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 the canceled 1916 Summer Olympics, sailing has always been included on the Olympic schedule.

The Sailing program of 1920 was open for a total of sixteen sailing classes (disciplines), with fourteen Sailing events being contested: the 8.5 metre and 9 metre classes were cancelled as there were no entrants. For each class, three races were scheduled from 7 July 1920 to 10 July 1920, off the coast of Ostend at the North Sea.

Venue

Royal Yacht Club of Belgium Ostend offers fair conditions for sailing on the North Sea. Though there are tidal conditions, the current is reasonably predictable. Local knowledge does not have too much influence of the races. The wind conditions are also good for sailing. However, in the case of the 1920 Summer Olympic regatta's the prevailing breeze did not show. Most races had to be sailed under light air conditions.

An unprecedented and unique Olympic situation happened with the races in the 12' Dinghy. When in the second race one of the marks was taken hostage by the tidal current and went drifting the race had to be nullified. Since the organizers did not have the time to resail the race and both teams were of Dutch origin the Belgian organization requested the Dutch Olympic Committee to resail the finals in The Netherlands. As a result, the first Olympic event held in the Netherlands was not in 1928 but already in 1920. As venue of this final the Buiten IJ in Amsterdam was chosen.

Course areas

Competition

Overview ContinentsCountriesClassesEntriesMaleFemale 1 6 14 24 100 1|- A maximum of 2 boats per country per class was allowed.

Continents ● Europe

Countries Source:

Classes (equipment) The Olympic Sailing event of 1920 was without any doubt the most strangest in history so far. With a program of no less than 16 classes and an entry list that consists of 7 out of 14 classes with just competitor and only one class with more than 3 yachts.

After World War I the International Sailing Authority did not know in what direction sailing had developed since 1912. The Nordic countries had developed the Skerry Cruiser classes and the International rule classes had adopted in 1919 a new edition of the rule which was not yet implemented in the countries. Therefore, the entries were open for the old, as well the new rule and two Skerry classes. Besides that, an advice from 1908 was followed by putting two one design classes on the program. By doing this the 1920 Olympics acted as a test laboratory from which the IYRU could draw conclusion for the further development of the sport. These lessons learned, not too many different classes and moving towards one design classes, did show during the next Olympic Sailing event and are still taken into account.

Class Type Venue Event Sailors First OG Olympics so far 12' Dinghy Dinghy Ostend 2 1920 1 18' Dinghy DinghyOstend 2 1920 1 6.5 Metre Keelboat Ostend 3 1920 1 8.5 Metre Keelboat No showUnknown1920 0 6 Metre (2x) Keelboat Ostend 3 1908 3 7 Metre Keelboat Ostend 2 1908 2 8 Metre (2x) Keelboat Ostend 5 1908 3 9 Metre Keelboat No showUnknown1920 0 10 Metre (2x) Keelboat Ostend 8 1912 2 12 Metre (2x) Keelboat Ostend 9 1908 3 30m2 Skerry CruiserKeelboat Ostend 7 1920 1 40m2 Skerry CruiserKeelboat Ostend 8 1920 1 Legend: = Mixed gender event

Race schedule  ● Opening ceremony ● Event competitions  ● Event finals  ● Closing ceremony DateJuly September 7Wed8Thu9Fri10Sat3Fri4Sat5Sun Sailing (planning)● ● ● ●● ● ●● ● ● ● ● ● ●● ● ●● ● ● ● ● ● ●● ● ●● ● ● ● ● ● ●● ● ●● ● ● Total gold medals 14 Sailing (actual)1 ● ● ●● ● ●● ● ● ● ● ●● ● ●● ● ● ● ● ●● ● ●● ● ● ● ● ●● ● ●● ● ● 2 Total gold medals 13 1

Medal summary Source:

1920: 12' Dinghy  Netherlands (NED)Cornelis HinJohan HinFrans Hin  Netherlands (NED)Arnoud van der BiesenPetrus Beukers No further competitors

1920: 18' Dinghy None awarded

1920: 6.5 Metre  Netherlands (NED)Joop CarpBerend CarpPetrus Wernink  France (FRA)Albert WeilRobert MonierFélix Picon No further competitors

1920: 6 Metre 1907 rule  Belgium (BEL)Émile CornellieFrédéric BruynseelsFlorimond Cornellie  Norway (NOR)Einar TorgersenLeif ErichsenAndreas Knudsen  Norway (NOR)Henrik AgersborgEinar BerntsenTrygve Pedersen

1920: 6 Metre 1919 rule  Norway (NOR)Andreas BreckePaal KaasenIngolf Rød  Belgium (BEL)Léon HuybrechtsCharles Van Den BusscheJohn Klotz No further competitors

1920: 7 Metre  Great Britain (GBR)Cyril WrightRobert ColemanWilliam MaddisonDorothy Wright  Norway (NOR)Johann FayeSten AbelChristian DickNeils Neilsen No further competitors

1920: 8 Metre 1907 rule  Norway (NOR)Carl RingvoldThorleif HolbyeAlf JacobsenKristoffer OlsenTellef Wagle No further competitors No further competitors

1920: 8 Metre 1919 rule  Norway (NOR)Magnus KonowThorleif ChristoffersenReidar MarthiniussenRagnar Vik  Norway (NOR)Jens SalvesenFinn SchianderLauritz SchmidtNils ThomasRalph Tschudi  Belgium (BEL)Albert GrisarWilly de l'ArbreGeorges HellebuyckLéopold StandaertHenri Weewauters

8.5 Metre No Entries 9 Metre No Entries

1920: 10 Metre 1907 rule  Norway (NOR)Erik HersethGunnar JamvoldPetter JamvoldClaus JuellSigurd HolterIngar NielsenOle Sørensen No further competitors No further competitors

1920: 10 Metre 1919 rule  Norway (NOR)Charles ArentzOtto FalkenbergRobert GiertsenWilly GilbertHalfdan SchjøttTrygve SchjøttArne Sejersted No further competitors No further competitors

1920: 12 Metre 1907 rule  Norway (NOR)Henrik ØstervoldHalvor BirkelandRasmus BirkelandLauritz ChristiansenHans NaessHalvor MøgsterJan ØstervoldKristian ØstervoldOle Østervold No further competitors No further competitors

1920: 12 Metre 1919 rule  Norway (NOR)Johan FrieleArthur AllersMartin BorthenKaspar HasselErik ØrvigOlav ÖrvigThor ØrvigEgill ReimersChristen Wiese No further competitors No further competitors

1920: 30m2 Skerry cruiser  Sweden (SWE)Gösta LundqvistGösta BengtssonRolf Steffenburg No further competitors No further competitors

1920: 40m2 Skerry cruiser  Sweden (SWE)Tore HolmYngve HolmAxel RydinGeorg Tengwall  Sweden (SWE)Gustaf SvenssonPercy AlmstedtErik MellbinRagnar Svensson No further competitors

Medal table

Other information

Sailing As a result of the First World War, , , and were not invited. The agony athletes develop after finishing fourth at the Olympics must have started at the Olympic Sailing event of 1920. The Belgium 6 Metre team of Louis Depiere, Raymond Bauwens and Willy Valcke finished 4th and became the only sailing team at the 1920 Olympics that went home without a medal. In the Sailing regattas, Norway took 7 gold medals. This boost put them in the higher regions of the medal table. They still profit from this boost.

Sailors During the Sailing regattas at the 1920 Summer Olympics among others the following persons were competing in the various classes:

Further reading

References