is yachting an olympic sport

What to know about sailing at the 2024 Paris Olympics: History, events, how it works

Here's what you need to know about sailing at the  2024 Paris Olympics :

When did sailing become an Olympic sport?

Sailing has been included on the programme for every Summer Games in the modern era but was canceled in 1896 in Athens due to weather conditions. The first Olympic sailing competition was held in 1900 in Paris. (It was called "yachting" until the 2000 Sydney Games.)

In the early Olympics, bigger boats were used with as many as 10-12 sailors per boat. Through the years, the competition moved to one-design boats, meaning all boats are nearly identical in design, and fewer crew members. Women were always allowed to compete with the men; in 1988 events were introduced for women only.

How does Olympic sailing work?

Ten events will be held from July 28 through Aug. 8 in Marseille. Men and women compete separately in four events. There are two mixed events: multihull and dinghy.

2024 Paris Olympics: Follow USA TODAY’s coverage of the biggest names and stories of the Games.

Sailing races are held in a fleet race format, meaning a group of boats compete at the same time. Boats are awarded points for their finishing position in each race (first place = 1 point, second place = 2 points). The lower the total score, the better the overall placement for the boat. The worst race result for each boat is eliminated after the opening series.

Sailing events you should know

49er men and 49erFX women: Named after its hull length of 4.99 meters, the 49er is a two-handed skiff.

Formula kite men and women: It's also known as kiteboarding or kitesurfing and involves an athlete being harnessed to a kite while gliding across the water on a board.

Ilca 7 men and Ilca 6 women: A small single-handed dinghy. The women race in a smaller variant of the boat.

IQFoil men and women: A format of windsurfing in which a board appears to fly across the water due to hydrofoils attached to the bottom. At race start, the iQFoil immediately gets up to a racing speed of 25 kilometers per hour.

Nacra 17 mixed: The Nacra 17 in a catamaran that is 17 feet long with hydrofoil daggerboards and winglets.

470 mixed : The 470 is a double-handed dinghy with an overall length of 4.7 meters.

Who are the top Team USA athletes in sailing?

Daniela Moroz is the leading medal contender for the United States, a six-time world champion at age 23. Moroz's parents were windsurfers and she began competing internationally at age 14. She is a three-time Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year.

Stephanie Roble and Maggie Shea have sailed together since the fall of 2016 in the 49erFX event. The pair have won medals at the 2019 and 2023 Pan American Games and are No. 3 in the Olympic rankings .

What’s the international landscape in Olympic sailing? 

Host France, Germany and Great Britain are the only countries to qualify boats in all 10 events. China, Italy, Spain and the USA have nine spots.

Marit Bouwmeester  of the Netherlands is a three-time Olympic medalist competing in the one-person dinghy event. In the men's kite event, Singapore's Max Maeder is a favorite to medal. The 17-year-old won gold and silver at the Formula Kite World Championships (2022, 2024).

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Everything you need to know about the Olympics Sailing 2024

From this year's "hectic"  Olympics sailing venue to medal hopes to watch out for, new-for-2024 classes and where best to watch all the action, here is your all-you-need -to-know guide to this year's sailing Olympics.

Sailing at the 2024 Olympic Games will take place on the waters of the Marseille Marina in the South of France and will run from 28 July - 8 August 2024.

The combination of Marseilles’ narrow shaped bay, surrounding mountains, hot Mediterranean climate and dry winds from the Sahara is likely to test the most experienced sailors, a fact recently confirmed by ILCA 7 sailor and two-time Trofeo Princesa Sofia winner Michael Beckett. "Marseille is an incredibly hectic place," said Beckett. "It’s an incredibly tough place to sail - very unpredictable, very hot, very hectic on and off the water."

Freya Black, silver medallist in the women's 49er FX sailor added her thoughts."Marseille is a challenging venue and I think it will definitely reward a versatile sailor," she said. "You can get any kind of conditions on any given day here which I think is really cool."

Not every Olympic sailing sport will be held in Marseille, though. Setting the record for the furthest medal competition outside a host city, the surfing events will be taking place at Teahupo'o on the island of Tahiti, French Polynesia, renowned for its world-class waves. The competition venue has been designed to blend in with the island’s extraordinary natural surroundings, with the Olympic Village made up of modular homes which will later be relocated and redeployed as social housing.

Where to watch in Marseille

Not surprisingly, on-water viewing will be limited in Marseille, which means an ideal way to watch the sailing from a yacht is via charter. This summer, several brokers will have charter boats in the area, including Y.CO , with Whisper and Halo , and Burgess , with Silvertip , Atalante , Maltese Falcon , La Luna and Norfolk Star . When it comes to French Polynesia, Y.CO will also have Sea Eagle and Windrose of Amsterdam .

On land, Marseille’s newly revamped Roucas-Blanc Marina, renamed Marseille Marina for the games, will transform into the competition venue catering for 14 thousand spectators. Tickets are available on the Olympics site and there are various options available, from standing only (limited tickets available) to bigger hospitality packages. There are other VIP packages for sale, including the ones by the official hospitality provider, On Location.

Even if you bring the longest-range binoculars, watching from the shore can be tricky as racing can be fast and therefore hard to follow. If you want to avoid the crowds but soak up the atmosphere, take your iPad, stroll along The Corniche Kennedy, an expansive, three-kilometre-long boulevard that runs along the coast, past several local beaches including the Plages du Prado and Catalan beach and try to find a quiet spot to log in to the coverage online. Marseille will also be hosting some of the Olympic football matches at the city’s Stade Vélodrome.

