# 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.
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 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.

### Course areas
## 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:
| 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.
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 | 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 |
| 30m$^2$ Skerry Cruiser | Keelboat | Ostend | 7 | 1920 | 1 |
| 40m$^2$ 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 | July Belgium | July Belgium | July Belgium | September Netherlands | September Netherlands | September Netherlands |
| Date | 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:
| 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 | No Entries | No Entries |
| 9 Metre | No Entries | No Entries | 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 |
| 2 | 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) | 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:
* 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