

Countries that participated in the Sailing event of the 1948 Olympic Games.
Blue: Water
Gray: Never participated in OG
Dark Gray: Participated in earlier OG
Green: Country participated for the first time
Dark Blue: Country participated also on previous games
Red: Country boycotted the sailing event of the OG

Argentina (ARG)  Australia (AUS)  Austria (AUT)  Belgium (BEL)  Brazil (BRA)  Canada (CAN)  Cuba (CUB)  Denmark (DEN)  Spain (ESP)  Finland (FIN)  France (FRA)  Great Britain (GBR)  Greece (GRE)  Ireland (IRL)  Italy (ITA)  Netherlands (NED)  Norway (NOR)  Portugal (POR)  South Africa (RSA)  Switzerland (SUI)  Sweden (SWE)  Uruguay (URU)  United States (USA)

Classes (equipment)

Class	Type	Event	Sailors	Trapeze	Mainsail	Jib/Genoa	Spinnaker	First OG	Olympics so far
Firefly	Dinghy		1	0	+	+	–	1948	1
Star	Keelboat		2	0	+	+	–	1932	3
Swallow (Golondrina)	Keelboat		2	0	+	+	+	1948	1
Dragon	Keelboat		3	0	+	+	+	1948	1
6 Metre	Keelboat		5	0	+	+	+	1908	8

= Male, = Female, = Open

1948 Olympic Classes designs

• 

Medal summary

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1948: Firefly	Denmark (DEN) Paul Elvstrøm	United States (USA) Ralph Evans	Netherlands (NED) Koos de Jong
1948: Star	United States (USA) Hilary Smart Paul Smart	Cuba (CUB) Carlos de Cardenas Carlos de Cardenas, Jr.	Netherlands (NED) Adriaan Maas Edward Stutterheim
1948: Swallow	Great Britain (GBR) Stewart Morris David Bond	Portugal (POR) Duarte de Almeida Bello Fernando Pinto Coelho Bello	United States (USA) Lockwood Pirie Owen Torrey
1948: Dragon	Norway (NOR) Thor Thorvaldsen Haakon Barfod Sigve Lie	Sweden (SWE) Folke Bohlin Gösta Brodin Hugo Johnson	Denmark (DEN) William Berntsen Klaus Baess Ole Berntsen
1948: 6 Metre	United States (USA) Herman Whiton Alfred Loomis Michael Mooney James Smith James Weekes	Argentina (ARG) Enrique Sieburger, Sr. Emilio Homps Rodolfo Rivademar Rufino Rodríguez de la Torre Enrique Sieburger, Jr. Julio Sieburger	Sweden (SWE) Tore Holm Carl Robert Ameln Martin Hindorff Torsten Lord Gösta Salén

Medal table

1	United States (USA)	2	1	1	4
2	Denmark (DEN)	1	0	1	2
3	Great Britain (GBR)	1	0	0	1
	Norway (NOR)	1	0	0	1
5	Sweden (SWE)	0	1	1	2
6	Argentina (ARG)	0	1	0	1
	Cuba (CUB)	0	1	0	1
	Portugal (POR)	0	1	0	1
9	Netherlands (NED)	0	0	2	2
Total		5	5	5	15

Remarks

Sailing

• Modern techniques like hot moulded plywood in an autoclave and Aluminum mast and booms made their entrance in the Firefly.
• This Olympic sailing event was gender independent, but turned out to be a Men only event. This was one of the triggers to create gender specific events. This however had to wait until 1988.
• The series were scheduled over the two Olympic weeks. race 1–4 in each class were sailed from 3–6 August. race 5–7 took place on 10–12 August. This was done so that boats could be overhauled after the first set of races.
• The best feature of this Olympic was the scoring system. Quote from the officiel report: – "The number of points awarded to each other competitor diminishes under a given formula, according to the placing of his boat at the finish." – This system was invented by an Austrian sailor. Advantages of this system are:
  • Winning races is well awarded, so sailors are likely to fight till the end of the race for each place
  • Less ties than with the point for place system
  • The score of the winner reflects the number of entries
• Together with the scoring system it was introduced that each team could discard its worst result
• The courses were laid and patrolled by vessels of the Royal Navy
• The two major Axis powers of World War II, Germany and Japan, were not invited to the Games.

Sailors

During the Sailing regattas at the 1948 Summer Olympics among others the following persons were competing in the various classes:

•  Rickard Sarby (SWE), The future designer of the Finn, in the Firefly
•  Jean-Jacques Herbulot (FRA), The future designer of the Vaurien, in the Firefly. He also designed the "Herbulot"-spinnaker. (A spinnaker with large circulair holes. This makes large spinnakers more stable and faster. This type of spinnaker is now in most classes prohibited).
•  Agostino Straulino (ITA), Between 1949 and 1956 he won eight consecutive European championships in the starboat class, here also in the Star
•  Enrique Sieburger, Sr. (ARG), Oldest of the Sieburger-Salas "clan". A family that in total had 20 entries in the Olympic Sailing competition, in the 6 Metre
•  Tore Holm (SWE), Two times Gold and twice Silver medalist since 1920, in the 6 Metre
•  Magnus Konow (NOR), Spanned the longest periode in Olympic sailing (1908–1948), in the 6 Metre
•  Paul Elvstrøm (DEN), Although he did not finish the first race he won his first, out of four consecutive, Gold medals. This one in the Firefly.

References

• Organising Committee for the XIV Olympiad London 1948 (1951). The Official Report of the Organising Committee for the XIV Olympiad London 1948 (pdf).{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
• Hugh Drake & Paul Henderson (2009). Canada's Olympic Sailing Legacy, Paris 1924 – Beijing 2008. Toronto: CYA.
• "London 1948". Olympics.com. International Olympic Committee.