What are the Olympic sailing classes?

All boats compete in a fleet race format, where all the boats and athletes, classified by category, compete simultaneously on the same course. The boats sail a triangular course, marked by buoys, with the aim of reaching the finish line as quickly as possible.

• Women's Windsurfing (iQFoil): 22 opening series races, 1 quarter final race, 1 semi final race,  1 medal race*
• Men's Windsurfing (iQFoil):  22 opening series races, 1 quarter final race, 1 semi final race,  1 medal race*
• Women's Skiff (49er FX) 12 opening series races, 1 medal race
• Men's Skiff (49er): 12 opening series races, 1 medal race
• Men's One Person Dinghy (ILCA 7): 10 opening series races, 1 medal race
• Women's One Person Dinghy (ILCA 6): 10 opening series races, 1 medal race
• Mixed Two Person Dinghy (470): 10 opening series races, 1 medal race*
• Mixed Multihull (Nacra 17): 12 opening series races, 1 medal race
• Women's Kiteboarding (Formula Kite):  16 opening series races, 12 semifinal races, 6 medal races*
• Men's Kiteboarding (Formula Kite): 16 opening series races, 12 semifinal races, 6 medal races*

* New to 2024

The Olympic classes explained

All competitors in an event use the exact same model of boat, with no differences in design. The ILCA 6, ILCA 7 and 470 class all use dinghies. Another type of dinghy used in competition is known as a "skiff" which is a faster and more dynamic kind of dinghy, with a flat, narrow hull. There are two types of skiffs used at the Olympics, the 49er and 49erFx.

Dinghies at the Olympics

This is the original rig that has been used at the Olympic Games since 1996. Ben Ainslie won his first two Olympic medals in this boat. The ILCA 7 is used as the men’s dinghy and it uses the Standard Laser rig with a sail area of 7.06m². The ILCA 6 and 7 tend to be among the slower Olympic boat classes.

The ILCA 6 uses a more flexible and slightly shorter lower mast than the ILCA 7 and has 18% less sail area. It is used at the women’s dingy.

This double-handed dinghy is rigged with a mainsail, jib, and spinnaker. Unlike the ILCA 6 and 7, the 470 is sailed with trapeze at the Olympic level. In 1988, it was divided into separate men’s and women’s classes but for Paris 2024, it will be a mixed event.

Skiffs at the Olympics

The 49er and 49erfx.

The 49er, named after its hull length of 4.99 metres, is a two-handed skiff. It is rigged with three sails: a main sail, a jib, and an asymmetrical spinnaker.

The two sailors on board take different roles; the helm generally makes the tactical decisions and steers the boat, while the crew undertakes more of the physical work and controls the sails.

The 49erFX was introduced as a women’s skiff from Rio 2016 onwards, made to better suit the weight of all-female crews.

Multihulls at the Olympics

The nacra 17.

This 13.7-metre catamaran was first added to the Olympic programme at Rio 2016 as a mixed event. It flies above the water on a foil.

The Olympic sailing program also features four board events.

Formula kite .

Capable of speeds up to 40 knots (46mph), kiteboarding, new for Paris 2024, sees athletes using a hand-controlled kite to navigate across the water on a board. A total of 40 riders (20 men and 20 women) will compete for gold, silver and bronze medals.

This is a new Olympic iQFOil windsurf class which will replace the RS:X class. The board appears to fly as hydrofoils lift the board completely out of the water. It will include three different racing formats: slalom, course and marathon.

How do you score in the Olympic sailing system?

Classes will sail numerous races (up to three per day depending on weather conditions). After each race of the opening series, a boat is given a score based on when it crosses the finish line (first = one point, second = two, third = three, etc.). Teams can discard points from their worst race performance.

After the opening series races, the ten boats ranked highest compete in the medal race. Points scored are doubled and added to the opening series’ scores to decide the top ten positions. The boat with the lowest total score will be crowned Olympic champion.

How to qualify for the Olympics

There are 330 quota spaces for sailing at Paris 2024, spread across the 10 events. Each National Olympic Committee can qualify up to 14, but only one boat per event. Qualification period has now ended. Now there are 330 athletes competing across 10 events and eight boat classes.

Olympic sailing courses vary slightly depending on the class, but will generally follow a "trapezoid", "windward-leeward" or "slalom" format, aiming to test each point of sail. Boats are usually sent upwind for the first leg of the course, with the finish downwind.

Athletes to watch in 2024

Britain (GB) has won 30 gold medals in Olympic sailing, more than any other country, but the France, People's Republic of China and Spain teams are also ones to keep an eye on.

GB’s 10-strong team for Paris includes Olympic medallists Emma Wilson (iQFOiL), John Gimson and Anna Burnet (Nacra 17) as well as two-time Olympic veterans Chris Grube (Mixed Dingy) and Saskia Tidey (49er). 

Brazilians Martine Grael and Kahena Kunze (49erFX) will try to become the first duo to win three consecutive Olympic gold medals. Snapping at their heels will be the Dutch team, led by Odile van Aanholt, who partnered with Annette Duetz to win the 2022 World Championships.

Other names to watch are Croatian Tonci Stipanovic (ICLA 7), who is aiming for a third straight medal, as well as Tokyo 2020 gold medallists Ruggero Tita and Caterina Banti (Nacra 17) from Italy. 

European gold medallist Ellie Aldridge is set to be Britain's first representative in kiteboarding, but it's Lauriane Nolot  from the French team who pundits are lining up for the podium. World number one and reigning kitefoil world champion, she has a good chance of winning a medal.

