Pelle Petterson

Pelle Petterson’s life was devoted to sailing and he had his first major international victory in the sport at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics where, representing Sweden with Holger Sundström, he took bronze in the Star class. After coming in seventh and fifth in that event in the 1966 and 1967 World Championships respectively, he then attended the 1968 Mexico City Olympics in two classes. In Dragon he was sixth with Bengt Palmquist, Gunnar Broberg, Lennart Eisner, and Sven Hanson, while in Flying Dutchman he was ninth with Jörgen and Peter Kolni.

Petterson had his best sailing year in 1969, when he captured the World title in Star and was runner-up in Soling. After coming in 13th, seventh, and fourth at the World Championships from 1970 through 1972, he attended a final Olympics in Munich, where he and Stellan Westerdahl were runners-up to the Australians in Star. He was then eighth at the 1973 World Championships, before coming in as runner-up again in 1974. Although he missed the Olympics in 1976, he was eighth at the World Championships that year, and then switched to the 6 Metre class, in which he won the World Championships in 1977. He won that title again in 1979, coming in 17th and eighth in Star in 1978 and 1979 respectively.

After winning a final World title in 6 Metre in 1983, Petterson’s participation at the World Championships was mostly over, although he did take part in the Star tournament in 1995, 1998, and 2009. He studied design at the Pratt Institute of New York from 1955 through 1957 and, by career, designed sailboats, although he was also responsible for the Volvo P1800.