Three Person Keelboat (Yngling), Women

The Yngling class was contested as a three-person keelboat event for women at the 2004-08 Olympics, but it was discontinued after the Beijing Olympics. The trend in Olympic sailing has been towards smaller and faster boats, with fewer crew, and no event in 2012 or 2016 would have a three-person crew. Light winds caused one racing day in this event, and two races, to be cancelled and the medal race was postponed to the next day.

Great Britain was the defending champion, with Sarah Webb and Sarah Ayton back, but Shirley Robertson had retired. Webb and Ayton added crew member Pippa Wilson, dubbed themselves the “Three Blondes in a Boat,” and won the World Championships in 2007-08. They did not win any of the preliminary races, but were very steady and had a one-point lead over the Dutch crew, who won three of the first eight races. The Three Blondes came through in the medal race, winning by seven seconds ahead of Germany, and taking the gold medal. Australia had placed fifth in the medal race, but had forgotten to weigh-in and was disqualified, dropping them to 10th place overall.