Sailing terminology, explained

"stuck in irons".

This means the bow of the boat is pointed directly into the wind and therefore the wind cannot help the boat move forward.

The main purpose of tacking is to change the direction of a sailboat when sailing upwind (against the wind) and avoid the boat getting "stuck in irons". Changing the side of the boat that faces into the wind will help the boat make progress towards a destination by a series of zigzagging manoeuvres.

GYBING/JIBING 

Gybing or jibing is a sailing manoeuvre where a boat turns its stern (the back of the boat) through the wind, causing the boom (located at the bottom of the mainsail) to swing across from one side of the boat to the other. In racing a triangular course, a jibe is often the most effective way to round a buoy.

This term refers to leaning as far to the windward side of the boat as possible in order to keep the boat from capsizing.

The trapeze is a wire connected from up on the mast to a hook on a sailor’s harness, near waist-level. This system allows the crew to lean further out beyond the boat. The purpose of using a trapeze is to help keep the boat from capsizing while allowing the sail to be pulled in tightly to maximise speed. Some boats have only one trapeze, but with the 49er, both the crew and the skipper use a trapeze.

The heel of the boat refers to how far the boat is leaning to one side. Crew members hike or trapeze in order to control the heel and prevent it from capsizing.

In sailing, a protest is a claim by one boat that another has broken a rule. A protest can be resolved on the water by the guilty party doing a specified number of penalty turns, depending on the offence.

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BRONZE medal for Ian Barrows / Hans Henken in the Men’s Skiff (49er)

Home  Olympics

2024 Paris Olympics - US Sailing Team

Thirteen sailors are representing the United States at the  Paris Olympic Games  in Marseille, France. The team hails from seven U.S. states and territories including California, Florida, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Rhode Island, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Wisconsin.

Read more about the team here

The 2024 Olympic Games will be held from July 26 to August 11, 2024.

For final overall and individual race results, visit the Paris 2024 Results Center .

The Sailing events for the 2024 Olympic Games will be held in Marseille, France, a Mediterranean port city in southern France. Marseille, renowned for its sailing conditions, is one of the most iconic international sailing venues. The newly designed Roucas Blanc Marina will host all sailing events.

Sailing in Marseille, offers a unique and challenging environment for competitors. As the oldest city in France, Marseille is known for its rich maritime history and iconic waterfront. The sailing conditions in Marseille are varied, with strong Mistral winds and the potential for both calm and choppy seas, providing a rigorous test for sailors. The city hosted several significant sailing events, making it a well-prepared venue for the Olympic sailing competitions.

Location:   Bouches du Rhône , 410mi (660km) from Paris

The presented graphic represents the envisioned appearance of the Marseille Marina for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

Here are the athletes from the 2024 U.S. Sailing Team who will be heading to Marseille, France, to represent the United States at the Paris 2024 Olympics:

Lara Dallman-Weiss, 470

Lara Dallman-Weiss grew up sailing on White Bear Lake, MN. She spent her summers sailing in the Inland Lakes Yachting Association (ILYA), but most of her development as an athlete came on the basketball court, in track and cross-country, and as a dancer.  Read More

Daniela Moroz, Women’s Kite

Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area by windsurfing parents, Moroz learned to kite at age 12 and began competing internationally at age 14. She sailed her first World Championship at age 15, won her first world title only a year later at age 16, and has since then taken the kiting world by storm, winning six consecutive World Championships. Read More

Stu McNay, 470

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Stuart McNay is a four-time Olympian (2008, 2012, 2016, 2020) and currently on the campaign trail for his fifth Olympic Games with sights set on Paris 2024 alongside teammate Lara Dallman-Weiss. Read More

Markus Edegran, Men’s Kite

Markus Edegran began his diverse sailing career at age 8 in the Opti and found racing at age 10. After Optis, he built his foundation in traditional sailboats across the 420, FJ, and ILCA classes before sailing 420s and FJs at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Read More

Dominique Stater, iQFOiL

Born in Miami, Florida, Dominique grew up a third culture kid and daughter of a U.S. diplomat family on the go, living in five different countries: Nicaragua, Peru, Chile, Colombia, and Argentina. Read More

Noah Lyons, iQFOiL

Noah was born and raised, and still resides in Clearwater, Florida when not competing. He began sailing at the age of 6 and immediately fell in love with the sport. Read More

Stephanie Roble, 49erFX

Stephanie grew up in Wisconsin sailing scows and dinghies on Lake Beulah starting at age 5. She fell in love with sailing and competing while in the Optimist class. Read More

Maggie Shea, 49erFX

Maggie Shea grew up sailing with her family on Lake Michigan on her grandfather’s boat WINDANCER, and quickly fell in love with being on the water and competing. Read More

Erika Reineke, ILCA 6

Erika began her sailing journey in the Optimist Dinghy at age 8 through the Lauderdale Yacht Club program. However, it wasn’t until she decided to dedicate her life to the sport at age 12 that she started to win titles. Read More

Hans Henken, 49er

A California native, Hans began sailing at six-years-old in the Naples Sabot. He has competed at the highest levels of the sport since he was a junior sailor primarily racing 29ers, 49ers, the International Moth and most recently the supercharged, hydrofoiling F50 in the global SailGP Championship. Read More

Ian Barrows, 49er

Ian Barrows grew up in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, where he began his sailing career in Optis. Quickly, he acquired a passion for the sport and transitioned to larger dinghies — 420s, Lasers, and Bytes. Read More

Sarah Newberry Moore, Nacra 17

Sarah Newberry grew up with a strong tradition of sailing in her family. However, she didn’t catch the competition bug until she joined her middle school sailing team at age 12. At that point, she was the only girl on her team and was determined to beat all the boys. Read More

David Liebenberg, Nacra 17

Soon after outgrowing prams, David Liebenberg took his first ride on the 29er skiff and was immediately hooked, with this affinity for speed shaping the rest of his sailing career. Read More

Download a free printable complete with the Team lineup, Olympic calendar, and how to watch HERE

Selection Process

Following approval by US Sailing's International Selection Committee (ISC) and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC), the selection procedures for the 2024 Olympic Games were published on July 12, 2022 and amended on February 17, 2023 and June 14, 2023. Learn more about the selection process here.

