Sailing at the 1900 Summer Olympics

Sailing
at the Games of the II Olympiad

An impression of yacht racing (1867) by Monet
North of Le Havre
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Venues Meulan
Le Havre
Dates 20 May 1900 (1900-05-20) – 27 May 1900 (1900-05-27) (Meulan)
1 August 1900 (1900-08-01) – 5 August 1900 (1900-08-05) (Le Havre)
Sailors about 150
(including 1 woman) from 6 countries
Boats 64
Top ranked countries
 France: 5 1st, gold medalist(s)  9 2nd, silver medalist(s)  10 3rd, bronze medalist(s)  
 Great Britain: 4 1st, gold medalist(s)  1 2nd, silver medalist(s)  1 3rd, bronze medalist(s)  
 Mixed team: 2 1st, gold medalist(s)  0 2nd, silver medalist(s)  0 3rd, bronze medalist(s)  

Sailing/Yachting made its first appearance as an Olympic sport at the 1900 Summer Olympics after competitions were cancelled at the 1896 Olympics. With the exception of 1904, sailing was thereafter always a part of the Olympic program. The sailing program in 1900 consisted of a total of eight sailing classes. For six classes, the races were scheduled from 20 – 27 May at the river Seine around Meulan, and a series of three races was held for the largest classes from 1 – 5 August on the North Atlantic off the coast of Le Havre. Approximately 150 sailors in 64 boats (the numbers of boats and competitors are not reliable, as in the official report some figures of the World exhibition and the Olympic Games are mixed) from 6 nations competed, including 1 woman, Hélène de Pourtalès, who won a gold medal in the 1 to 2 ton.

Venues

During the early years of the Olympic movement there were no strict rules for the assignment of venues. For the Olympic sailing in 1900 the organizers decided to combine the Olympic sailing for the smaller yachts with the regattas of the Exposition Universelle on the river Seine near Meulan. For the larger yachts an Olympic regatta was held at Le Havre.

Meulan

During the Olympic regattas of the Exposition Universelle of 1900 there were more than 100 yachts racing from Paris, Rouen, Cannes, Nantes and Arcachon and yachts from England, Germany, the United States and Holland. The Bassin Olympique was the river Seine near the Cercle de la Voile de Paris that served as the Olympic harbor.

The race conditions at Meulan during the Olympic regatta were not ideal. A light breeze could hardly make the sailing interesting. Since the river Seine mainly runs from east to west, the light north-easterly breeze was partly blocked by buildings or trees on the river bank, thus heavily influencing the regatta.

Cercle de la Voile de Paris
Bassin Olympique
de Meulan Les Mureaux
General information
Status Complete
Type Club House
Address 30, quai Albert Glandaz
Town or city 78130 Les Mureaux
Country  France
Coordinates 49°00′1″N 1°54′54″E / 49.00028°N 1.91500°E / 49.00028; 1.91500
Elevation Sealevel
Owner Cercle de la Voile de Paris

Le Havre

During the second part of the Olympic regatta the Atlantic Ocean was used for the races of the 10 – 20 ton and the 20+ ton yachts. The conditions during the regatta were so good that the 10 – 20 Ton class was able to sail the complete 22 nautical mile triangular course. The premises of the Société des Régates du Havre were used as Olympic harbor.

La Société des Régates du Havre
Le Havre


Burgee of the Société des Régates du Havre
General information
Status Destroyed
Type Club House
Country  France
Coordinates 49°29′30″N 0°5′45″E / 49.49167°N 0.09583°E / 49.49167; 0.09583
Elevation Sealevel
Owner La Société des Régates du Havre

Course areas

Since there were two venues there were two course areas. One the river Seine near Meulan. Here the organization could set courses of 8, 15 and 19 kilometres (4.3, 8.1 and 10.3 nmi). The other course area was on the North Atlantic off the coats of Le Havre. Here courses could be set up to 40 nautical miles (74 km).

1900 Olympic Course Areas
Course area Meulan
Course area Le Havre

Participating nations

6 nations sent sailors. Several teams had crews from multiple countries, and in one case, they won a gold medal. This team, of the United Kingdom and France, is attributed as a mixed team.

Map of Participating Sailing Countries at the 1900 Summer Olympics
Green = Participating for the first time
 France (FRA) Germany (GER) Great Britain (GBR) Netherlands (NED)
 Switzerland (SUI) United States (USA) Mixed team (ZZX)

Classes (equipment)

Sailing during the turn of the century was not as well defined as it became later during the 20th century. Racing rules were mostly defined by local yacht clubs or in some cases by a National Yachting Federation. Also, boats were not standardized to what are now called One Design or One Builder classes. Therefore, many handicap systems or systems that put yachts into different categories were used. In 1892 Auguste Godinet developed a formula that placed different boats in different Ton categories. This rule was adopted by the Union des yachts français and later by several other National Yachting Federations such as the Société Nautique de Genève. For the sailing at the 1900 Olympics this rule was chosen to determine the tonnage of a yacht.

