Sailing at the 1908 Summer Olympics

Sailing
at the Games of the IV Olympiad

1908 Gold Medal (Obverse and Reverse)
Venues Ryde, Isle of Wight
Hunters Quay, Scotland
Dates First race: 27 July 1908 (1908-07-27) (Ryde)
Last race: 29 July 1908 (1908-07-29)
First race: 11 August 1908 (1908-08-11) (Hunters Quay)
Last race: 12 August 1908 (1908-08-12)
Sailors 64 Male and 2 Female (Documented) from 5 countries
Boats 14
Top ranked countries
Great Britain: 4 1st  1 2nd  1 3rd  
Belgium: 0 1st  1 2nd  0 3rd  
Sweden: 0 1st  1 2nd  0 3rd  

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 1908 was open for a total of five sailing classes (disciplines), but actually only four Sailing events were contested. The planned venue of all races, named matches, was Ryde, Isle of Wight.

Venue

Royal Victoria Yacht Club

Clubhouse of the Royal Victoria Yacht Club, Ryde, 1909
General information
Status Complete
Type Clubhouse
Town or city Ryde
Country  GBR
Coordinates 50°43′58.92″N 1°9′44.91″W / 50.7330333°N 1.1624750°W / 50.7330333; -1.1624750Coordinates: 50°43′58.92″N 1°9′44.91″W / 50.7330333°N 1.1624750°W / 50.7330333; -1.1624750
Elevation Sealevel
Construction started 1846
Client Royal Victoria Yacht Club
Owner Prince Consort Building
Design and construction
Architect Italianate style Regency architecture
Royal Clyde Yacht Clubhouse

The Clubhouse of the Royal Clyde Yacht Club Clyde at Hunter Quay (GBR) was made available for the Organizing Committee of the B.O.C. and the Clyde Corinthian Yacht Club for the 12 Metre Matches.
General information
Status Complete
Type Hotel & Clubhouse
Town or city Hunters Quay
Country  GBR
Coordinates 55°58′11.31″N 4°54′31.78″W / 55.9698083°N 4.9088278°W / 55.9698083; -4.9088278
Elevation Sealevel

At the 1907 The Hague Conference of the IOC Ryde at the Isle of Wight was appointed to host the sailing regattas, for all classes, of the games of the IVth Olympiad. However, when there were only two British entries for the 12 Metre matches, and both yacht were located at the Firth of Clyde, the decision was made to use Hunters Quay as a second venue [1]

Royal Victoria Yacht Club, Ryde

The RVYC was founded on 24 May 1845 by Prince Albert to give Queen Victoria a Yacht Club which she was entitled to enter as a mere female![2]

For the Olympic matches the race committee used the available shipping buoys as marks for the courses. for the classes the following course lengths were used:

Clyde Corinthian Yacht Club, Hunters Quay

Course areas

The following course areas were used during the 1908 Olympic sailing regattas:

1908 Olympic Course Areas
Olympic Course Area for the 6 & 7 Metre, Ryde
Olympic 12 Metre Course, Hunters Quay

Competition

Overview

Continents Countries Classes Entries Male Female
1 5 5 14 64 2

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

Continents

Map of Participating Sailing Continents at the 1908 Summer Olympics
Green = Participating for the first time
Blue = Participating
Light Blue = Have previously participated
● Europe

Countries[1]

Map of Participating Sailing Countries at the 1908 Summer Olympics
Green = Participating for the first time
Blue = Participating
Light Blue = Have previously participated
 Belgium (BEL) France (FRA) Great Britain (GBR) Norway (NOR)
 Sweden (SWE)

Classes (equipment)[1]

Although one of the oldest organized sporting activities, sailing in the early first part of the 20th century was not uniformly organized. This had a lot to do with national traditions as well as with the fact that there were no standardized boat types with uniform building instructions and measurements. Also a lot of development was done in the area of boat design and boat building. The shape of a boat, specifically its length, its weight and its sail area, are major parameters that determine the boat's speed. Several initiatives were started to create a formula that made it possible to have boats race each other without having to calculate the final result. But the different countries initially could not agree on an international system. At the Olympics of 1900 it was clear that sailing was not ready for international competition, and something had to be done.