49erFX Info

The 49erFX is a one design class where athletes compete with identical equipment built by a limited number of manufacturers. Read More

US Olympic Athletes - 

• Stephanie Roble  - 49erFX
• Maggie Shea  - 49erFX

Nacra 17 Info

The Nacra 17 is a performance catamaran, exciting to sail and to watch in action, and became the first mixed sailing discipline on the Olympic sailing program in 2016. Read More

US Olympic Athletes -

• Sarah Newberry Moore  - Nacra 17
• David Liebenberg  - Nacra 17

The two sailors onboard take different roles; the helm generally makes the tactical decisions and steers the boat, while the crew undertakes more of the physical work and controls the sails. Read More

• Ian Barrows  - 49er
• Hans Henken  - 49er

Formula Kite

Men & women's kite info.

• Daniela Moroz  - Women’s Kite
• Markus Edegran  - Men’s Kite

The 470, named after the overall length of the boat at 4.70m, is a double-handed monohull planing dinghy. Read More

• Stu McNay  - 470
• Lara Dallman-Weiss  - 470

iQFOiL Info

• Dominique Stater  - iQFOiL
• Noah Lyons  - iQFOiL

ILCA 6 (Laser Radial) Info

The ILCA 6 uses a more flexible and slightly shorter lower mast, with a sail area 18% smaller than the ILCA 7. It was first introduced as an Olympic discipline at Beijing 2008. Read More

US Olympic Athlete - 

• Erika Reineke  - ILCA 6 (Laser Radial)

For Paris 2024, US Sailing and World Sailing have teamed up to offer a live race tracker. Use the widget below to follow each race in real time, view the course, and see the participants. Please note that depending on your internet speed, the widget may take a few seconds to load.

Stay updated with live action by following the US Sailing Team's U.S. Olympic Sailing Channel Broadcast on Instagram. Access it directly from your mobile device.

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Media Relations Contact:

Allison Chenard | Press Officer, US Olympic Sailing Email Allison

Check back daily for exclusive behind-the-scenes (BTS) media from Marseille, France, and action from the US Sailing Team.

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Paris 2024 usa sailing olympic team roster.

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Olympic sailing

Nacra 17’s in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Photo: Sailing Energy / World Sailing

Olympic sailing has a long history with the sport (known as yachting at the Olympics until the year 2000 and sailing thereafter) having formed a part of the Olympic Games for as long as the modern Olympics have been taking place.

Olympic sailing always takes place on the sea – instead of inland waters such as lakes – and as such the event is often held some distance from the host city.

Where will Olympic sailing be in 2024?

The 2024 Olympic Sailing competition runs from 28th July – 8th August 2024 and  will take place in Marseille in the south of France and a long way removed from Paris, the official 2024 host city.

The Olympic Sailing regatta will be held from Roucas-Blanc Marina on the South coast of France, some 750km from Paris!

What are the 2024 Olympic Sailing classes ?

The 10 events that will take place in Paris 2024 will be:

• Men’s Windsurfing – iQFOiL –  NEW for 2024
• Women’s Windsurfing – iQFOiL –  NEW for 2024
• Men’s Kite – Formula Kite –  NEW for 2024
• Women’s Kite – Formula Kite –  NEW for 2024
• Men’s One Person Dinghy – ILCA 7
• Women’s One Person Dinghy – ILCA 6
• Men’s Skiff – 49er
• Women’s Skiff – 49erFX
• Mixed Dinghy – 470 –  NEW for 2024
• Mixed Multihull – Nacra 17

The 2024 Olympics marks some significant changes, with kitesurfing being added to the roster events for the first time ever and the old windsurfers being ditched in favour of the foiling windsurfer, the IQFoil.

These introductions have been made at the expense of the Finn dinghy, which has now been dropped from Olympic Sailing .

In addition to the loss of the Finn, the two-person dinghy, the 470, has been scaled back from 2 medals (men’s and women’s) to one medal. The 470 now becomes the second event in sailing to be a compulsory mixed gender event.

This follows the introduction of the Nacra 17 in 2016, which saw sailing became one of the first Olympic sports to introduce compulsory mixed gender events to the roster.

2024 Olympic Sailing classes

Photo: Vincent Curutchet/World Sailing

IQFoil – Men

The IQFoil is a windsurfing class selected by World Sailing to replace the RS:X for the 2024 Summer Olympics. Sailors competing in the IQFoil fleet may only use a single sail – a notable difference from many windsurfing events, where multiple sails sizes may be used. The sail size for the men’s class is 9m2.

Photo: Sander van der Borch/World Sailing

IQFoil – Women

The IQFoil for women features a slightly smaller sail than the men’s class at 8m2. For both the men’s and women’s classes, the rider has a choice between using a hydrofoil or a conventional 68 cm fin, with the former being used in all but the lightest of conditions.