For the smallest class, 0 – ½ Ton, among others, Larks were used. These Larks, copies of the Davis Lark and of the Sorceress designed by Linton Hope, became famous One Designs in France (Monotype de Chatou at the beginning of the 20th century.

The Olympics were open for the following classes:

 
 |-
 ! Class !! Type !! Venue !! Event !! Sailors !! First OG !! Olympics so far
 |-
|style="text-align:right"| 0 – ½ Ton
Undefined Meulan Unknown 1900 1
½ – 1 Ton Undefined Meulan Unknown 1900 1
1 – 2 Ton Undefined Meulan Unknown 1900 1
2 – 3 Ton Undefined Meulan Unknown 1900 1
3 – 10 Ton Undefined Meulan Unknown 1900 1
Open Class Undefined Meulan Unknown 1900 1
10 – 20 Ton Undefined Le Havre Unknown 1900 1
20+ Ton Undefined Le Havre Unknown 1900 1
Legend: = Mixed gender event
Inshore classes (Meulan)
Lark
0 – 0.5 Ton 
Sidi-Fekkar
0.5 - 1 Ton 
Lerina
1 – 2 Ton 
Phoebus
2 – 3 Ton 
Turquoise
3 – 10 Ton 
Offshore classes (Le Havre)
Laurea
10 – 20 Ton 
Colombine
20+ Ton 

Race schedule

  Meulan competition   Le Havre competition
1900 May August
20
Sun
21
Mon
22
Tue
23
Wed
24
Thu
25
Fri
26
Sat
27
Thu
1
Fri
2
Sat
3
Sun
4
Mon
5
Tue
6
Wed
Sailing 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 No
wind
1 1 1 1
Total gold medals 1 3 3 4 1 1

Medal summary

The results of the individual races are known; however, there is not much consensus on which races were part of the Olympics and who were considered as medalists. The Official Report,[1] International Olympic Committee (IOC),[2] International Sailing Federation (ISAF)[3] and Sports Reference[4] present different medalists. Occasionally, sources differ on the nationality of competitors (such as H. MacHenry, alternately listed as French or American). For example, the medalists in the 3 – 10 Ton races are shown in the various sources as:

ReportRaceGoldSilverBronze
Official Report[1]Race 1 Henri Gilardoni (FRA) Henri Smulders (NED) Maurice Gufflet (FRA)
Race 2 Howard Taylor (GBR) Maurice Gufflet (FRA) H. MacHenry (FRA)
IOC[2] and ISAF[3]Race 2 Howard Taylor (GBR) Maurice Gufflet (FRA) H. MacHenry (FRA)
Sports Reference[4]Race 1 Henri Gilardoni (FRA) Henri Smulders (NED) Maurice Gufflet (FRA)
Race 2 Howard Taylor (GBR) Maurice Gufflet (FRA) H. MacHenry (USA)

In all classes at Meulan except the Open class, there were two distinct "finals." Boats that were assigned time handicaps according to their weight within each class and prizes were handed out to the winners of each race. The IOC initially recognized the winner of the first race in each class as Olympic champion except in the case of the 10 – 20 ton class, which was decided on aggregate time over three races. However, currently the participants of both first and second races in three classes (0 – 0.5t, 1 – 2t and 2 – 3t) are present in the IOC database[5] as medalists. That is, the second race in each of these three classes is recognized by the IOC and for each of these events two gold, two silver, and two bronze medals were retrospectively awarded by the IOC. In the 3 – 10 Ton race, however, only the second race winners are listed with Olympic medals.

The data below notes all races and medalists of the regattas of the Games of the second Olympiad as well as of the Exposition Universelle and counts all winners as medalist.

