The London 2012 Olympic Sailing Regatta was probably the best to date. We might be a little bit biased, but the images and the stories from the event speak for themselves.

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First there was the venue. The Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy was in place well before the Games. In fact the facilities were pretty much in place when London's successful bid was announced back in 2005. Of course there were a lot of improvements to the venue after that, but essentially foreign teams could start getting to know the venue way ahead of 2012.

The weather modelling was way ahead of previous Games - simply due to the strides in technology over the four years since Beijing, although the MET Office, which supplied a detailed weather briefing every day for all the teams, is also renowned as one of the best forecasting services in the world.

Then add Field of Play manager Rod Carr into the mix - determined to ensure the highest level of race management and course organisation possible. His team, plus the huge number of volunteers who came together to run the event so smoothly were a credit to themselves and the country they represented.

Olympic Games

Fabulous conditions for the Finn class - photo Tom Gruitt



Let's not forget the classes and the competitors. In many classes the competition was tighter than ever. Some top teams found themselves trailing, and there was only one class that saw complete domination by one sailor - The Netherlands' Dorian Van Rijsselberge in the men's windsurfing class. That's one of the classes due to bow out after this Olympics - together with the Star Class.

The weather itself even joined the party to deliver an amazing show... Rio has a high bar to live up to in 2016!

Also see our other Olympic features:

—Gael Pawson

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Written by: Gael Pawson
Gael Pawson is the editor of Yachts & Yachting Magazine and the founder of Creating Waves. A keen racer, she has sailed all her life, and started writing about the subject whilst studying journalism at university. Dinghies and small keelboats are her first loves, but she has cruised and raced a huge variety of boats in locations across the world.
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