Formula Kite – Women

Formula Kite will make its Olympic debut in 2024 having been selected by World Sailing to effectively replace the Finn class and 1 of the 470 events. The class features a soft, foil kite and a board with a hydrofoil.

Formula Kite – Men

for both men’s and Women’s fleets, the Formula Kite classes do not feature one-design kit, but instead competitors use their choice of approved production equipment. The International Kiteboarding Association (IKA) manages the class.

Laser dinghy. Photo: Sailing Energy/World Sailing

ILCA 7 – Men

Formerly known at the Laser and the Laser Radial, the ILCA 7 (and women’s ILCA 6) have the largest number of boats at the Olympics. The singlehanded dinghy is a one-design and all sailors are assigned an identical boat at the start of the competition.

Laser Radial dinghy

ILCA 6 – Women

The women’s singlehanded dinghy features the same hull as the men’s class with a slightly smaller rig. As with the men’s class, the athletes are assigned a boat at the start of competition.

the 49er is the men’s two person skiff

49er – Men

The high performance 49er skiff has wings on the side of the boat to increase leverage. Both the helm and crew trapeze from these wings at the same time to increase leverage further still. As a result the boats are fast and difficult to sail requiring a high level of athleticism.

The 49erFX. Women’s two person skiff. Photo: Sailing Energy/World Sailing

49erFX – Women

The 49erFX is one of the newest Olympic classes, having been introduced in 2016. The hull is the same at the 49er but the sails are smaller and set on a smaller rig. It still features the two wings and two trapezes and is just as challenging to sail as the 49er.

The Nacra 17 has had foils added for Tokyo 2020

Nacra 17 – Mixed

The first mixed class in sailing at the Olympics, the Nacra 17 must have one male and one female, though which role they take (helm or crew) is up to the teams. The Nacra 17 is a very high performance catamaran and now features hydrofoils allowing the boat to zip around above the surface of the water. It can be very fast and very difficult to control, which can result in races with many lead changes.

470 two person dinghy. Photo: Sailing Energy / World Sailing

470 – Mixed

The 470 is a two person dinghy with one helm steering and a crew on the trapeze. for 2024 this has become a mixed event and, like the Nacra 17 must have 1 male and 1 female athlete, though what position they take is up to the crew themselves. Equipment is controlled but can be modified to a degree in order to better match the boat and sailors. Men and women compete in two different fleets for two different medals, though in the same type of boat.

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Published on August 21st, 2024 | by Editor

World Sailing must fix Olympic Windsurfing

Published on August 21st, 2024 by Editor -->

Sailing has an image problem at the Olympic Games. Surrounded by other sports in which the winner of the Finals gets the gold medal, the idea of the lowest average score over a series of races is not the kind of crescendo that grips the television viewer.

The Medal Race was introduced in 2008, hoping that a final double-point no discard race could heighten interest. While it did focus our attention, when the lead a sailor achieves over the previous days is adversely impacted by the random winds of a course near shore for spectating, the integrity of sport gets questioned.

The Paris 2024 Olympics again had the Medal Race format, but for only six of the ten events. Of those six events, the leader entering the Medal Race won the Gold Medal afterwards in all but the Women’s Skiff in which the points were already quite close.

As for the other Kiteboard and Windsurf events, their final format became a Medal Series in which none of the cumulative points leaders ending up winning. Among these four events, the system used by the Men’s Windsurfing and Women’s Windsurfing was most criticized. Here’s the opinion of John Craig, 2-time Fireball World Champion and 1972 Olympic reserve:

Now that the Olympic sailing events have been concluded, it’s time to address why windsurfing introduced an unprecedented schedule. What was the reason behind having the gold medal determined by the winner of a single, very short race? And who made that decision?

In sailing, discards are traditionally used to account for the unpredictable nature of the elements, and other circumstances, which can lead to unfair results.

An Olympic Gold Medal, not only in sailing, is one of the most revered accomplishments in sport. On a number of occasions in the past, competitors have been robbed of a gold medal due things that we have no control over, like wind.

Therefore, considering how these potential uncertainties can affect any one race, why was it decided that this most prized gold medal, be determined by the outcome of just one short race?

Shouldn’t pressure be brought to prevent any such schedule ever being adopted again, otherwise an Olympic Gold in sailing will be further devalued?

Thoughts? Send them to [email protected] .

Paris 2024 Olympic Sailing Program: Men’s One Person Dinghy – ILCA 7 Women’s One Person Dinghy – ILCA 6 Mixed Two Person Dinghy – 470 Men’s Skiff – 49er Women’s Skiff – 49erFX Men’s Kiteboard – Formula Kite Class Women’s Kiteboard – Formula Kite Class Men’s Windsurfing – iQFOiL Women’s Windsurfing – iQFOiL Mixed Multihull – Nacra 17

Venue: Marseille, France Dates: July 28-August 9

Details: https://paris2024.sailing.org/

Tags: John Craig , Paris 2024 Games , Paris 2024 Medals , Paris 2024 Sailing

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America's Cup sailing is around the corner. Did you know it has ties to North Jersey?

The Olympics are over, but the oldest competition in international sports is just around the corner.

Founded in 1851, the America's Cup sailing event returns on Thursday with a preliminary regatta off the coast of Barcelona that sets the stage for a one-on-one final in October.

One of the challengers is a homegrown one — the New York Yacht Club.

