Sailing has evolved tremendously as an Olympic sport over the last 124 years, expanding from yachting regattas to racing on skiffs, dinghies, kites, and windsurfing.
It just so happens that Great Britain is the most successful team in the sport, making it of particular interest in the UK’s Olympic sport betting markets every four years.
With ten Olympic sailing classes set to compete for medals at Paris 2024, here’s what you need to know about the high-speed sport of incredible technical skill.
History
As an internationally-competed sport, sailing dates back to 1851. Great Britain’s Hundred Guinea Cup accepted the application of the New York City-based schooner America to make it an international event.
The race around the Isle of Wight saw the 100-foot schooner take the top spot and win the Hundred Guinea Cup. In honour of it winning this inaugural international race, the competition’s name was changed to the America’s Cup.
In 1896, the Summer Olympic Games came knocking. Sailing was officially on the schedule, but poor weather postponed its debut. That would instead come at the 1900 Olympic Games.
Sailing would miss out on the 1904 Games, but that would prove to be the only exception. Since 1900, sailing – formerly ‘yachting’ – in its many forms has been competed at all but one Olympic Games.
While Great Britain did enjoy some early success, the first half of the 20th Century would be dominated by Norway and the United States.
It’d take until the turn of the millennium for the hosts of the first international sailing event to claim the top spot and begin to establish a stranglehold on the medal table.
Rules
For each of what is currently ten classes of Olympic sailing, the vessels have to adhere to a specific set of rules pertaining to the build.
More generally, there are the right-of-way rules that govern how two boats or vessels have to conduct themselves should a close encounter look to occur.
Firstly, if two vessels are set to meet while on opposite tracks, the port-track boat (wind coming from the left side) is tasked with steering clear of the starboard boat.
Secondly, on the same track, a vessel with more downwind – the most leeward craft – has the right of way, forcing the boat that’s closest to the wind to need to steer clear.
Finally, when two boats not overlapped on the same track look to pass, the boat that’s doing the overtake needs to avoid the other vessel.
Breaching these right-of-way rules can result in disqualification if proper justifications can’t be given post-race. Alternatively, vessels can sail one or two circles – depending on the class – to nullify the breaking of the rules.
So, if you see an infraction in a live race, you can turn to the live betting odds to capitalise either on the anticipated disqualification or the need for the rule-breaking team to perform a 360o or 720o turn.
Scoring
Olympic sailing events take place over a series of races in which points are scored from low to high for first to last place. In some events, sailors can drop or discard their worst results to improve their final scores.
After this phase, it’ll move on to the medal races for the ten best-scoring teams. Here, the low point scoring system remains in place, and those points are added to the totals at the conclusion of the event.
So, for the scoring in sailing, the fleet sets off, and at the end of that series, the winner gets one point, second gets two points, and so on. In the medal round, points are usually doubled.
Course Structures
There are three main course structures in Olympic sailing that are deployed to suit the different classes in action. Traditionally, the courses will begin by going upwind and conclude by going downwind.
The three course types are the trapezoid, the windward-leeward, and the slalom leg, with the latter being more for the lightweight crafts.
Equipment
The core equipment for Olympic sailing is, of course, the vessels. They vary drastically in each class, making for an intriguing mix of skill and athleticism across the total sailing event. Here’s how each one varies:
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iQFOil: Windsurfer with foiling boards that make for faster racing and a lot of lift out of the water.
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IKA Formula Kite: Hand-controlled kites set to make records as the fastest athletes in Olympic sailing history.
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ILCA 6 and 7: One-person dingy racing with small vessels that tend to be among the slower classes of Olympic sailing races.
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49er and 49erFX: Two-person skiff racing named for the length of the hull (4.99 metres).
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470: A mixed event at Paris 2024 featuring 4.70-metre double-handed monohull planing dinghies.
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Nacra 17: Racing Catamarans that are 17 feet long in a mixed event.
Most Successful Countries at the Olympics
Since dominating the total sailing event in 2000, Great Britain has relentlessly gone on to collect a hoard of medals to move to the top of the overall medal rankings.
With three gold, one silver, and one bronze medal at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Team GB moved ahead of the United States with a total of 64 medals.
When it comes to gold medals, however, Great Britain stands head and shoulders above the rest. Before Paris 2024, 31 gold medals had Team GB at least 12 ahead of the next-best nation.
*Credit for the main photo belongs to Alamy*