Event Gold Silver Bronze
Open class
 Great Britain (GBR)
Lorne Currie
John Gretton
Linton Hope
Algernon Maudslay
 Germany (GER)
Paul Wiesner
Georg Naue
Heinrich Peters
Ottokar Weise
 France (FRA)
Émile Michelet
0 to .5 ton
Race 1
 France (FRA)
Pierre Gervais
 France (FRA)
Texier (helmsman)
Texier (crew)
Jean-Baptiste Charcot
Robert Linzeler
 France (FRA)
Henri Monnot
Léon Tellier
Gaston Cailleux
0 to .5 ton
Race 2
 France (FRA)
Émile Sacré
 France (FRA)
Texier (helmsman)
Texier (crew)
Jean-Baptiste Charcot
Robert Linzeler
 France (FRA)
Pierre Gervais
.5 to 1 ton
Race 1
 Great Britain (GBR)
Lorne Currie
John Gretton
Linton Hope
Algernon Maudslay
 France (FRA)
Jules Valton
Félix Marcotte
William Martin
Jacques Baudrier
Jean Le Bret
 France (FRA)
Émile Michelet
Marcel Meran
.5 to 1 ton
Race 2
[NoIOC]
 France (FRA)
Louis Auguste-Dormeuil
 France (FRA)
Émile Michelet
Marcel Meran
 France (FRA)
Jules Valton
Félix Marcotte
William Martin
Jacques Baudrier
Jean Le Bret
1 to 2 ton
Race 1
 Switzerland (SUI)
Hermann de Pourtalès
Hélène de Pourtalès
Bernard de Pourtalès
 France (FRA)
François Vilamitjana
Auguste Albert
Albert Duval
Charles Hugo
 France (FRA)
Jacques Baudrier
Lucien Baudrier
Dubosq
Édouard Mantois
1 to 2 ton
Race 2
 Germany (GER)
Paul Wiesner
Georg Naue
Heinrich Peters
Ottokar Weise
 Switzerland (SUI)
Hermann de Pourtalès
Hélène de Pourtalès
Bernard de Pourtalès
 France (FRA)
François Vilamitjana
Auguste Albert
Albert Duval
Charles Hugo
2 to 3 ton
Race 1
 Mixed team (ZZX)
 William Exshaw (GBR)
 Frédéric Blanchy (FRA)
 Jacques Le Lavasseur (FRA)
 France (FRA)
Léon Susse
Jacques Doucet
Auguste Godinet
Henri Mialaret
 France (FRA)
Ferdinand Schlatter
de Cottignon
Émile Jean-Fontaine
2 to 3 ton
Race 2
 Mixed team (ZZX)
 William Exshaw (GBR)
 Frédéric Blanchy (FRA)
 Jacques Le Lavasseur (FRA)
 France (FRA)
Léon Susse
Jacques Doucet
Auguste Godinet
Henri Mialaret
 France (FRA)
Auguste Donny
3 to 10 ton
Race 1
[NoIOC]
 France (FRA)
Henri Gilardoni
 Netherlands (NED)
Henri Smulders
Chris Hooykaas
Arie van der Velden
 France (FRA)
Maurice Gufflet
A. Dubois
J. Dubois
Robert Gufflet
Charles Guiraist
3 to 10 ton
Race 2
 Great Britain (GBR)
Howard Taylor
Edward Hore
Harry Jefferson
 France (FRA)
Maurice Gufflet
A. Dubois
J. Dubois
Robert Gufflet
Charles Guiraist
 United States (USA)
H. MacHenry
10 to 20 ton
 France (FRA)
Émile Billard
Paul Perquer
 France (FRA)
Jean, duc Decazes
 Great Britain (GBR)
Edward Hore
20+ ton
[NoIOC]
 Great Britain (GBR)
Cecil Quentin
 Great Britain (GBR)
Selwin Calverley
 United States (USA)
Harry Van Bergen

^1 ^2 ^3 Races not recognized by IOC.

Medal table

All races.

 Rank  Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total
1  France (FRA) 5 9 10 24
2  Great Britain (GBR) 4 1 1 6
3  Mixed team (ZZX) 2 0 0 2
4  Switzerland (SUI) 1 1 0 2
 Germany (GER) 1 1 0 2
6  Netherlands (NED) 0 1 0 1
7  United States (USA) 0 0 2 2
Total 7 13 13 13 39

Races recognized by IOC.

 Rank  Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total
1  France (FRA) 3 8 8 19
2  Great Britain (GBR) 3 0 1 4
3  Mixed team (ZZX) 2 0 0 2
4  Switzerland (SUI) 1 1 0 2
 Germany (GER) 1 1 0 2
6  United States (USA) 0 0 1 1
-  Netherlands (NED) 0 0 0 0
Total 6 10 10 10 30

Notes

There was some discussion about the validity of the Olympic status of Sailing at the 1900 Summer Olympics. The following quote states the status quo on this subject:

Given the possible awarding of cash prizes, the "Olympic status" of this sport in 1900 must be in question. It is not exactly certain if the prizes were cash or "objets d’art" of the values listed, thus, for now, I have retained yachting as an Olympic sport in 1900.

Other information

During the sailing regattas at the 1900 Summer Olympics among others the following persons were competing (or owning yachts) in the various classes:

Further reading

References

"Paris 1900". Olympic.org. International Olympic Committee. 

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