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| Event type

Multihull (Tornado), Open

Date19 – 28 July 1976
StatusOlympic
LocationOlympic Yachting Centre, Portsmouth Harbour, Kingston, Ontario, CAN
Participants29 from 14 countries
FormatPoints awarded for placement in each race. Best six of seven scores to count for final placement.

The Tornado was the first multi-hull, or catamaran, class to be raced at the Olympics and was added to the Olympic program in 1976. The boat is a two-person, two-hull catamaran that raced at the Olympics from 1976-2008. The class was designed by Rodney March in 1967 and the boat won IYRU (International Yacht Racing Union) trials to be selected as the Olympic catamaran class. The class had a trapeze which allowed crew members to hook onto the wire and balance on the outside of the hull to keep the boat flatter. In 2000 a second trapeze was added to the design.

Only 14 boats entered this event which was won easily by the British crew of Reg White and John Osborn. They won four of the first six races and did not have to start the final race to win the gold medal. They had been the clear favorites, having won the recent World Championships and five different international regattas within the last year. The American silver medalists, David McFaull and Mike Rothwell, raced out of Hawai’i, where McFaull worked as a disc jockey.

PosCompetitor(s)NOCNet PointsTP
1Great BritainGBR18.038.0Gold
John OsbornReg White
2United StatesUSA36.052.0Silver
David McFaullMike Rothwell
3West GermanyFRG37.754.7Bronze
Jörg SchmallJörg Spengler
4AustraliaAUS44.464.4
Brian LewisWarren Rock
5SwedenSWE57.475.4
Jörgen KolniPeter KolniSven-Bertil Johansson
6SwitzerlandSUI63.480.4
Albert SchiessWalter Steiner
7CanadaCAN69.786.7
Larry WoodsMichael de la Roche
8ItalyITA71.792.7
Cesare BiagiFranco Pivoli
9DenmarkDEN74.793.7
Per Kjærgaard NielsenPeter Due
10FranceFRA76.793.7
Bruno de CazenoveChris de Cazenove
11AustriaAUT78.494.4
Bernhard PrackHans Prack
12Soviet UnionURS97.0116.0
Vladimir VasilyevVyacheslav Tineyev
13FinlandFIN100.7121.7
Juha SiiraPekka Narko
14Puerto RicoPUR114.0134.0
Chris StaterRichard Darmanin