Two-Person Keelboat (Tempest), Men

The Tempest is a two-person keelboat that was only on the Olympic Program in 1972 and 1976. It was designed in 1965 by Ian Proctor as a boat to be used in trials for a new Olympic keelboat class, and it won those trials convincingly. The Tempest was unusual for this era in that it has a trapeze, which is a wire attached to the top of the mast, to which a crew member can hook onto, and brace against the outside of the hull to help keep the boat flat. Prior to 1972, only the Flying Dutchman class at the Olympics had used a trapeze.

Racing on the Bravo course, the Ukrainian Soviet crew of Valentyn Mankin and Vitaliy Dyrdyra won the gold medal by coming from behind in the final race to best the British crew of Alan Warren and David Hunt. Mankin was one of the greatest Olympic sailors ever. He had won the gold medal in the Finn Class in 1968, and added a silver medal in Tempest in 1976 and gold in Star Class in 1980, winning four Olympic medals in four sailing appearances. This made him only the second Olympic sailor, with Denmark’s Paul Elvstrøm, to win Olympic medals at four consecutive Olympics, although all of Elvstrøm’s were gold. Their mark would only be broken in 2012 when Britain’s Ben Ainslie and Brazilian Robert Scheidt won sailing medals at their fifth consecutive Olympics.