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Now headquartered deep in the heart of Manhattan, hosting club regattas out of Newport, Rhode Island and having its racing team training in Pensacola, Florida, the club and America's Cup originator was initially based on the Hudson River. Its first clubhouse was in North Jersey.

Built in Hoboken in 1845, the Gothic cottage first stood by the waterside at Elysian Fields near the bluff that holds the Stevens Institute of Technology. John Cox Stevens, the club's first commodore, donated the land at the foot of 11th Street. His brother, Edwin Augustus Stevens, founded the university. Both were involved with the creation of the first winner of the America's Cup, a yacht named America.

America's Cup's founders

The brothers came from one of the most distinguished families in U.S. history. Their grandfather served in the Continental Congress, and their father, John Stevens, was a Revolutionary War colonel who became a pioneering entrepreneur and inventor of steam engines and boats.

From their mansion overlooking the Hudson River and Manhattan Island, the colonel and his sons developed the first steam ferry to cross the Hudson. When Robert Fulton secured a monopoly on Hudson River steamship navigation, the Stevens family shifted their focus to other lucrative ventures. In 1809, their vessel Phoenix became the first steamer to operate offshore when it began service in Philadelphia.

Five years earlier, in 1804, a 19-year-old John Cox Stevens piloted the first propeller-driven boat. Shortly thereafter, he built a sailing yacht called Diver and raced it against fishing and ferry boats in New York Harbor for wagers. In 1844, he and his friends founded the New York Yacht Club aboard his yacht, Gimcrack.

The modest clubhouse, relative to the club's current Beaux-Arts landmark in New York City, served as the center of club activities for 23 years, according to club records. That span covered the development, construction and trials of the yacht America.

America's Cup has North Jersey origins

America was designed by George Steers, a self-taught innovator of yacht design, to challenge the best in the United Kingdom. Its cotton duck sails were sourced from John Colt's mill in Paterson. When the yacht made it to the Isle of Wight, the Royal Yacht Squadron organized a fleet race on Aug. 22, 1851. The winner received a silver trophy valued at 100 pounds sterling. They called it the Hundred Guinea Cup. It is now known as America's Cup, after the yacht that won it.

Within two months John Cox Stevens and the syndicate that owned America had sold it and given the trophy to the club. The cup came with conditions. According to its formal Deed of Gift, it must serve as an everlasting prize for “friendly competition between foreign countries.” The cup's holder must welcome challengers.

The first challenger was the Royal Thames Yacht Club and a yacht called Cambria. The competition held in New York Harbor on Aug. 8, 1870, was won by the New York Yacht Club. The club went on to win every America's Cup match thereafter until 1983.

By then, the clubhouse was long gone. It survived calls for demolition in the early 20th century and in 1904 moved from its home just north of Castle Point in Hoboken to Glen Cove, Long Island to serve as "Station 10." At a time, there were 11 stations along the club's racing and cruising route for members to land and load.

The clubhouse moves from NJ to Long Island

For the second half of the 20th century, the clubhouse was on loan and on display at Mystic Seaport, the maritime museum in Connecticut. Since the start of this century, it has sat on the grounds of the club's racing base Harbour Court, in Newport, Rhode Island. The club's America's Cup yacht, called Patriot, was built and designed in Rhode Island.

A far cry from America, a 101-foot schooner that was used by the U.S. Navy during the Civil War, 75-foot-long Patriot relies on a pair of hydraulic hydrofoils on either side of the hull to seemingly fly above the ocean's surface at speeds of more than 50 miles per hour. Due to that technology, the modern America's Cup is a vastly different competition than it was just 20 years ago. Still, at its core, the cup remains an event where wind-powered vessels must chart an ocean course to victory.

The last cup was a disaster for the New York Yacht Club, which in team American Magic had one of three challengers for the title held by the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron. That cup's Patriot capsized in the round-robin qualifiers and, following major repairs, finished last in the event.

America's Cup 2024

This year, five challenger teams are taking on the cup holders from New Zealand. That includes American Magic and the new Patriot led by Olympic gold medalists Tom Slingsby (AUS) and Paul Goodison (GBR). The first look at them in action comes during the final America's Cup preliminary regatta on Aug. 22-25. The match racing event will feature four races per day, with the top two yachts, technically classified as AC75s, advancing to a one-race, winner-takes-all final.

The results of the preliminary regatta have no impact on the America’s Cup standings. Still, they are crucial for shaping team strategy.

The New Zealand team, as the cup defender, has a straight path to the America's Cup on Oct. 12-21. The five defenders, however, must face off in the Challenger Selection Series from Aug. 29 to Oct 7. for the fight to compete in the America's Cup best-of-13 match race final.

The races will be streamed free on the event’s website, YouTube and Facebook. Coverage is also available in the U.S. on ESPN+.

Challenger Teams for the 37th America’s Cup

• INEOS Britannia (GBR)
• Alinghi Red Bull Racing (SUI)
• Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli Team (ITA)
• NYYC American Magic (USA)
• Orient Express Racing Team (FRA)

Remaining Preliminary Regattas

• August 22-25, 2024: Barcelona, Spain

2024 Challenger Selection Series

• August 29-September 8: Double Round Robin
• September 14-19: Semi-Finals (Best of 9)
• September 26-October 7: Finals (Best of 13)

2024 America’s Cup

• October 12-21: 37th Match (Best of 13)

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: America's Cup sailing is around the corner. Did you know it has ties to North Jersey?

