Sailing at the 1920 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 the canceled 1916 Summer Olympics, sailing has always been included on the Olympic schedule.

Sailing at the Games of the VII Olympiad
Poster Anvers 1920
Venues	Ostend Amsterdam
Dates	First race: 7 July 1920 (1920-07-07) (Ostend) Last race: 10 July 1920 (1920-07-10) Final race: 3 September 1920 (1920-09-03) (Amsterdam)
Competitors	100 Male and 1 Female from 6 nations
Boats	24
← 1912 1924 →

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
Royal Yacht Club van België
Burgee of the Royal Yacht Club Belgium
General information
Status	unknown
Type	Clubhouse
Country	Belgium
Coordinates	51°14′2″N 2°55′25″E
Elevation	Sealevel

Royal Yacht Club of Belgium

Ostend offers a fair condition for sailing on the North Sea. Though there are tidal conditions, the current is reasonable 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.^[1][2]

Course areas

1920 Olympic Course Area

Course area Ostend, Belgium

Course area 12' Dinghy, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Competition

Overview

Continents	Countries	Classes	Entries	Male	Female
1	6	14	24	100	1|-

A maximum of 2 boats per country per class was allowed.

Continents

Map of Participating Sailing Continents at the 1920 Summer Olympics ● Green = Participating for the first time ● Blue = Participating ● Light Blue = Have previously participated

● Europe

Countries

Source:^[3]

Map of Participating Sailing Countries at the 1920 Summer Olympics ● Green = Participating for the first time ● Blue = Participating ● Light Blue = Have previously participated

Belgium (14)  France (3)  Great Britain (6)  Netherlands (8)  Norway (59)  Sweden (11)

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.^[3]

After World War I the International Sailing Authority had obvious no clue 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.

Some of the 1920 Olympic classes
Class	Type	Venue	Event	Sailors	First OG	Olympics so far
12' Dinghy	Dinghy	Ostend		2	1920	1
18' Dinghy	Dinghy	Ostend		2	1920	1
6.5 Metre	Keelboat	Ostend		3	1920	1
8.5 Metre	Keelboat	No show		Unknown	1920	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 show		Unknown	1920	0
10 Metre (2x)	Keelboat	Ostend		8	1912	2
12 Metre (2x)	Keelboat	Ostend		9	1908	3
30m2 Skerry Cruiser	Keelboat	Ostend		7	1920	1
40m2 Skerry Cruiser	Keelboat	Ostend		8	1920	1
Legend: = Mixed gender event
Some of the 1920 Olympic Classes in action 12' Dinghy 6.5 Metre 6 Metre Skerry Cruiser 12 Metre

Race schedule

●

Opening ceremony

●

Event competitions

●

Event finals

●

Closing ceremony

Date	July  Belgium				September  Netherlands
	7 Wed	8 Thu	9 Fri	10 Sat	3 Fri	4 Sat	5 Sun
Sailing (planning)	● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●	● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●	● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●	● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
Total gold medals				14
Sailing (actual)	1 ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●	● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●	● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●	● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●	2
Total gold medals				13	1

Medal summary

Source:^[4]

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1920: 12' Dinghy details	Netherlands (NED) Cornelis Hin Johan Hin Frans Hin	Netherlands (NED) Arnoud van der Biesen Petrus Beukers	No further competitors
1920: 18' Dinghy details	Great Britain (GBR) Francis Richards Trevor Hedberg	No further competitors	No further competitors
1920: 6.5 Metre details	Netherlands (NED) Joop Carp Berend Carp Petrus Wernink	France (FRA) Albert Weil Robert Monier Félix Picon	No further competitors
1920: 6 Metre 1907 rule details	Belgium (BEL) Émile Cornellie Frédéric Bruynseels Florimond Cornellie	Norway (NOR) Einar Torgersen Leif Erichsen Andreas Knudsen	Norway (NOR) Henrik Agersborg Einar Berntsen Trygve Pedersen
1920: 6 Metre 1919 rule details	Norway (NOR) Andreas Brecke Paal Kaasen Ingolf Rød	Belgium (BEL) Léon Huybrechts Charles Van Den Bussche John Klotz	No further competitors
1920: 7 Metre details	Great Britain (GBR) Cyril Wright Robert Coleman William Maddison Dorothy Wright	Norway (NOR) Johann Faye Sten Abel Christian Dick Neils Neilsen	No further competitors
1920: 8 Metre 1907 rule details	Norway (NOR) Carl Ringvold Thorleif Holbye Alf Jacobsen Kristoffer Olsen Tellef Wagle	No further competitors	No further competitors
1920: 8 Metre 1919 rule details	Norway (NOR) Magnus Konow Thorleif Christoffersen Reidar Marthiniussen Ragnar Vik	Norway (NOR) Jens Salvesen Finn Schiander Lauritz Schmidt Nils Thomas Ralph Tschudi	Belgium (BEL) Albert Grisar Willy de l'Arbre Georges Hellebuyck Léopold Standaert Henri Weewauters
8.5 Metre	No Entries
9 Metre	No Entries
1920: 10 Metre 1907 rule details	Norway (NOR) Erik Herseth Gunnar Jamvold Petter Jamvold Claus Juell Sigurd Holter Ingar Nielsen Ole Sørensen	No further competitors	No further competitors
1920: 10 Metre 1919 rule details	Norway (NOR) Charles Arentz Otto Falkenberg Robert Giertsen Willy Gilbert Halfdan Schjøtt Trygve Schjøtt Arne Sejersted	No further competitors	No further competitors
1920: 12 Metre 1907 rule details	Norway (NOR) Henrik Østervold Halvor Birkeland Rasmus Birkeland Lauritz Christiansen Hans Naess Halvor Møgster Jan Østervold Kristian Østervold Ole Østervold	No further competitors	No further competitors
1920: 12 Metre 1919 rule details	Norway (NOR) Johan Friele Arthur Allers Martin Borthen Kaspar Hassel Erik Ørvig Olav Örvig Thor Ørvig Egill Reimers Christen Wiese	No further competitors	No further competitors
1920: 30m2 Skerry cruiser details	Sweden (SWE) Gösta Lundqvist Gösta Bengtsson Rolf Steffenburg	No further competitors	No further competitors
1920: 40m2 Skerry cruiser details	Sweden (SWE) Tore Holm Yngve Holm Axel Rydin Georg Tengwall	Sweden (SWE) Gustaf Svensson Percy Almstedt Erik Mellbin Ragnar Svensson	No further competitors

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Norway (NOR)	7	3	1	11
2	Netherlands (NED)	2	1	0	3
	Sweden (SWE)	2	1	0	3
4	Great Britain (GBR)	2	0	0	2
5	Belgium (BEL)	1	1	1	3
6	France (FRA)	0	1	0	1
Totals (6 entries)		14	7	2	23

Other information

Sailing

• As a result of the First World War, AUT, GER, HUN and TUR 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:

Sailors at the 1920 Olympic Games

• 
  In the 8 Metre Sildra:
   Norway (NOR), Magnus Konow
  six time Olympic competitor
• 
  In the 40 M2 Skerry cruiser Sif:
   Sweden (SWE), Magnus Konow
  five time Olympic competitor

Further reading

• "Digital Library Collection (Official Olympic Reports 1896 - 2008)". Digital Library Collection at la84.org. la84foundation. Retrieved 8 February 2015.^{[permanent dead link]}