Sailing at the 1920 Summer Olympics

Geschiedenis

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 possible 1916 sailing was always a part of the Olympic program. The Sailing program of 1920 was open for a total of sixteen sailing classes (disciplines), but actually only fourteen Sailing events were contested, because of at the 8.5 metre and 9 metre classes 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.VenueRoyal Yacht Club of BelgiumOstend offers a fair condition for sailing on the North Sea. However, 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.