Sailing at the 1948 Summer Olympics

• Africa
• Oceania
• Europe
• Americas

Prior to 1948, sailing had been a gender-neutral sport where male and female competitors competed together. For the 1948 Games the IOC decided the events should only be open to male sailors. This was the only time this happened until separate male and female events were introduced in some classes in the 1980s.[2]

Class	Type	Event	Sailors	Trapeze	Mainsail	Jib/Genoa	Spinnaker	First OG	Olympics so far
Firefly	Dinghy		1	0	+	+	–	1948	1
Star	Keelboat		2	0	+	+	–	1932	3
Swallow (Golondrina)	Keelboat		2	0	+	+	+	1948	1
Dragon	Keelboat		3	0	+	+	+	1948	1
6 Metre	Keelboat		5	0	+	+	+	1908	8

= Male, = Female, = Open

• Modern techniques like hot moulded plywood in an autoclave and Aluminum mast and booms made their entrance in the Firefly.
• This Olympic sailing event was gender independent, but turned out to be a Men-only event. This was one of the triggers to create gender specific events. This however had to wait until 1988.
• The series were scheduled over the two Olympic weeks. race 1–4 in each class were sailed from 3–6 August. race 5–7 took place on 10–12 August. This was done so that boats could be overhauled after the first set of races.
• The best feature of this Olympic was the scoring system. Quote from the officiel report: – "The number of points awarded to each other competitor diminishes under a given formula, according to the placing of his boat at the finish." – This system was invented by an Austrian sailor. Advantages of this system are:
  • Winning races is well awarded, so sailors are likely to fight till the end of the race for each place
  • Less ties than with the point for place system
  • The score of the winner reflects the number of entries
• Together with the scoring system it was introduced that each team could discard its worst result
• The courses were laid and patrolled by vessels of the Royal Navy
• The two major Axis powers of World War II, Germany and Japan, were not invited to the Games.

During the Sailing regattas at the 1948 Summer Olympics among others the following persons were competing in the various classes:

•  Rickard Sarby (SWE), The future designer of the Finn, in the Firefly
•  Jean-Jacques Herbulot (FRA), The future designer of the Vaurien, in the Firefly. He also designed the "Herbulot"-spinnaker. (A spinnaker with large circulair holes. This makes large spinnakers more stable and faster. This type of spinnaker is now in most classes prohibited).
•  Agostino Straulino (ITA), Between 1949 and 1956 he won eight consecutive European championships in the starboat class, here also in the Star
•  Enrique Sieburger, Sr. (ARG), Oldest of the Sieburger-Salas "clan". A family that in total had 20 entries in the Olympic Sailing competition, in the 6 Metre
•  Tore Holm (SWE), Two times gold and twice silver medalist since 1920, in the 6 Metre[3]
•  Magnus Konow (NOR), Spanned the longest periode in Olympic sailing (1908–1948), in the 6 Metre[4]
•  Paul Elvstrøm (DEN), Although he did not finish the first race he won his first, out of four consecutive, Gold medals. This one in the Firefly.
•  Australia (AUS), Jock Sturrock in the Star. Became the first Australian to sail in the Olympic Games. He would eventually represent Australia in four Olympic Games, and be flag-bearer for the Australian team at the opening ceremony of the 1960 Rome Olympics (in recognition of becoming the first athlete to represent Australia at four Olympic Games). He later skippered "Gretel" and "Dame Pattie", the first two Australian challengers for the America's Cup.