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Distraught Emma Wilson fumes at Olympic windsurfing format after bronze medal – ‘I’m done with this sport’

Wilson accused sailing official of endangering athletes’ mental health after she dominated the women’s windsurfing event all week but missed out on gold in the medal race thanks to the new, winner-takes-all format, article bookmarked.

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Windsurfer Emma Wilson has every right to rage at the weather and rage at her luck.

Wilson’s form at the Olympic regatta – she won eight of the 14 qualifying races – meant she advanced straight to the three-racer final in Marseille.

Others battled it out to join her while she kicked back on the quayside but when it mattered – the race delayed 24 hours due to light winds on the Mediterranean – she was beaten into bronze by Italy’s Marta Maggetti and Israel’s Sharon Kantor.

When she won the same medal in Tokyo, Wilson was all smiles – but not this time.

At the last two World Championships, she also made the final automatically as the top qualifier – both times she failed to make that dominance count, finishing with silver and bronze.

Windsurfing has a different format to other sailing events, where points carry over to medal races, and Wilson’s week of hard work on the Corniche was erased and it was back to scratch.

“I think I’m done with this sport,” she said. “I think they need to think about people’s mental health, it’s not okay to be put in that position every time.

“I had a 60-point lead at the World Championships, a 30-point lead here, I’m not sure how many times you can come back. It’s obvious I had a disadvantage with this scoring system. You finish top and go straight to the final but the others get the chance to race.

“I just made a mistake on the layline, obviously I hadn’t done a race yet so those girls knew where the layline was, and I just made a mistake.

“Will the medal give me any solace? I think it will, maybe in a week, I don’t know. Right now, it hurts really bad but I’ll be proud when I get on the podium.

“The girls are amazing that I race against. Marta’s an amazing sailor, she’s an amazing friend as well. To be honest it couldn’t have happened to a nicer person. I’m really happy for her, but for me, I’m not sure how many times I can be put through that.”

After Tokyo, World Sailing replaced the RS:X windsurfer that Wilson had known her entire life, with the iQFOiL – a faster board that appears to fly above the water rather than glide on it.

It made for thrilling, more close-quarter racing, even in light wind conditions, but it required Wilson to ‘reteach myself the sport’.

After taking time to decide whether she could recommit to another campaign, she went ‘back to school’ knowing it was the only way to upgrade her Tokyo medal in France.

A series of crashes left her requiring surgery, while there were broken bones and torn ligaments in pursuit of mastering the new equipment.

“I just hope I can inspire some kids,” she added. “What I’ve done this week, I’ve shown you can dominate a sport. If I can show them that you work hard and that’s what happens, then that’s a win. I’d love to go home with a gold medal but bronze will have to do.”

Team GB topped the sailing medal table in both Rio and Tokyo and after Wilson’s medal got them off the mark, are well placed in other fleets in Marseille.

Australia’s Matt Wearn is an Olympic and two-time world champion and among the shortest-priced favourites for gold at these Games in the men’s dinghy. He leads the fleet after six of ten races just Great Britain’s Michael Beckett is just behind in second place.

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Lynch Yacht Sinking Off Sicily Proves as Baffling as It Is Tragic

As bodies were recovered, the authorities and experts wondered how a $40 million, stable and secure vessel could have sunk so quickly.

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By Emma Bubola and Michael J. de la Merced

Emma Bubola reported from Porticello, Italy, and Michael J. de la Merced from London.

Two months after being cleared in a bruising legal battle over fraud charges, the British tech mogul Mike Lynch celebrated his freedom with a cruise. He invited his family, friends and part of his legal team on board his luxury sailing yacht, a majestic 180-foot vessel named Bayesian after the mathematical theorem around which he had built his empire.

On Sunday night, after a tour of the Gulf of Naples, including Capri, and volcanic islands in the Eolian archipelago, the boat anchored half a mile off the Sicilian coast in Porticello, Italy. It chose a stretch of water favored by the Phoenicians thousands of years ago for its protection from the mistral wind and, in more recent times, by the yachts of tech billionaires. The boat was lit “like a Christmas tree,” local residents said, standing out against the full moon.

But about 4 a.m., calamity unfolded. A violent and fast storm hit the area with some of the strongest winds locals said they had ever felt. Fabio Cefalù, a fisherman, said he saw a flare pierce the darkness shortly after 4.

Minutes later, the yacht was underwater. Only dozens of cushions from the boat’s deck and a gigantic radar from its mast floated on the surface of the sea, fishermen said.

In all, 22 people were on board, 15 of whom were rescued. Six bodies — five passengers and the ship’s cook — had been recovered by Thursday afternoon, including that of Mr. Lynch, an Italian government official said, adding that the search was continuing for his daughter.

It was a tragic and mystifying turn of events for Mr. Lynch, 59, who had spent years seeking to clear his name and was finally inaugurating a new chapter in his life. Experts wondered how a $40 million yacht, so robust and stable could have been sunk by a storm near a port within minutes.

“It drives me insane,” said Giovanni Costantino, the chief executive of the Italian Sea Group, which in 2022 bought the company, Perini, that made the Bayesian. “Following all the proper procedures, that boat is unsinkable.”

The aura of misfortune only deepened when it emerged that Stephen Chamberlain, 52, a former vice president of finance for Mr. Lynch’s former company and a co-defendant in the fraud case, was killed two days earlier, when he was hit by a car while jogging near his house in England.

Since June, the two men had been in a jubilant mood. A jury in San Francisco had acquitted both on fraud charges that could have sent them to prison for two decades. There were hugs and tears, and they and their legal teams went for a celebratory dinner party at a restaurant in the city, said Gary S. Lincenberg, a lawyer for Mr. Chamberlain.

