Three-Person Keelboat (Soling), Open

The Soling class made its Olympic début at the 1972 Olympics and would remain on the Olympic Program through 2000. At München, both the Soling and Dragon were raced as three-person keelboat designs, but after 1972, the Soling would be the three-person keelboat event until it was replaced by the Yngling in 2004. The Soling was designed by Norwegian yacht designer Jan Linge who was working on modifications to the 5.5-metre class in the early 1960s. Linge’s designs turned into the Tempest class, although that design is credited to Ian Proctor, but eventually Linge modified the design into what became the Soling. Linge also designed the Yngling in 1967.

This event was delayed several days by light winds on 5 September, the Olympic suspension on 6 September due to the Israeli Massacre back in München, and heavy fog on 7 September. Racing on the Alpha course, the Soling was only completed on 8 September, but only six races could be held. The gold was easily won by American skipper Buddy Melges, Jr. who had three race wins, a second, a third, and a fourth to win the class. Melges had won a bronze medal in Flying Dutchman at the 1964 Olympics. In 1992 he co-skippered the America 3 to victory in the America’s Cup, making him the first sailor to win both an Olympic gold medal and the America’s Cup.

Canada won the bronze medal, with Paul Côté a crew member. In 1971 he formed a group of five that called themselves the “Don’t Make a Wave Committee,” whose purpose was to sail to Amchitka Island in Alaska and disrupt a US nuclear test. A boat did get near the nuclear zone, but Côté was not on it. The group became famous, however, when it later expanded and changed their name to Greenpeace.

Denmark’s Paul Elvstrøm started in the Soling, attempting to win his fifth Olympic gold medal after winning the one-person dinghy four times consecutively from 1948-60. He was disqualified in the fifth race after a bumping incident with the French boat, was quite unhappy with the decision, and refused to start the final race. The helmsman of the 10th-placed Norwegian boat was HRH Crown Prince Harald. Finland’s entry finished 12th, skippered by Peter Tallberg, later an IOC Member and President of the International Yacht Racing Union.