Two-Person Heavyweight Dinghy (Flying Dutchman), Open

After two races, the New Zealand boat, Pandora, was in 18th place, out of 21 entrants. However, Helmer Pedersen and Earle Wells won three of the next four races to move up. After six races they were in second place behind Great Britain, but Keith Musto and Tony Morgan finished only 11th in the final race, and had to throw out that score, while Pedersen and Wells finished fourth, which let them drop their score from the second race, when they did not finish, and they won the gold medal.

On the third day of racing, the weather was very rough with high winds and waves and rolling seas. Lars and Stig Käll (SWE) were near the lead when they saw that the Australian boat, with John Dawe and Ian Winter aboard, had capsized. They immediately turned their boat around and went back to rescue Dawe and Winter. Dawe was holding onto the hull of their boat while Winter was struggling in the water, but the Käll brothers rescued them both. The Käll’s went from near the lead to finishing 12th in the race.

American bronze medalist Buddy Melges, Jr. later won a gold medal in the 1972 Soling Class, and in 1992 won the America’s Cup, making him the first sailor to win an Olympic gold medal and the America’s Cup. In 12th place was Canadian helmsman Paul Henderson, who later became President of the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) from 1994-2004, and served on the IOC from 2000-04.