In 1906 international meetings were organize to solve the problem. Finally in Paris, October 1907 the first International Rule was ratified. Delegates from this meeting went on to form the International Yacht Racing Union (IYRU), the precursor to the present International Sailing Federation (ISAF).

The agreed formula gives a result in meters (Metre). During the meeting in 1907 the IOC made the decision to open the 1908 Summer Olympics for the following Metre classes:

 
 |-
 ! Class !! Type !! Venue !! Event !! Sailors !! First OG !! Olympics so far
 |-
|style="text-align:left"| 6 Metre
Keelboat Ryde 3 1908 1
7 Metre Keelboat Ryde 4 1908 1
8 Metre Keelboat Ryde 5 1908 1
12 Metre Keelboat Hunters Quay 10 1908 1
15 Metre Keelboat No show Unknown 1908 0
Legend: = Mixed gender event
The 1908 Olympic Classes in action

Race schedule[1]

  Event competitions   Event finals
Date July August
27
Mon
28
Tue
29
Wed
30
Thu
31
Fri
1
Sat
2
Sun
3
Mon
4
Tue
5
Wed
6
Thu
7
Fri
8
Sat
9
Sun
10
Mon
11
Tue
12
Wed
Sailing
Total gold medals 3 1

Medal summary

Event Gold Silver Bronze

1908: 6 Metre

 Great Britain (GBR)
Gilbert Laws
Thomas McMeekin
Charles Crichton
 Belgium (BEL)
Léon Huybrechts
Louis Huybrechts
Henri Weewauters
 France (FRA)
Henri Arthus
Louis Potheau
Pierre Rabot

1908: 7 Metre

 Great Britain (GBR)
Charles Rivett-Carnac
Norman Bingley
Richard Dixon
Frances Rivett-Carnac
The second competitor failed to make it to the start. No further competition

1908: 8 Metre

 Great Britain (GBR)
Blair Cochrane
Charles Campbell
John Rhodes
Henry Sutton
Arthur Wood
 Sweden (SWE)
Carl Hellström
Edmund Thormählen
Eric Sandberg
Erik Wallerius
Harald Wallin
The Duchess of Westminster
 Great Britain (GBR)
Philip Hunloke
Alfred Hughes
Frederick Hughes
George Ratsey
William Ward

1908: 12 Metre

 Great Britain (GBR)
Thomas Glen-Coats
John Downes
John Aspin
John Buchanan
James Bunten
Arthur Downes
David Dunlop
John Mackenzie
Albert Martin
Gerald Tait
 Great Britain (GBR)
Charles MacIver
J. Graham Kenion
James Baxter
William Davidson
J.A. Gardiner
John Jellico
Thomas Littledale
Charles R. MacIver
Colin McLeod Robertson
James Spence
No further competition

Medal table 1908

 Rank  Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total
1  Great Britain (GBR) 4 1 1 3
2  Belgium (BEL) 0 1 0 1
 Sweden (SWE) 0 1 0 1
4  France (FRA) 0 0 1 1
Total 4 3 1 8

Medal table 1896 – 1908

 Rank  Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total
1  Great Britain (GBR) 8 2 2 12
2  France (FRA) 5 9 11 25
3  Mixed team (ZZX) 2 0 0 2
4  Germany (GER) 1 1 0 2
 Switzerland (SUI) 1 1 0 2
6  Belgium (BEL) 0 1 0 1
 Netherlands (NED) 0 1 0 1
 Sweden (SWE) 0 1 0 1
9  United States (USA) 0 0 2 2
Total 9 17 16 15 48

Ranking of the countries over the years

Graphic that showed the changes in the standing of the countries over the years.

Notes

Other information

During the Sailing regattas at the 1908 Summer Olympics among others the following persons were competing in the various classes:

People at the 1908 Olympic regattas
Johan Anker 
Duchess of Westminster 
William Dudley Ward 
Crew of Cobweb 
Race committee of the Clyde Corinthian Yacht Club 

Further reading

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Cook, Theodore Andrea (1908). The Fourth Olympiad, Being the Official Report (PDF). London: British Olympic Association. Retrieved 2 February 2015.
  2. "Royal Victoria Yacht Club". Royal Victoria Yacht Club. Retrieved 2 February 2015.

"London 1908". Olympic.org. International Olympic Committee. 

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, March 25, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.