The sea excursion was meant as a thank-you by Mr. Lynch to those who had helped him in his legal travails. Among the guests was Christopher J. Morvillo, 59, a scion of a prominent New York family of lawyers who had represented Mr. Lynch for 12 years. He and his wife, Neda, 57, were among the missing.

So, too, was Jonathan Bloomer, 70, a veteran British insurance executive who chaired Morgan Stanley International and the insurer Hiscox.

The body of the ship’s cook, Recaldo Thomas, was recovered. All the other crew members survived. Among them was Leo Eppel, 19, of South Africa, who was on his first yacht voyage working as a deck steward, said a friend, who asked not to be identified.

Since the sinking, the recovery effort and investigation have turned the tiny port town of Porticello, a quiet enclave where older men sit bare-chested on balconies, into what feels like the set of a movie.

Helicopters have flown overhead. Ambulances have sped by with the sirens blaring. The Coast Guard has patrolled the waters off shore, within sight of a cordoned-off dock that had been turned into an emergency headquarters.

On Wednesday afternoon, a church bell tolled after the first body bag was loaded into an ambulance, a crowd watching in silence.

The survivors were sheltering in a sprawling resort near Porticello, with a view of the shipwreck spot, and had so far declined to comment.

Attilio Di Diodato, director of the Italian Air Force’s Center for Aerospace Meteorology and Climatology, said that the yacht had most likely been hit by a fierce “down burst” — when air generated within a thunderstorm descends rapidly — or by a waterspout , similar to a tornado over water.

He added that his agency had put out rough-sea warnings the previous evening, alerting sailors about storms and strong winds. Locals said the winds “felt like an earthquake.”

Mr. Costantino, the boat executive, said the yacht had been specifically designed for having a tall mast — the second-tallest aluminum mast in the world. He said the Bayesian was an extremely safe and secure boat that could list even to 75 degrees without capsizing.

But he said that if some of the hatches on the side and in the stern, or some of the deck doors, had been open, the boat could have taken on water and sunk. Standard procedure in such storms, he said, is to switch on the engine, lift the anchor and turn the boat into the wind, lowering the keel for extra stability, closing doors and gathering the guests in the main hall inside the deck.

12 guests occupied the yacht’s six cabins. There were also 10 crew members.

Open hatches, doors and cabin windows could have let in water during a storm, according to the manufacturer.

Open hatches, doors and

cabin windows could

have let in water

during a storm,

according to the

manufacturer.

Source: Superyacht Times, YachtCharterFleet, MarineTraffic

By Veronica Penney

The New York Times attempted to reach the captain, James Cutfield, who had survived, for comment through social media, his brother and the management company of the yacht (which did not hire the crew), but did not make contact.

So far none of the surviving crew members have made a public statement about what happened that night.

Fabio Genco, the director of Palermo’s emergency services, who treated some of the survivors, said that the victims had recounted feeling as if the boat was being lifted, then suddenly dropped, with objects from the cabins falling on them.

The Italian Coast Guard said it had deployed a remotely operated vehicle that can prowl underwater for up to seven hours at a depth of more than 980 feet and record videos and images that they hoped would help them reconstruct the dynamics of the sinking. Such devices were used during the search and rescue operations of the Titan vessel that is believed to have imploded last summer near the wreckage of the Titanic.

After rescuers broke inside the yacht, they struggled to navigate the ropes and many pieces of furniture cluttering the vessel, said Luca Cari, a spokesman for Italy’s national firefighter corps.

Finally, as of Thursday morning, they had managed to retrieve all but one of the missing bodies, and hopes of finding the missing person alive were thin. “Can a human being be underwater for two days?” Mr. Cari asked.

What was certain was that Mr. Lynch’s death was yet another cruel twist of fate for a man who had spent years seeking to clear his name.

He earned a fortune in technology and was nicknamed Britain’s Bill Gates. But for more than a decade, he had been treated as anything but a respected tech leader.

He was accused by Hewlett-Packard, the American technological pioneer that had bought his software company, Autonomy, for $11 billion, of misleading it about his company’s worth. (Hewlett-Packard wrote down the value of the transaction by about $8.8 billion, and critics called it one of the worst deals of all time .) He had been increasingly shunned by the British establishment that he sought to break into after growing up working-class outside London.

He was extradited to San Francisco to face criminal charges, and confined to house arrest and 24-hour surveillance on his dime. In a townhouse in the Pacific Heights neighborhood — with security people he jokingly told associates were his “roommates” — he spent his mornings talking with researchers whom he funded personally on new applications for artificial intelligence. Afterward, he devoted hours to discussing legal strategy with his team.

Despite his persistent claims of innocence, even those close to Mr. Lynch had believed his odds of victory were slim. Autonomy’s chief financial officer, Sushovan Hussain, was convicted in 2018 of similar fraud charges and spent five years in prison.

During Mr. Lynch’s house arrest, his brother and mother died. His wife, Angela Bacares, frequently flew over from England, and she became a constant presence in the San Francisco courtroom during the trial.

After he was finally acquitted, Mr. Lynch had his eye on the future. “I am looking forward to returning to the U.K. and getting back to what I love most: my family and innovating in my field,” he said.

Elisabetta Povoledo contributed reporting from Pallanza, Italy.

Emma Bubola is a Times reporter based in Rome. More about Emma Bubola

Michael J. de la Merced has covered global business and finance news for The Times since 2006. More about Michael J. de la Merced