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 1928 consisted of a total of three sailing classes.Sailing at the 1928 Amsterdam Summer Games. sports-reference.com For each class races were scheduled from 2–9 August 1928 on the Buiten Y near Amsterdam and on the Zuiderzee. The sailing was done on the triangular type Olympic courses.
Venue Source:
Six Harbor As venue for the Amsterdam Olympics the Zuiderzee near Amsterdam was chosen. The organizing committee of the sailing event was the Koninklijk Verbond Nederlandsche Watersport Vereniging. The Olympic harbor Six Harbor was on the North shore of the Y just opposite of the Amsterdam Centraal railway station. The boats were moored in the so-called 'kinderkamer' of the harbor. The Six Harbor was in that time the location of the Koninklijke Nederlandsche Zeil- & Roeivereeniging. This resulted that all competing yachts had to go through the Oranje Locks to enter the Buiten Y and Zuiderzee. Some of the former buildings of the Six Harbor were demolished during the construction of the Amsterdam Metro North–south line.
Course areas A total of two race areas were used for sailing at the Amsterdam Olympics: The courses of the 12' Dinghy were just outside the locks on the buiten Y in front of Durgerdam. For the 6 and 8 Metre the used courses were about 5 nm out of the locks, East of the Isle of Marken on the Zuiderzee.
At that time the Zuiderzee had an open connection with the North Sea. The sea water was salt or at best brackish. Waves could be steep and short due to the shallow waters.
In 1932 a dam was built between the North Sea and the Zuiderzee and the Zuiderzee was renamed IJsselmeer. As result of this the lake now contains fresh water. Inside the lake new land was reclaimed. At this moment the center of the 1928 6 and 8 Metre course is located in the city of Almere. Also the city of Amsterdam reclaimed land from the sea and moved towards the lake. When the sailors from the 1928 Summer Olympics could return to their venue they would hardly recognize it.
Competition Source:
Overview ContinentsCountriesClassesBoatsMaleFemale 4 23 3 41 124 2
Continents ● Africa ● Europe ● North America ● South America
Countries
Classes (equipment)
Class Type Venue Event Sailors First OG Olympics so far 12' Dinghy DinghyIJmeer 119202 6 Metre KeelboatZuiderzee319085 8 MetreKeelboat Zuiderzee 619085 Legend: = Mixed gender event
Race schedule Source: ● Opening ceremony ● Event competitions ● Event finals ● Closing ceremony Date JulyAugust26thThu27thFri28thSat29thSun30thMon31stTue1stWed2ndThu3rdFri4thSat5thSun6thMon7thTue8thWed9thThu10thFri11thSat12thSun Sailing ● ● ●● ● ●● ● ●● ● ●Spareday● ● ●● ● ●● ● Total gold medals 1 2 Ceremonies ● ●
Medal summary Source:
1928: 12' Dinghy Sweden (SWE)Sven Thorell Norway (NOR)Henrik Robert Finland (FIN)Bertil Broman
1928: 6 Metre Norway (NOR)Johan AnkerErik AnkerHåkon BryhnCrown Prince Olav Denmark (DEN)Vilhelm VettAage Høy-PetersenNiels Otto MøllerPeter Schlütter Estonia (EST)Nikolai VekšinAndreas FaehlmannGeorg FaehlmannEberhard VogdtWilliam von Wirén
1928: 8 Metre France (FRA)Donatien BouchéAndré DerrienVirginie HériotAndré LesauvageJean LesieurCarl de la Sablière Netherlands (NED)Johannes van HoolwerffLambertus DoedesHendrik KerskenCornelis van StaverenGerard de Vries LentschMaarten de Wit Sweden (SWE)Clarence HammarTore HolmCarl SandblomJohn SandblomPhilip SandblomWilhelm Törsleff
Medal table Source:
Notes
Quality of racing This Olympic sailing regatta can be considered as the first Olympic regatta with a high quality of racing since there were: Well selected classes that represented sailing Sufficient competitors per class Good and fair sailing conditions
Amateurism as defined by the National Authority in The Netherlands
Other information
Sailing During the sailing regattas at the 1928 Summer Olympics among others the following persons were competing in the various classes: , Crown Prince of Norway, Crown Prince Olav in the 6 Metre , First full-time yachtwoman, Virginie Hériot in the 8 Metre , United States yachting legend and inventor of the Swimfin, Owen Churchill in the 8 Metre , Owner of Wilh. Wilhelmsen, Norway, Wilhelm Wilhelmsen Jr. in the 8 Metre , Yacht designer and boat builder, Netherlands, Willem de Vries Lentsch in the 12' Dinghy
Further reading
References