Two Person Heavyweight Dinghy (Flying Dutchman), Open

This might have been the most dominating performance in Olympic sailing history. Britain’s Rodney Pattisson and Iain MacDonald-Smith appeared to win the first race, but were then disqualified in what they felt was an unjust decision. In their boat Superdocious, the British pair then won the next five races consecutively, before racing conservatively in the final race, placing second. They actually did need to compete in the final race to win gold, despite their dominance, because of their first-race DQ, and a very solid performance by the West German crew of Ulli Libor and Peter Naumann, who won the first race after the British disqualification, and then had one second and three thirds, before struggling in the final two races. The final points totals were 3.0 for Great Britain, and 43.7 for West Germany.

With different crew members, Pattisson would repeat his victory in this event in 1972, and won a silver in 1976. He is considered Britain’s greatest Olympic sailor until the era of Ben Ainslie in the 21st century. In 1983 Pattisson co-skippered a challenger for the America’s Cup.